Friends Forever

(2002, Ben Wolfinsohn)

Documentary following the two-man band Friends Forever on tour. Shunning the idea of performing at music venues, Nate (stage-name: Wizard 333) and Josh (stage-name: Cunt) simply drive to a town, find a good spot to park, fire up a generator, and play chaotic, noise-based gigs—complete with smoke machine, light show, and outlandish costumes—from the inside of their tiny little VW van.
Wolfinsohn does a decent job of capturing the energetic audio-visual spectacle of the band’s performances, the daily grind between one show and the next, and the variety of equally intriguing characters that lie in orbit around the whole phenomenon; but the film struggles to offer any real insight into either Nate and Josh as individuals, or the nature of the friendship between them. This is a shame, because even when they’re not performing a show, the two of them still seem to be putting on an act of some kind, and it’s frustrating not to be able to gauge how much of what they say is genuinely meant, and how much of it is just Jackass-style posturing prompted by the presence of a documentary crew.
Still, the sheer unconstrained energy, enthusiasm and creativity of the pair is impossible to deny and fascinating to behold. It even spills over into individual side-projects: Josh’s 'Incrediball Boy': "Well basically it’s a big huge ball structure with arms sticking out of it, and each arm’s gonna play a different instrument … I’ll drink thirty beers and try to break a TV with my head." / Nate’s unfinished movie: "It’s an experiment to see if I can make a movie completely drunk, but I’m slightly buzzed sometimes and just flat out drunk at other times … like one whole night I was so drunk that the actor had to tell me what to do."
What the band may lack in actual musical talent, they make up for by possessing admirable degrees of honesty (they openly acknowledge the shortcomings of their music, their record label is named ‘Nothing Gets Worse Than This’, and their avowed intention is to provide the kind of noise that parents can complain about their kids listening to) as well as integrity (when attempting to sell merchandise after gigs, they inevitably feel so guilty about it that they either immediately drop the prices or just give it all away for free).
Ultimately, it's good to know that there are people out there doing this kind of thing. And despite the fact that Wolfinsohn's film fails to get under the skin of its subjects, their surface appearance alone makes for sufficiently compelling viewing.

Friends Forever @ IMDb(UK)