I did not hit her. It’s not true. It’s bullshit. I did not hit her. I did not.
Oh hi…
Today’s Topic:
Best F(r)iends
So, this is a film… or rather two films, depending on how you look at it, that I wanted to watch ever since it was announced. I mean, it’s Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero’s first big movie since The Room, as a fan of bad movies, I was destined to love it.
I’m also a huge fan of the Disaster Artist, both the book and the movie. But the thing about the Disaster Artist, which is written by Greg Sestero, is the fact that surprisingly he’s actually a good writer. Granted… Disaster Artist, the book, was also written by Tom Bissell (though it’s unclear who wrote more of the book, my theory is that Greg retold his side of the story and Tom Bissell wrote it), but still, Greg knows good story telling. He has more of a self-awareness about both himself and Tommy.
Tommy Wiseau was not just the Producer and Director of The Room (as well as Actor, Executive Producer and… a LOT of stuff) he was also mainly the Writer.
Couple that with Tommy Wiseau’s lack of self awareness… yeah, no wonder Tommy’s character Johnny is such a messiah figure in that movie.
What even is this movie?
As mentioned in Disaster Artist, Tommy Wiseau HAS the look and mannerisms that would make him a great actor to play certain roles. He needs to play uncanny characters, characters who aren’t really the norm, be it villain or just a creepy side-character. And THAT is what they did with Best F(r)iends, Tommy Wiseau finally got a role that actually FITS with who he is. That’s because it’s Greg Sestero’s turn to be the writer now (though Justin MacGregor is the director).
The story is about Greg Sestero’s character named Jon (I swear they chose the name to be similar to Johnny on purpose) who is a homeless man with a bloody shirt. He meets an uncanny character named Harvey who’s a mortician that gives corpses restored faces.
Three guesses who plays THAT character. As it turns out, Harvey also collects dental gold from the corpses and Jon finds the stash one day when Harvey gave Jon some work to clean up the place.
Jon sells some of the dental gold and was able to get a butt load of money from it, though he feels guilty for stealing from Harvey.
So they make a business proposition where they’d sell all the dental gold and get rich. But that’s when Harvey for some reason keeps the money from Jon and distrust starts to fester as Jon feels like Harvey is simply keeping the money for himself, not helped by Harvey possibly using the money to buy a new car.
And honestly… that’s all I’ll say about the plot. Because this movie(s) is honest to god kind of gripping!
Review
Yes, I’m saying it’s an actual decent thriller! It’s been a while where I genuinely don’t know where the story is going and I’m constantly wondering where it goes from there! The acting isn’t spectacular, but it FITS. Everything feels like it’s a natural thing for the flawed characters to do.
The cinematography, honestly, is pretty good as well.
No longer do I get the same feeling of The Room where I can point and say “Ha hah, that’s a set, the sky is a green screen” and instead I truly feel like the environments are real environments. The editing may get a bit artsy at times, there’s a scene where the shutter speed gets choppy and the colour just disappears for example.
And it’s to make you feel discomfort, but sometimes it does give me more of a feeling of “Aw, that’s cute, they’re being artistic” rather than “Oh, holy crap!”, so yeah, that may be a bit of an acquired taste. Special effects are mostly good, though there are some standout moments where you’re gonna feel like it’s an effect a friggin internet reviewer would be able to do, you know?
But yeah, it’s also VERY possible that I’m just very pleasantly surprised that it’s not another movie on the level of The Room and thus ANY quality whatsoever would be considered amazing by comparison, but I don’t think so. That’d be the kind of amazement that SHOULD die off like about a third of the first volume. By then you should already be adjusted to a normal standard of movie making, or at least I would. But that’s the thing, this is a 2 Volume movie, that’s over 3 hours!
And somehow I was NOT bored, I KEPT being invested, I did NOT mind the time and I kept LOOKING at the characters action with THOUGHT. Whether the movie is oscar-worthy or not (I wouldn’t go THAT far), you HAVE to admit that a 3 hour movie that’s able to do THAT is at least DECENT, even if it’s not for everyone.
Heck, the ONE time I was actually disappointed about something, it’s because it didn’t live up to a certain standard that I would hold a GOOD movie to. When it happened I was like “Aw, man, I thought you were better than that”, and that’s the thing, I was SO certain they wouldn’t do the cliché because I thought they’d be TOO GOOD for that cliché!
Coming from the same people that made The Room?
That’s a HUGE step forward!
I honestly can’t wait for Greg Sestero and Tommy Wiseau’s next work, because with this movie(s) they’ve been able to prove that you can start so low and yet still have such potential to go so high.
Definitely a recommendation from me.
Conclusion
So honestly, what can we learn about this movie?
Really it boils down to the fact that in the end there’s a place for everyone. Tommy Wiseau was woefully miscast as the character he wrote for himself in The Room. Whether it be because of his lack of self-awareness or because of him overestimating his talents, that’s up to the person.
But for one reason or another, his acting didn’t work out for The Room because the character just didn’t fit his acting.
But the moment you cast him as someone who’s SUPPOSED to be creepy and weird, SUDDENLY he fits! How about that, right?
Basically, you don’t need to feel lost the moment something doesn’t work out.
Sometimes all it needs is a different perspective or direction. That is why Best F(r)iends ended up a decent flick, and why The Room became the Citizen Kane of bad movies.
Of course now the question is whether it’s the latter that you WANT your film to be.
Game Philosophy 