The movie Band Aid is everything a film should be and not enough people are talking about it. I could write a book on the many reasons this movie isn’t being talked about but instead I want to write about why it’s so important. First, I don’t want this to turn into a feminist rant so I’m going to address it quickly. Zoe Lister Jones, the writer director and producer of Band Aid, is an incredibly talented woman, and women should be getting recognition for their work. Not only is Jones a talented woman, she also used an all-female crew to bring this simple masterpiece to life. This movie is evidence that more women’s work needs to be produced because they clearly know what they are doing.
The plot of Band Aid follows Anna and Ben as they write songs about their seemingly trivial–and simultaneously explosive–fights to navigate their tumultuous relationship after enduring a miscarriage. The genius in the plot is how wildly creative yet simple this film is. When I first read the description for the movie I was impressed by the idea, and I still am, but as I thought back on the film, the idea makes clear and obvious sense. Anna and Ben are doing what all artists do: taking their experiences, pain, love, and life and making art. Zoe Lister Jones did the same thing in making this movie, she took her experience, pain, love, and life and made art. That’s what took this movie from an entertaining 91 minutes to an a piece of art that inspired me.
You know that part of the movie, it almost always comes, where no matter how much you’re enjoying what you’re watching you have the urge to check your phone? Unfortunately few movies lack this moment, but there are many where even though the urge comes up, you can ignore it. Then again, some movies are just so bad that you just start FaceTiming your grandma for the first time in six months to distract from the trainwreck you just paid $20 dollars to see. This moment never comes in Band Aid. The film always has you engaged whether you’re laughing, grooving to the catchy tunes that The Dirty Dishes perform, or experiencing the intensity of this loveable pair dealing with a heart-wrenching tragedy.
It is rare to find such a perfect balance, but Band Aid offers just that between comedy and drama. The films opens right in the middle of all the turbulence, depicting one of their strikingly intense arguments over something seemingly minor, dirty dishes. I found this scene to be one of the funniest in the movie, but it carries a lot of emotion as well. This sweet balance created a movie that touched on intense and heavy topics without overwhelming you. The topic of a miscarriage brings you to tears, but doesn’t make you leave the theater depressed, defeated or in despair. That being said, this film is anything but shallow, as Band Aid offers a look into real people’s lives. I didn’t feel like I was watching movie, but like I was a fly on the wall in their life. They weren’t characters in a movie, this was Anna and Ben, your close friends or maybe even you and your partner. Zoe Lister Jones and Adam Pally give performances that were able to take them from characters to people.
Whenever I think about this movie I always come back to balance. The balance between men and women was again, like the balance between comedy and drama, perfect. Sometimes in today’s society the difference is forgotten between treatment of men and women being equal, and men and women being the same. We are not the same. We are built differently, and that’s a positive thing that should be celebrated. Men think and operate different than women do and that offers different experiences and perspectives. Band Aid addresses this issues in a way that’s accurate and real. This offers a better movie watching experience but it also does something much more important. Placing reality in our media that tells a real and true experience of men and women can give us an insight into each other’s experience. When I watch couples fight in television and film, I almost always take the woman’s side and it has do with my own bias but also the way women are portrayed. I often sympathized with Anna more as I connect with her character, but the way Ben was written allowed me to sympathize and understand his pain. Leaving out the differences between men and women doesn’t make us equal, it erases an opportunity to help the other understand us better. Band Aid did a great job of not only showing different perspectives, but helped viewers understand both sides as well.