Binder Dundat

November 30, 2009 11:13 PM

Turn up the good, turn down the suck. The 'bangers are back. Greenlighted in April, FUBAR II, the sequel to the 2002 Sundance film FUBAR began shooting Monday in the Tar Sands of Alberta.

FUBAR is the largely improvised 2002 mockumentary about headbangers directed by Michael Dowse (who also wrote and directed 'It's All Gone Pete Tong', and gave us the surreally terrifying mascot for the perils of drug addiction, the Coke Badger - NSFW).

A labor of love, the film was funded largely by the credit cards of Dowse, his friends and his family, many of whom helped in the production of the film. His father took a second mortgage on his house to help pay for the film's $400,000 budget. The movie was hand-edited with manual splicing equipment. All of which paid off; it won a Genie award for the editing and launched Dowse's career (though learning editing by working at MuchMusic probably helped).

Co-writers Paul Spence (Deaner) and David Lawrence (Terry), will reprise the improv roles that were part of the inspiration for the film. Lawrence and Spence's chemistry comes honestly; from experience. They grew up a few houses apart, both attended the Loose Moose Children's Theatre (where they first developed the Dean and Terry characters) and they've worked together in other projects.

The Loose Moose is where the improv technique of Theatresports originated, and has produced its share of talent including Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch from Kids in the Hall, Norm Hiscock (producer on Corner Gas, Parks and Recreation and King of the Hill), and Veena Sood.

posted by Hardcore Poser (16 comments total)

Oh God FUBAR is hilarious. I went to high school with guys like Dean and Terry, so I found it an eerily accurate portrait of the 'banger in the wild. And for such a silly, funny movie, it's surprisingly thoughtful and poignant at times.

Didn't know about this--thanks for the info! I look forward to the sequel...though I'm not sure I can picture Dean and Terry in the Alberta Tar Sands. Hmm.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:34 PM on November 30, 2009

A few corrections: Apparently filming started on the 25th, and Edmonton is the locale that's standing in for both Calgary and the Tar Sands.

Errors in the post already... I should take up another sport, like knitting.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 11:41 PM on November 30, 2009

HA! I forgot about that line. It always makes me laugh because I have taken up the sport of knitting.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:11 AM on December 1, 2009

Fuckin' A, dude. Give'r! *shotguns a Pil, belches*
posted by arto at 12:18 AM on December 1, 2009

Someone once told me: "For you, FUBAR is like going to the zoo, but I grew up with these people."
posted by esprit de l'escalier at 12:46 AM on December 1, 2009 [2 favorites]

...but I grew up with these people.

Fuckin rights, buddy! Fubar is the greatest Canadian film ever made.

TURN UP THE GOOD; TURN DOWN THE SUCK!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 3:27 AM on December 1, 2009

> And for such a silly, funny movie, it's surprisingly thoughtful and poignant at times.

FUBAR is great, but it's not entirely the party-hearty flick its reputation would lead you to expect. I like It's All Gone Pete Tong (by the same director) even better. It deals with a lot of the same themes, and the FUBAR boys make a nice little cameo...
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:08 AM on December 1, 2009

I don't know about the Tar Sands, but apparently they've been at Abbotsfield Mall for the last couple of days.
posted by so_ at 6:25 AM on December 1, 2009

posted by Hardcore Poser

Eponysterical.

\m/           \m/
     Give'r!
posted by mazola at 7:47 AM on December 1, 2009

> FUBAR is great, but it's not entirely the party-hearty flick its reputation would lead you to expect.

I like the part on the DVD commentary where Michael Dowse talks about people's reactions to the campfire discussion where they are all talking about your deathday anniversary--that there is one day a year that is the anniversary of your death, but every time it passes, you just don't know it. He said people kind of chuckle a little but then they get pensive and are like, "Jeez, that's true," and then they sit there and think about their own mortality. And really, this movie (and Pete Tong, which I also enjoyed) is about coming to terms with really life-altering things and making the best of life anyway.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:23 AM on December 1, 2009 [1 favorite]

I didn't realize theatresports were invented at the Loose Moose. My dad used to take me and my sister there when we were kids, and despite the fact that I was young enough to be freaked out by the giant moose head in the lobby, I always remember laughing really hard. We never went again after they got kicked out of that original theatre, but apparently they're still at it.
posted by Dr. Send at 10:33 AM on December 1, 2009

I didn't realize theatresports were invented at the Loose Moose. My dad used to take me and my sister there when we were kids, and despite the fact that I was young enough to be freaked out by the giant moose head in the lobby, I always remember laughing really hard. We never went again after they got kicked out of that original theatre, but apparently they're still at it.

Yep- but even so, when The Comedy Network had those improv contests, they NEVER had a team from Calgary. Calgary is where competitive improv was invented. You wouldn't have fucking Whose Line is it Anyway if it weren't for the pioneers at Loose Moose.

You also wouldn't have Kids In The Hall- Bruce and Mark met at Loose Moose and formed their own improv duo, The Audience.

Anyway, FUBAR was filmed (for the most part) just a couple blocks north of my house in Sunalta (Bankview boy here); the last scene where they're sitting in a park overlooking the city is the Bankview Dog Park. Sad to see it go to Deadmonton but happy to see the sequel.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 10:54 AM on December 1, 2009

Anyway, FUBAR was filmed (for the most part) just a couple blocks north of my house in Sunalta (Bankview boy here); the last scene where they're sitting in a park overlooking the city is the Bankview Dog Park.

Really? I lived in Bankview (well, technically just over the line in South Calgary) for about four years, and I never realised that. For some reason I thought they filmed it in Forest Lawn. I'm about due for a rewatch if I can find it on DVD. It's been years.
posted by arto at 11:36 AM on December 1, 2009

What I love about FUBAR is that living in Calgary means you always know some guy who knows someone who was in it, or was involved somehow - or so they say. I apparently worked with the guy who plays drums in the first bit where Farrel is showing Terry and Deaner his movie (which I found out from a third party AFTER I left that job, so I couldn't confirm it), and my brother told me his friend's brother knows some of the guys who were beating the hell out of each other in the scene in High River. I don't know whether these stories are half-true or outright lies, but they still make me love the movie just that much more.

A few years ago, I volunteered to park cars during the Calgary Stampede for a non-profit whose office was in Victoria Park (which is where the Stampede grounds are). The guys who lived across the street were almost carbon copies of Terry and Deaner, and they taught me the proper way to park cars in 30 degree heat during Stampede - you sit in a lawn chair and get bombed off of Lucky Extra.

It was the best Stampede ever.

Also, Loose Moose rocks. My first date with my first girlfriend was at Loose Moose when they were in Inglewood.
posted by threetoed at 12:16 PM on December 1, 2009

I've never seen the movie, but I have heard the New Pornographers' cover of Toronto's "Your Daddy Don't Know" from the soundtrack, and it is awesome.
posted by Rangeboy at 12:21 PM on December 1, 2009

Aha! So that's where the "give'r" thing comes from! I'll have to hunt these down.
posted by ignignokt at 1:12 PM on December 1, 2009