Best F(r)iends: Volume 1 Review
Best F(r)iends: Volume 1.
It’s been a decade since we last saw both Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero on screen together for the hilarious masterpiece known as The Room. It was released in 2003, but it’s still wildly popular with its hardcore fans knowing every single memorable line and throwing spoons everywhere in the movie theatre during screenings. And now, it looks like these two are back. After writing his book The Disaster Artist, Sestero, best known for playing Mark in The Room, decided to write and produce a new flick titled Best F(r)iends with Wiseau starring as one of the lead characters. On December 22nd, he screened Volume 1 of the film at the Cinéma du Parc for a fun Q&A and meet-and-greet with moviegoers. If you’re wondering if it’s a sequel to Wiseau’s awful yet highly entertaining cult classic, it’s not. But, there are some moments that will definitely take you back to The Room.
Best Fr(i)ends is a crime thriller about a homeless drifter named Jon (Sestero) who just walks around in Los Angeles and eventually meets a bizarre mortician named Harvey (Wiseau). They decide to work together in the morgue by selling gold teeth from dead bodies for lots of money to some dealers. However, they soon realize they have opposite ways of enriching their business, and that’s the basic yet strange premise of the film in a nutshell.
If you’ve seen The Room before, you already know what to expect from these guys. There are a lot of unintentionally hysterical moments throughout, because some of the dialogue is quite abysmal. It’s hard to tell whether Sestero has been wanting to take the film seriously or just make another campy flick while writing his script. Wiseau’s performance is the highlight of the entire movie, because whenever he talks on screen, he steals the show. If you have not been a fan of his mannerisms and dialogue from The Room, you’re going to hate this film for sure. All the characters are basically caricatures, but it’s still hilariously entertaining. If this aspect puts a smile on your face, then the movie somehow does its job really well.
The cinematography is a fascinating element to explore in Best F(r)iends. All the camera movements are so basic and generic, but it feels like it’s been intentionally planned to be that way from the get-go. Also, the editing goes back and forth in some scenes, and it can compromise the experience at times. Other films have tried doing this in a more stylish and unique way, but unfortunately it doesn’t work for every filmmaker. The musical score is the only aspect of the film that is actually quite terrible. Disappointingly, it’s created by Daniel Platzman, best known for being the drummer of Imagine Dragons, and he doesn’t know how to properly incorporate the music to each scene. It’s unfocused with its sound, which goes from electro to dark classical, and it really takes you out of it. However, they know they’re not making a cinematic masterpiece so you’re able to ignore the flaws sometimes.
Simply, Best F(r)iends is a nice companion piece to The Room with its unintentionally funny dialogue and performances from the two lead actors. You can tell the filmmakers actually tried to make this movie a lot better than it ended up looking, but we live in a world where there’s a difference between potential and reality. For fans of The Room, it’s worth watching once and you’ll definitely enjoy the film for what it’s trying to be. It’s another beautiful example of awful cinema.
Best F(r)iends Volume 1 is now available on DVD and online.
