Once in a blue moon, Netflix offers up a rare gem. Band Aid is a Netflix diamond.
Written, directed, and starring Zoe Lister-Jones (who you may already love from Life In Pieces!), Band Aid is a little piece of indie cinema genius. It’s about a married couple, Anna (Lister-Jones) and Ben (king of indies Adam Pally, who you may already love from The Mindy Project), who on their last legs, relationship-wise. Even their therapist claims she’s moved to Canada just to avoid them. The fights are vicious, and cyclical. But while high as a couple of kites at a child’s birthday party, they discover the one thing that can still bring them joy: music. And so they start a band where they sing their fights back and forth in front of their sex addict neighbour (Fred Armisen), who conveniently is a drummer.
In fact, music alone is not enough to save them. Turns out they’ve suffered a tragedy that neither has fully grieved, and singing about it is going to be very difficult since talking about it has been impossible for years. They’re still a broken couple, now they’re just putting all their dirty laundry on the stage for the consumption of others. A particularly ambitious dream of them getting a record deal never seems all that impossible because actually, their music is good, and fun (so long as you are currently in a good space with your loved one). Sean and I found ourselves communicating in that subtle hand squeezy way that some couples have when they are relating a little too well to the awkwardness on screen.
Now brace yourselves for a cool fact: for her first movie, Zoe Lister-Jones insisted on an all-female crew. Like, Adam Pally was the only man for miles and miles. Truly all female. And the thing is, the movie is so good that I buried the lead. It doesn’t need any gimmicks. Because when a normal film would just throw out the old male-female sick couple cliches, Lister-Jones keep asking why. Why do couples drive each other crazy over time? Band Aid might not have all the answers but it confronts the questions honestly, while still being an entirely entertaining movie.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
So glad you found a good one. I don’t like awkwardness on screen, though, so I’ll give this a pass. But I hope others find this movie as well.
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Sounds really good. I’ll have to check this one out!
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Sounds like I’ll need to add this to my queue.
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I totally get about those ‘hand squeezy’ moments during certain scenes
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Going on my TBW list. đŸ™‚
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You rock Jay!
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Going to have to look for this one. Sounds intriguing,
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I DO love Zoe Lister-Jones from Life in Pieces so I definitely want to watch this. The all-female movie team just cinches it.
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I’m still on the fence with this film but I am happy that everyone was female behind the scenes.
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This sounds kinda weird and super awesome. I’m sold.
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You had me at gem! The plot sounds a bit similar to The Broken Circle Breakdown. Now I’m even more curious. Have you seen it? Is it the same?
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I have seen it, and I love it, but no, not the same. This one’s a lot lighter…it’s funny, although it’s a very acerbic kind of humour.
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This sounds great… very clever title, too. I’ll have a look to see if it’s up on the UK site.
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This made my list of favourites for 2017. Such a good film. Glad you loved it!
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Yeah, I haven’t heard much about it so didn’t have any great expectations. It’s a little indie but I found it kind of powerful and I really admired it.
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I crack up all the way through Life in Pieces, Jay. đŸ˜€The older couple are my favorites, but I do like Zoe’s character! Her husband is so nice! Some would not know (but you do) that one of the men is Tom Hanks’ son. (Colin, I think.)
This was a great review, Jay!
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