By Alexandra Edwards
In order to be successful, it seems that rock documentaries need to feature three basic things: awesome music, copious alcohol, and a topless girl. Atlanta music scene doc We Fun has all three, and it's pretty great.
The movie profiles several Atlanta bands who have become well-known in the wider indie world. The Black Lips, Deerhunter and Mastodon are the big three — Atlanta's holy trinity, if you will — but there are also notable appearances by and interviews with The Coathangers, Mourdella The Babyshakes, King Khan and the Shrines, and many others.
The music is loud, the parties are crazy, and the city feels epic. It's almost hard to believe these bands weren't even on the map a few years ago. They support each ther nicely here, and it makes it feel like that cooperation is part of the magic. There is, of course, the requisite amount of namedropping and cross-referencing, mostly centering around the Black Lips: Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox talks about his first time seeing the band, and several other subjects can be seeing wearing their merch throughout the movie.
The Black Lips themselves don't come across too wonderfully; there's a lot of hurtful pranks and pointless in-fighting. More than anyone else, they seem to typify how one interviewee aptly describes the Atlanta scene: too full of dudes with Peter Pan syndrome. Bradford Cox, on the other hand, is an excellent interview subject, and the extended footage of Deerhunter's live show is one the best musical moments in the film. Mastadon are similarly terrific in their interview, witty and charming, like the party guests you want to spend all night talking to. Sadly, there's no footage of them playing live.
For non-Atlantans, We Fun a great look into both the ups and downs of our scene (though it may make it seem more coherent than it really is). And for us locals, it's endless fun to pick out recognizable people and places: Record Store Day 2008 in the old Criminal Records parking lot, for example, or New Year's Eve at the Drunken Unicorn. You can't help but get a little thrill at being able to say, "I was totally at that show."
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