n Zoe Lister-Jones’s directorial debut Band Aid, a couple turns their marital fights into songs. The songs are genuinely funny and honest to a fault, which can be said about the film’s overall viewing experience. Jones’s witty script and indie grit style of directing make for a personal experience between audience and characters. We are living with this couple, on their unique journey of song and love, and in turn, get to know them inside and out.
Band Aid is set around married couple Anna (Zoe Lister-Jones) and Ben (Adam Pally) who fight constantly. It doesn’t help that they’ve each come to a standstill in their careers. In an unusual turn of events, they come up with a brilliant idea they agree on: Why not start a band and use their arguments
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Anna and Ben realize that this short-term solution of starting a band only masks their issues and does not heal them. The conversations the two have on the more dramatic end of the spectrum are performed wonderfully. Trivial events in their lives are brought up, both pressing the narrative and emotional arc of this couple we’ve fallen in love with. The scenes are almost too real, which is one of the best compliments I can give to the actors involved.
Band Aid does fall into a 3rd act slump. The first hour of this 90-minutes Indie are so excellent and fully realized with humor, that once the big drama starts, the film comes to a halt and slow burn until the end. That doesn’t mean the 3rd act isn’t good, it most certainly is. However, when a film can be so entertaining and fresh for the majority of the movie, the tonal transition is quite jarring.
Still, Band Aid is one of the better indies I’ve seen thus far in 2017. Zoe Lister-Jones is a potent triple threat. Her writing and directing match the story seamlessly, as well as her poignant and charming performance. It’s a film that is not afraid to go to places that married couples often go, which makes for an honest and hilarious story that had me smiling the entire
Band is family. When your student walks onto campus, he or she is instantly adopted into the strongest society on campus. They will be spending their school days among the top achievers on campus, with fellow students who look out for one another and steer each other away from trouble instead of towards it. Teachers, staff, parents, and volunteers watch over all the kids as if they were their own.
On the surface, Do It!: Play in Band appears to be a great resource to implement in the beginning band classroom: music of many different styles, time periods, forms, and nationalities is incorporated into the method book, it includes not one but two CDs of accompaniments for students to play along with, and opportunities to improvisation using different methods abound. However, upon digging deeper into the text, one may find that the book is flawed in several critical ways. This text contains both good and bad elements of a beginning band method book, and if an instructor is willing to supplement the book with their own exercises and sequencing, the book could yield positive results for your beginning band students.
Overall, I found the script to be enjoyable. There were many situations created that allowed for some very funny dialog. There was, however, one type of event that was over used throughout the performance, namely, the instances of the characters wanting to see Tito, while various others tried to stop them. This type of situation was used by every character besides Tito and Max throughout the performance, with most characters repeating this same scenario many different times to the point where it became trite.
Throughout the musical, the prowess of each individual performer was on display. Every performer, with the exception of Kristine, expressed a power and vibrato that was breathtaking; the highest notes lilting and the lowest notes thundering. I was in awe during a majority of the performances because of the commanding singing in each performer.
The scenes, which cover thirty years of the characters’ lives from eight to thirty-eight, each revolve around an injury that Doug has acquired through his accident prone life. The play progresses in five year intervals, jumping backwards and forwards, in a nonlinear progression. As they travel and run into each other’s lives, the two characters face new injuries. As the play progresses every five years, a new injury is added to one or both characters. Their lives intersect through these injuries, leading them to compare their wounds, both physical (Doug) and emotional (Kayleen), and drawing them closer together. With each new scene, old injuries and problems may have gotten better or resolved, but some became permanent. Yet, through these experiences, they are bonded together through bloodstains, cuts, and bandages.
“And the Band Played On” was an HBO movie that illustrated the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s. The movie touched on subjects concerning the reaction of the gay community, the heterosexual community, and the medical community. It showed not only the research in AIDS, but also the way that the US government dealt with it. The movie expressed the consequences the gay community suffered, the plight of the medical community in researching the disease, and the issue of government response to it.
