Fubar

Terry and Dean are two long haired men in Alberta whose lives consist of drinking beer, listening to metal and hanging around a garage. A documentary crew decides to film them. While the shoot is going on Dean is diagnosed with testicular cancer, and the documentary heads somewhere it did not intend. Michael Dowse directs in his first film. David Lawrence plays Terry and Paul Spence plays Dean. The form is mockumentary. Most of the dialogue is improvised, and the actors had developed the characters for years before the film. It screened at the 2002 Sundance film festival and became a cult object in Canada, where the way the two of them talk turned into something people quote. The unexpected thing is the illness. The comic template hardens all at once; Dean's dealings with the hospital and Terry's inability to cope break the joking distance of the mockumentary. The budget was very low and the image is rough to match, which does not hurt it, since the roughness suits the form. Who it is for: anyone curious about mockumentary comedy and Canadian independent film. Who it is not for: the humour belongs to a narrow circle, it repeats, and the characters being permanently drunk stops the narrative in places.