Fubar

Michael Dowse

BY Noel DixPublished Dec 1, 2002

We've all been in the same situation at one time or another that Dean and Terry are facing. Where are we heading with our lives? What do we want to be doing ten years from now? What does it all mean? For Dean and Terry, two head-bangers from Calgary, the answer is quite simple: just give'r.

No one can really explain what that exactly means for our unlikely candidates for a documentary, but filmmaker Farrel Mitchner (Gordon Skilling) is determined to find out. We can see within the first few minutes that to "give'r" according to Dean and Terry is to take one day at a time, have the most fun they can and not really take into account the consequences of their lifestyle and what tomorrow brings.

Fubar is an extremely crude-looking, hand-held "mockumentary" with a strong script — though it's quite obvious at the same time that said script is quickly tossed as Dean (Paul Spence) and Terry (David Lawrence) run into city locals who want to fist fight for the camera, or teenagers who take the actors to a bridge to do some late night jumps. Spence and Lawrence are clearly excellent improvisational actors and it's this talent that makes Fubar so fluent and so quick-witted without each line being overwrought.

What makes this film so compelling though is that it's not all about shot-gunning cans of beer or constant senseless destruction, though there's plenty of that to go around. Within this party-hard lifestyle is a dramatic turn when Dean is forced to rethink his life, and decide if a change needs to be made. It's this saving grace that really separates Fubar from being some idiotic amateur film, turning it into a touching, yet extremely amusing cult classic.

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