Fubar

Title: Fubar
Rating: 3/5
Genre: Comedy, Music, Documentary

“I could give up liquor
And sure, it’d be hard
But giving up sex and rock and roll
Well that would break my heart”

A fictional documentary set in Calgary (Canada) following the lives of ‘headbangers’ Terry and Dean, whilst it could easily have resulted in 80 mins of drunken behaviour and bad puns (which do feature prominently), things take a turn when Dean is diagnosed with testicular cancer. With three days left before he ‘loses his right nut’ he sets out to spend his final days with the big boys getting loaded and partying. Beyond what I expected, they explore the notion of comradeship between the fellow headbangers with some success.

The camerawork, whilst a bit rudimentary and shaky fits with the documentary style aimed for, and would be capable of fooling most unaware of its fictional nature. In a similar ‘documentary’ manner, the story felt a little thin, with – on reflection - little really occurring, none of the events felt specifically beneficial in telling the tale. Despite this, there was the presence of somewhat realistic characters, which certainly seemed as though they were in fact drunk during a good portion of the scenes filmed. Their accent, however, often left a lot to be desired. I’m not a Canadian and have had little exposure to regional accents (so please correct me if I’m wrong on this) but it felt put on, at the least heavily exaggerated to fit in with a stereotypical view, which detracted from the end result.

But where this piece really excels is in its balance between the comedy and not making light of the situation. It straddles a line between attempting to show a genuine close relationship, with fear for the future, with a healthy dose of alcohol-infused comical timing. And they don’t resort to cheap shots with the comedy either; it wouldn’t be hard to endlessly mock these two characters, but instead they allow the viewer come to like the characters, to show their serious side, before ridiculing them.

It goes without saying that this is a film that would appeal to fellow headbangers – old and new – and (shot by locals around where they grew up) I’m sure it would speak more greatly to fellow Canadians. This isn’t a work of genius by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s certainly more than just another film taking cheap shots at low-IQ headbangers who never grew up, and it may well be worth your time.

EDIT: So I have it on good authority that the accent was NOT put on. To any reading Canadians, I apologise for your ridiculous accent.

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