Director: Ben Wolfinsohn
Cast: Nate, Josh, Jeannie Gateaux
Distributor: Plexifilm
Classification: Unrated
Running Time: 80 Minutes

Hmmm. It really is very hard to know what to say about this documentary. On one hand I like it because it is doing something different. On the other I hate it because it just tries too hard. To be honest I don’t think the members of Friends Forever would care either way.

Friends Forever is a documentary by Ben Wolfinsohn which follows the band “Friends Forever” as they tour across America. The catch with “Friends Forever” is that they play out of the side of a VW van, and they SUCK. The band is made up of Nate on the drums and Josh on the bass. Both have microphones in the mouths and they scream and make weird noises. To be fair, Nate and Josh don’t pretend to be good. In fact they know they’re bad. In one scene Nate says “We make the worst music ever made. I feel I am offending anyone who knows how to play the drums”. Their tour consists of finding the perfect car space then unleashing their sound upon anyone who happens to be walking past. Sometimes they stop and crowd, sometimes they don’t. I gotta say though, their deliberately low-tech lighting display is pretty damn cool. All it consists of is a smoke machine that billows from the van, with flashing strobes, lights and a bubble machine. Coupled with the insane music it does create a very surreal experience, if anything.

Although “Friends Forever” is not really about the music. It’s more about gaining an insight into Nate and Josh and their friends. Where this documentary succeeds is when its looks at their day to day existence. Most of Josh’s contribution to the film is strangely ironic statements about his spin-off bands “That’s my new band, Incrediball Boy. It’s a big huge ball structure with arms sticking out of it – and each arm’s going to play a different instrument”. Or new costume ideas (they have some very cool costumes designed by a friend of theirs). Or plans to convert their car into a plane. It is oddly compelling to watch to begin with, however it becomes apparent that Josh is trying a little to hard to be hip, yet not, and ironic, yet not. Nate on the other hand seems to really believe in the band, or at least the idea behind the band.

The major problem with the documentary is its too long. Nate and Josh and “Friends Forever” just aren’t that interesting and your attention wanes throughout the film. The other problem is it is deliberately filmed in a very low-fi way. On some night ‘shows’ you cant see anything but black and occasional flashes from the van. It makes for very annoying viewing and this often stretches on for ridiculous amounts of time.

The DVD itself is pretty good. It has some interesting profiles of the band members and some of their friends, as well as a few more recent docos to show what everyone was doing at a time closer to the DVD being released. The menus actually look really good and well-designed. One very interesting feature is a short documentary on their costume maker, who is in the process of making a VERY low budget sci-fi movie. It is quite funny, very odd and is an excellent example of what “Friends Forever” could have been if it didn’t run for an hour and a half.

Ben Wolfinsohn tries so hard to make “Friends Forever” something that is not MTV; however, it would have worked so much better in an MTV style format. There’s irony for you. At best “Friends Forever” is a mildly amusing anti-something (it’s never really clear what they’re trying to do) film; at worst it is a cheap, Jackass take-off (there’s vomit scene after vomit scene; it seems to be some sort of a motif). I think its one of those films that is interesting to hear about, but less interesting to actually watch.

Special features: Deleted Scenes, Where are they now: bios + clips, Multiple Trailers

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