Music provides therapy in terrific ‘Band Aid’
The argument is a staple of movies, used for laughs, tears or anything in-between.
I can’t think of a recent movie that captures arguments more realistically — which is to say, makes you more uncomfortable — than “Band Aid.” Arguments are how unhappily married Anna (Zoe Lister-Jones) and Ben (Adam Pally) communicate. No aspect of daily life is too minute to set them off; dishes Ben leaves in the sink and won’t wash are a particular trigger.
It’s impressive how accurately ListerJones and Pally make these fights. What’s more impressive is how ListerJones, who also wrote and directed “Band Aid,” makes the makeups and happy, loving moments just as believable.
Better still is the perhaps fanciful but really engaging way Anna and Ben find to try to repair their marriage: They start a band.
They’re not musicians, though he has a guitar and she has a bass buried somewhere in the garage. But a chance moment of playing together at a children’s birthday party does something that nothing else seems to — it makes them happy.
Something needs to. Anna was a writer, with many references to a failed book deal. Now she’s an Uber driver. Ben isn’t much. He was a graphic artist. Now he designs corporate logos, when bestirred sufficiently (which isn’t often) to lay off the marijuana and get off the couch. They couldn’t be more stuck in place if their floors were covered in epoxy.
There’s a bigger reason for their malaise and unhappiness, one that colors every aspect of their life. Anna suffered a miscarriage and she can’t move on from it, in part because Ben refuses to feel it in any way. Wherever fights begin, this is where they eventually lead.
But when they fight in song it’s magical. Then enlist oddball neighbor Dave (Fred Armisen), a drummer, to help, and soon they’re singing bitter, angry songs at each other to hip, power-pop accompaniment (Lister-Jones and Kyle Forester wrote the songs.)
Conflict is a great source of inspiration to all kinds of artists. The question is whether it can be maintained in tandem with love and affection to create, or recreate, a healthy relationship. (Ben and Anna’s couples therapist announces early on that she’s moving to Canada, so they’re on their own.) Lister-Jones is interested in exploring the difficulty in that. Can they exorcise demons on-stage and leave them there? Or do they follow them home after the show?
And is this a legitimate way to deal with loss in the first place?
Lister-Jones has a great eye, capturing small moments perfectly, whether it’s the look on Dave’s face when he’s angling for a spot in the band, or on Anna’s face when she and Ben discover more about Dave and Ben invites him to join anyway. There’s a small bit about a kid named Isis at a birthday party (“Uh, it was, you know, before ...”) that shouldn’t be nearly as funny as it is.
But it is. There’s also a surprisingly touching scene between Ben and his mom (the great Susie Essman) that proves crucial.
The songs come a little too easily and at times the arguments are so toxic that in reality they would be difficult to come back from. The chemistry between Lister-Jones and Pally in large part overcomes that (and a good thing — on occasion they can both be so off-putting they’d be hard to root for otherwise). It’s a terrific debut from Lister-Jones, on all fronts.