Review of Bananaz (2008) by Dan H — 12 May 2009

This was obviously not shot as a documentary, especially towards the beginning, because nobody would shoot a documentary about a band that is not famous yet, and possibly never would be.

It does offer a lot of insight into what went on behind the scenes right then and there, but not nearly enough for my tastes - then again, that's what happens when you truncate 6 years of footage into an hour and a half film.

I think the editors of this had a tradeoff - show a lot more but make it a lot longer, or make it short and sweet but cut out massive amounts of footage, and honestly I think they made the right choice here.

I liked this a lot, despite it not being 'a proper doc', etc. There's something about how honest it is - it doesn't try to cast Damon and Jamie in any light other than the one they cast themselves in - a lot of documentaries these days, especially if the doc is about someone famous and dead, are inaccurate. There are a lot of people in those who are old and can't remember very much, a lot of people who are simply riding the publicity wave, and a lot of people who gloss over the more touchy subject matter in order to portray the doc's subject positiviely, out of post-mortem respect or to masturbate someone's ego or whatever.

This one's honest, and the lack of secondhand interviews, or even firsthand ones, is a good thing.

This did inspire me to do something novel, if nothing else. It did back up my belief people take themselves too seriously (as Damon put it) not only in the music business but everywhere. Hell, if these guys can make Gorillaz and get famous and make lots of money AND do what they like/have fun, why the hell can't I?