#best f(r)iends volume one review

[agentnico]

Best F(r)iends: Volume One (2018) Review

This is a film that is not going to win any Oscars, for it is awful. You should go watch it!

Plot: When a drifter befriends a quirky mortician, an unlikely business partnership is formed. Paranoia soon develops, however, and both men are forced to come to terms with the fragility of friendship and loyalty.

It has been 15 years since The Room was revealed to the world, and ever since then things have never been the same. People would stand in line endlessly waiting to purchase a ticket to hear the infamous “I did not hit her, I did naaawwwt...oh hi, Mark”, bringing along spoons to throw at the screen, and Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero having achieved their dreams of becoming big...only not in the way they could have imagined. Now we are graced with the duo reuniting for Best Friends, a two-part tale about...well, friendship and dreams as well as weirdness after weirdness after weirdness, and it is breathtaking!

Let’s be honest, just like The Room, Best Friends is not a good movie. From first sight you’d think it actually is not that bad, with the cinematography actually being generally really good, the music by Dan Platzman of the Imagine Dragons using some cool synths and melodies, however look a bit closer and you realise how clunky the whole thing actually is. The transitions between scenes are very randomly and awkwardly cut, the camera shots focus on random objects for no apparent reason, and, again, for no apparent reason, there is an abundant use of slow-motion throughout, and the sound mixing and editing is abysmal with the soundtrack cutting into the film really randomly and the volume of various scenes and sounds and music was all over the place. Basically, the movie feels like a student film at times, with it trying to go experimental (however in this case for no justified reason) and because of it the whole thing is a mess. However, this is why this film should be watched mainly by fans of The Room, as it is the fact of how bad it is that makes it so great.

The story and plot is bizarre and bonkers, and so I won’t go into any detail so as to not spoil the madness of it all. I’ll just say that it is both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious. The acting, okay, the acting is, as expected, not good, but at the same time every cast member fits perfectly into their role and no one else would have fit that role but them. Greg Sestero plays Jon Kortina, a young drifter who lost his family to a tragedy as a child and who “looks like a homeless guy” as described by one of the other characters (guess who?), and his monotone delivery, like in The Room, makes the character more enjoyable than if it was played by someone of the high standards as Daniel Day-Lewis! Some of his facial expressions in this film are priceless! Tommy Wiseau is obviously the MVP, his eccentric unique style fitting perfectly to the character that Greg has written for him, and he easily gets all the best one-liners. I also want to mention Kristen StephensonPino as Traci, Jon’s girlfriend in the film, as out of all the cast members she was the only who actually gave a proper decent performance and used some proper acting techniques, like having eye-lines and intensity in her voice.

Our screening was followed by a Q&A with Greg Sestero (who wrote the screenplay and starred as one of the leads), in which he discussed many fun behind the scenes tales and woes in making Best Friends, from the intentional (and some unintentional) references to The Room (as well as general references, like the use of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it photograph of James Franco) to if he cast Tommy Wiseau in any cult classic horror flick he would cast him as Blair Witch to confirming Tommy Wiseau is from Transylvania and thus, a vampire, to how Tommy...well basically there was more talk about Tommy than on the film itself. Sestero also teased that Volume Two of Best Friends will be bolder and even crazier, and I cannot wait! After considering the results, I can say that this film definitely does not have breast cancer. Quoting a classic, “what a story, Mark!” (I mean Greg).

Overall score: 9/10       YES, I AM TOTALLY BIASED HERE, FOR IN REALITY THE SCORE IS PROBABLY A 2 OR 3/10, BUT FOR ME IT’S MY FAVOURITE FILM OF THE YEAR SO FAR, AND SO A 9/10!

TOP MOVIE QUOTE: “Oh hi Jon.”

[thewilliamambervein]

Best F(r)iends Movie review

So fucking conflicted.

On one hand I really enjoyed it on the other hand I absolutely fucking hated it. On one hand I felt like it was way too long the other hand the actual movie is just about an hour and 40 minutes.

By the way the volume 1 and there is no conclusion but I weird trippy sort of teaser for volume 2.

[doomonfilm]

Review : Best F(r)iends Volume Two

When I stumbled upon Best F(r)iends Volume One a couple of months ago, I knew it would be off the wall due to the Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero involvement, and I ended up pleasantly surprised.  Upon learning about Best F(r)iends Volume Two, I had no clue what to expect, and once again I was pleasantly surprised.  A handful of characters remain, new characters join the fold, and the madness you thought you had a hand on slips your grip and bolts off into the darkness.

Jon (Greg Sestero) and Harvey (Tommy Wiseau) find themselves at a breaking point for their newly formed friendship, with Jon feeling betrayed by Harvey over money, while Harvey feels betrayed due to their fractured connection.  Jon and Harvey struggle on the edge of a cliff, resulting in Harvey plummeting into the sea below.  With Traci (Kristen StephensenPino) in tow, Jon leaves Harvey for dead, making a beeline for Harvey’s novelty ATM safe.  Jon and Traci are unable to break into the safe, and while on the run, Traci calls in Rick (Rick Edwards), who is possibly her uncle but definitely trouble.  As the three slip deeper into trouble in the pursuit of the contents of the safe, trust is broken, friendships are tested, and lives are put in danger.

There is quite a bit to unpack here.  The film, rather than unfolding in a slow, mysterious, Los Angeles mystery style narrative like Volume One, is a Tarantino-esque deep dive into a vast array of influences, references and tropes.  Much of the film plays like a desert fever dream, with an interplay of an interrogation scene straight out of the brain of David Lynch.  Many of the film references are played for humor (Rick’s Dirty Harry quote is hysterical).  Most of the beats of the road movie, the heist movie and the trust-based drama/suspense film you would expect are hit, but with the skewed perspective of Sestero, Wiseau and company in full effect.

As a result, the entire tone of the film is different from Volume One to a wonderful effect.  Elements of the story that arch between the two films are resolved, and symbolic connections are made between characters to great effect.  Just enough of the first film is sprinkled into the proceedings to keep the two connected, but Volume Two is a much more confident and focused creature.  The characters introduced for the second film are well defined and have great chemistry with Sestero and StephensenPino.  

Greg Sestero is much more reserved in this go-round, bring a bit more leading man and a bit less offbeat actor to the proceedings.  Tommy Wiseau is unleashed for this film and allowed to be the vessel for many of the referential elements of the film.  Kristen StephensenPino is back in the mix, and this time she brings a sinister edge that was slightly hinted upon in the first film, but left unclear if that was just her personality or a choice.  Rick Edwards plays the main protagonist like a country version of a Bond villain, even down to monologuing at key moments.

If you’re a diehard fan of Sestero and Wiseau, seek this film out.  It is a very grand and symbolic retelling of the friendship that has developed between the two men as well as where they fit into the Hollywood spectrum.  For anyone who thought that The Room and its success was a fluke, the Best F(r)iends series brings more intrigue to the table.

[citimediasource-blog]

Film Review – Best F(r)iends: Volume One 2018

Film Review – Best F(r)iends: Volume One 2018

The general consensus of viewers that have seen Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic, The Room, may typically mark it as an artistic career death. But after its exponential climb in pop culture over the past 15 years, star of The Room and writer of the critically acclaimed, The Disaster Artist, Greg Sestero, has somewhat found a rekindling of his relative stardom. Written by and starring Sestero, Best…