Band Aid (2017)

Jack and I enjoyed this story of a 30-something unhappy couple who, instead of marriage counseling, form a band where they can take out their frustrations in music and lyrics. We know Zoe Lister-Jones from her 63 episodes of Life in Pieces as Colin Hanks' wife Jen, and she's been in many other TV shows and movies. Here she wrote the screenplay (her fourth produced feature), makes her directing debut (the other three were directed by her husband Daryl Wein), and stars as the battling wife Anna. Adam Pallay (57 episodes of Happy Endings, small parts that I didn't mention in Don't Think Twice and The Little Hours, and more) is her embittered husband Ben. Their neighbor and bandmate is Fred Armisen (covered in The Little Hours). Susie Essman (a former stand-up comedian, she's best known for 62 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and I also liked her appearances on Broad City as Ilana's mother) gets third billing as Ben's mom, despite not having that many scenes. In fact, my only quibble with the script is in the third act when her character explains something to the couple that I thought they should have known all along.

You'll recognize several of the supporting cast, including Lister-Jones' castmates from Life in Pieces Colin Hanks (last blogged for Elvis & Nixon) as "Uber Douche" and Angelique Cabral as Lauren, and Lister-Jones' husband Wein plays "Uber Presumptuous."

We watched it on Showtime On Demand about three weeks ago because of its nomination for the Sundance Jury Prize. What I just learned today is that this project's all female crew is definitely unusual and may have been unique. Sometimes Pallay was the only man on the set and he said it was good, too. Even Wein, an executive producer, wasn't allowed more than a drive-by. I see that some men did work on the movie, but they all worked in post-production. Here's another article.

The band Lucius (two women and three men) has performed their songs on many TV shows but this is their first time credited as composer. They perform on-screen but most of the songs (listed here) are live by Lister-Jones, Pallay, and Armisen. You can stream some of them on spotify.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 86%, and its audiences at 73, agree with us that this is fun and entertaining.