For a college production, the acting was outstanding. I really felt the emotions. The lead Wendla, who was played by KyLeigh Zimmerer, was amazing. I have also seen bits and pieces of the Broadway version which starred Lea Michelle, and obviously if I were to compare the acting, the Broadway version would be victorious. However, for a college production, these actors have limited past experience, but their acting was professional. Also, when they sang the song "Those You've Known," I felt chills and had goose bumps because that was such an emotional song. You could feel all the emotions and guilt Melchior, played by Ryan Ramirez, was feeling because both his best friend, Moritz, played by Justin Noblitt, and the girl he impregnated, Wendla, died and he believed he was to blame. Moritz committed suicide while Wendla died from a botch abortion her mom for...
...r and finally reveal to one another how much they truly cared for one another. Although they both initially were upset at what the other did to them, they took ownership in the role they had played and eventually both individuals were able to win in the end. At that point, Ben didn’t care if he landed the big advertising deal. Andi didn’t care if she was able to be given the freedom to write about the things that mattered to her. This film wasn’t merely a comedy, it was a love story. It exemplifies the truth that love stories can derive from the most unlikely of circumstances.
All in all this movie is good the only thing that it could have done different is an ending about 20 minutes earlier. It has its drag ons and loopholes. When we first see Kate, she is doing an unusual song and dance routine while cooking, and her husband comes and as fast leaves for some clients.
I feel that the movie has no weaknesses. This is because even though I had a few things I didn’t like such as the anonymity given, I realised that there was a reason for this which I explained in my strengths of the movie below.
In the movie “And the Band Played On”, illustrated the origin of the AIDS virus, how it was spread across the world quickly. It began with a scene in 1976, Central Africa, shows how the Ebola disease affected a village and was contained before it was spread. This was to show the beginning of another serious disease called AIDS. The world was not prepared to handle such a contagious plague. Doctors treating people with this virus thought that the first cases of the HIV virus was just an abnormality disease. The disease started to spread all over, especially gay men. Throughout the movie, I was able to see different points, such as the beginning of AIDS, the misconceptions it had, and the anguish it brought to the doctors as well as people around the world.
In the band room, everybody has a purpose and everybody has a group of friends who are always there when they are needed. The whole band already spends a lot of time in the band room due to the busy schedule of practices, classes, football games, and band trips, so it quickly becomes a familiar location for all band members. So much time is spent in the band room after school that nobody even equates band with school anymore. The band room is often the place where people take refuge when school gets to be too much for them. Everyone knows what to expect from the band room. It is the one thing that never changes. Every day there is always someone playing music on the stereo system, someone practicing, someone making people laugh, someone complaining, and someone studying. It is always the same thing. When you cannot depend on consistency anywhere else, you can always depend on it in the band room.
When it came to the dialogue of the production and the understanding of it the performers again did an excellent job. Their gestures and vocal elements all aided in the production’s success and were all fittingly used by the characters. For example, when Lala was talking on the phone with Peachy she casually twirled the phone cord in her hand, leaned against the banister and childishly flirted with Peachy.
Finally the movie is a good movie. Actually this movie doesn’t need any improvement. The writer, actresses, and actors did their best. They tried to make a point and be a creative about it and that is exactly what they did. It is an amazing movie. I
Whether they were a drunk or a punctual control freak, each actor clearly put a lot of thought into their work. Each actor was fully committed to every action they made and they moved with a definite purpose. Despite the definite movements and the definite character choices made by the actors, there still appeared to be a sense of forced emotion in their words. For example, the man acting as the drunkard overplayed the alcoholic, hung over, and stereotypical wobbly walk. He made a few obvious mistakes, like flubbing up lines and other things to that effect, and it appeared to be because he was trying so hard to look and act drunk that he forgot to act. The woman playing Daisy was, in fact, one of the best. She had few mistakes and played her role the most realistically out of all the actors. The blocking of the play allowed for a few characters to upstage themselves and others, which made it hard to hear some words and conversations, but besides that, the technical aspects of it were good.