SUNDANCE 2017: Capone looks at the relationship dramedies BAND AID and INGRID GOES WEST!!!

Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here, back from Park City, Utah, and the Sundance Film Festival. I've still got a few more titles I want to throw your way, including these two films, which are two very different, amusing takes on relationship films, both of which benefit from going exceedingly dark (dare I say, even dramatic) at times. Enjoy…


BAND AID



Imagine if the couple in ONCE had ended up together, gotten married, and after about 10 years together, the spark that brought them together was dying. They realized at some point in that 10-year stretch that music wasn’t going to keep a roof over their heads, so they both got regular jobs that they find unfulfilling. As their arguing increased, they find out that they are best able to communicate through song, and they pick up their instruments again and rediscover their love of music while simultaneously attempting to save their marriage. That’s essentially what you get with BAND AID, and although the plot points with ONCE don’t line up exactly, they aren’t that far off either.

Ben (Adam Pally) and Anna (writer-director Zoe Lister-Jones) star in this bittersweet comedy about a couple who has suffered a tragedy in their lives a few years earlier and have never quite recovered from it because they won’t talk openly about how they feel. He’s an artist, making a living as a graphic designer, while she makes money as an Uber driver (which opens the film up to a handful of celebrity cameos). Their arguing can get ugly at times, and all signs seem to point to their marriage falling apart. But one day while digging through their garage, they find their guitars, and they start fiddling around with chords and lyrics, when suddenly a recent fight they had forms the basis for a spontaneous song that is actually quite catchy and well composed.

As if by magic, these sung arguments open up long-closed lines of communication, and the strength in their marriage heads up the charts. After recruiting their weird neighbor, Dave (a priceless Fred Armisen), to play drums, the group decides to play a few shows at open mic nights, and after a rocky start, they pull it together and get a local following, with an outside chance at a record contract.

BAND AID works best when things stay serious. Pally and Lister-Jones are actually quite good when allowing the drama to take over, and they’re especially strong when pouring out their hearts within the context of some really great songs, with lyrics written by Lister-Jones (who is an accomplished musician, as well as an actor) and composed by her frequent collaborator Kyle Forester (BREAKING UPWARDS). As much of a goofball as Pally can be, he’s also dabbled successfully in dramatic work in such films as NIGHT OWLS, without seeming out of his depth. Lister-Jones (currently on the CBS series “Life in Pieces” and recently seen in the HBO film CONFIRMATION) has always moved between comedy and drama, and she’s particularly good her as both a performer and first-time director.

The least successful parts of BAND AID are when it gets too jokey. Supporting performances by Ravi Patel and Hannah Simone as their best friends amount to nothing except a string of punchlines that don’t land and cutesy behavior that made me impatient for the film to return to the primary story. A wasted scene in which Ben visits his mother (Susie Essman) could have be excised from the film with no damage done. The weaker portions of BAND AID aren’t enough to overshadow the better material and musical numbers, but it does keep the film from being truly great.

Lister-Jones has done a credible job as a writer in recent years, with such films as CONSUMED, BREAKING UPWARDS, and LOLA VERSUS, but BAND AID seems more focused and less rambling, and playing to her strengths as a musician only serves to amplify her talents exponentially. I truly hope this movie gets a shot at something resembling a wide release because I think bigger audience will eat this up and get caught up in the emotion, catchy beat, and honest lyrics. The chemistry between Pally and Lister-Jones is undeniable, both in good times and in bad. I love that the couple comes to the point where they realize they must figure out their individual pain on their own in order to come together to work things out in the end. And the underlying message that couples who want to stay strong need to get creative about how to talk to each other is nothing short of inspired, as most things are when you lead by example.


INGRID GOES WEST



One of the more pleasantly terrifying films I saw at Sundance this year was director Matt Spicers debut feature INGRID GOES WEST, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (U.S. Dramatic) for Spicer and co-writer David Branson Smith. The film opens with the near-psychotic meltdown of Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza), who was not invited to the wedding of a woman she believed was one of her best friends. So she shows up at the wedding unannounced and uninvited and proceeds to cause a scary scene, and we quickly understand that we are dealing with a person who equates following someone on Facebook and bombarding them with messages and “likes” is the same as a real relationship. Ingrid is an absolute stalker, with so real sense of perspective.

While in a deep depressive state over the wedding incident, Ingrid begins to scan the internet for anyone who seems nice, and she stumbles upon lifestyle guru Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), a vapid Lon Angeleno with a vibrant, much-liked Instagram account, who seems to do little more than recommend products, vacation spots and clothes, while also snapping shots of her artist boyfriend Ezra (Wyatt Russell) and cute dog. Taking a bagful of cash that her recently departed grandmother left her, Ingrid moves to L.A., rents an apartment from Dan (a great turn by O'Shea Jackson Jr.), and begins to track down Taylor, finally forcing a meeting by kidnapping said dog and returning it. She refuses a reward, instead opting for friendship.

Plaza is nothing short of miraculous in this role. While we’re certainly see her play unpleasant characters in her career, Ingrid is an entirely different entity. And every time we think she’s going to do something creepy or irritating, she ends up doing something sweet and unexpected, and strangely enough, this newfound friendship seems to make her a better and stronger person. They take spontaneous road trips together, share secrets, and are perpetually joined at the hip for weeks on end. Don’t worry, Ingrid is still a bonafide freak, but what ends up happening is that her obsession about Taylor's lifestyle ends up exposing what a shallow, phony person this L.A. hipster truly is. I realize that discovering that a shallow hipster might have found her way into L.A. is a bit of a shocker, but as the two spend more time together, Ingrid begins to spot flaws in her heroine.

The real threat to both the friendship and Ingrid’s sanity comes when Taylor’s leach of a brother, Nicky (Billy Magnussen), enters the picture and ends up both moving in with Taylor and taking up all of the time she had been spending with Ingrid. He also manages to get ahold of Ingrid’s phone and immediately figures out just how much of a stalker she is. Rather than go right to his sister, he attempts to blackmail Ingrid for money, pushing her back over the edge and back into irrational thinking and acting.

Director Spicer has crafted a film that has no issues openly mocking not just the hopelessly shallow people whose phones are never more than six inches from their fingertips, but he also has a great deal of compassion for how social media junkies have a completely distorted view of reality, friendship, and other element that make up the important aspects of our lives. Ingrid has been created by technology in a way, and now the monster is looking to get some revenge on her creator. As strange as it sounds, we are always rooting for Ingrid to find a real friend in the real world and to snap out of her addiction to the virtual world and see people for who they really are.

INGRID GOES WEST gets as dark at times as it gets silly at other moments. It’s a super-charged work that give Plaza a great deal of room to perform and show us this character’s range of emotions. It’s easily the best work she’s ever done, and this is a great showcase for everyone involved.

-- Steve Prokopy
"Capone"
capone@aintitcool.com
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