Troop Zero - 2020

Troop Zero is a 2020 American comedy-drama film directed by British female duo Bert & Bertie, from a screenplay by Beasts of the Southern Wild co-writer Lucy Alibar and inspired by Alibar's 2010 play Christmas and Jubilee Behold The Meteor Shower. In addition to Allison, the film stars Viola Davis, Mckenna Grace, Jim Gaffigan, Mike Epps, and Charlie Shotwell.

The film tells the story of how in rural Wiggly, Georgia in 1977, a group of elementary-school misfits band together to form their own troop of Birdie Scouts. Led by spunky outcast Christmas Flint (Mckenna Grace), they infiltrate the Birdie Scout youth group in order to win a talent show. The winning Birdies will earn the right to have their voices included on the Voyager Golden Record, which Christmas believes will be heard by life in outer space, a connection her deceased mother nurtured. When they form the troop, the only number left unassigned in the state is zero; while the Birdie Troop leader Krystal Massey (Allison) intends to assign "Troop Zero" to them as a slight, the girls, and one boy, take it as a good sign as it's the number representing infinity. Troop Zero requires a troop mother, and they find one in Christmas's father's secretary Rayleen (Viola Davis), who also has history with Mrs. Massey.

The film was shot in the New Orleans, Louisiana area during June and July of 2018. It had its world premiere as the closing film of Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2019. It was released on January 17, 2020, by Amazon Studios.