Early noughties indie rock pic, We Forgot To Break Up, tells the story of the band The New Normals as they rise from high school friends to rock stardom before the emotions that fuel their music start to rip them apart. Adapted from Kayt Burgess’ novel, Heidegger Stairwell, there are some familiar beats here, from the rockumentary beginning to the intraband relationships and jealousies. There’s sex, there’s drugs and lots of rock’n’roll. What makes this movie stand apart is the focus on the queer love triangle at its core.
The New Normals are fronted by Evan (Lane Webber), a trans man, with his girlfriend Isis (June Laporte) on keys. The duo are the songwriting heart of the band, while bassist Coco (Hallea Jones) and drummer Angus (Jordan Dawson) are also a couple in a fraught relationship. The band goes from garage to serious potential with the addition of Angus’ gay brother Lugh (Daniel Gravelle) on guitars.
As The New Normals garner attention from record labels and promoters, all eyes are on Evan as the handsome face and progressive story guaranteed to get press. While Isis finds herself being nudged to the side. As the adulation starts to go to Evan’s head, a distance grows between them and the tensions overflow to the rest of the band. When Evan starts writing songs with Lugh, a new attraction is born.
Filmmaker Karen Knox, who won the Directors Guild of Canada’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement Award, captures the heady excitement and youthful bravado of the band’s early years well as the arty, alternative music kids stand in opposition to the toxic masculinity of their high school peers. As they move to Toronto to pursue their musical dreams, the scale of The New Normals’ success is less convincingly rendered.
At its core though, this is a story about five friends and it’s in depicting those relationships that Knox really excels. An excellent ensemble cast, who believably blend together as a band of friends, keeps things connected as each member of the quintet creates rich performances. At times it feels like there are two movies happening at once, but thanks to the great work of Jones and Dawson their characters in particular left such a strong impression that I wanted even more of their storyline.
Despite some familiar rock band movie notes, We Forgot To Break Up—a brilliantly whimsical title—gets its character work right and is a showcase for Lane Webber with his terrific turn as Evan.
By Chad Armstrong
We Forgot To Break Up screens at Queer Screen’s 32nd Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney. Head to queerscreen.org.au more details.
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