Best F(r)iends Vol. 1 (2018) - Movie Review

 

Right from the jump, this film’s mere existence feels like mainstream teething problems with the latest piece of ‘so bad it’s good’ cinema. It’s a little too easy to imagine this being pitched to a distributor like Lionsgate on the basis that The Room, and the film-behind-the-film The Disaster Artist, are becoming uber-popular and deciding to put its most recognisable stars in something that actually looks like a film. Like everyone at the table forgot that one of The Room’s biggest draws was because its acting was baffling, but not actually good. It’s like if someone saw how much traction Neil Breen was getting, and decided to cast him in an indie coming-of-age drama. It’s baffling… until the real reason for its existence is revealed.

This is basically a result of life-imitating-art-imitating-life, as writer/co-star Greg Sestero put the script together after watching an early cut of The Disaster Artist and feeling sympathy for the depiction that film had of one of his closest friends. And seeing how markedly different and yet familiar the relationship between Sestero and Wiseau is here, this honestly feels like it’s coming from a decent place.

It certainly gives Wiseau a chance to be his usually captivating self in a product not entirely of his own creation, as his portrayal of a mortician-cum-gold-merchant maintains all of his idiosyncrasies, just backed with dialogue that doesn’t feel like alien script. Anyone who has seen the videos where Wiseau plays Heath Ledger’s Joker have a good idea of how well Wiseau can work with darker material, and it seems that Greg has known that for a while himself because he definitely gave Wiseau the right character to play here. Since Greg being able to put the bizarre behind-the-scenes context of The Room into words is how we even got here in the first place, it also helps that his writing gives both Wiseau and himself enough to chew on for the length of an entire film… or, rather, two since this went all Kill Bill and got split in two.

But above all else, the most intriguing thing about this is out of the pure logistics of its workings; it is incredibly surreal seeing both Sestero and Wiseau in something that actually looks and sounds like a real movie. With the presence of Disaster Artist actor and prominent connoisseur of bad cinema Paul Scheer in the cast, director/co-cinematographer/editor Justin MacGregor showing some minor surreality in his framing and imagery, and Daniel Platzman of Imagine Dragons infamy doing the soundtrack, this is surprisingly high-profile. And it seems that the pattern of highlighting seemingly bad creatives in the right context extends to the aforementioned soundtrack, as it sounds a lot more focused and like actual rock music (first time I can remember hearing Platzman being anywhere near a real guitar) than the bulk of his band efforts.

Judging this as far as actual entertainment value, or anything resembling objective positives, feels like a mere formality on this one. It exists because of the presence of an amazing movie made about an amazingly bad movie, and as wonky as the idea of getting well-known bad actors in a proper film, the results are admirably viable. One can only hope that this ends on a good note with Vol. 2.