Best F(r)iends, Vol. 1

Boy, I don't know how to review this one.

I'm in Leeds with my partner at the historical Hyde Park Picture House for a very unconventional film double-bill. The event is hosted by the always charming Greg Sestero, co-star of the classic so-bad-it's-good film The Room (the second movie on the bill) and co-author of the novel that covered that film's tortourous creation, The Disaster Artist. In turn, the novel lead to the James Franco film adaptation (my review here: http://nincronyreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/the-disaster-artist.html) and mainstream attention. Once an object of fascination for cult cinema audiences, I think most people now know who Tommy Wiseau is, what an arduous task it was to make to The Room and how delightfully awful it is. So I was fairly excited at the chance to see the film again with an audience (last time was back in 2012 when I was living in Hull for uni) and, having missed the same show with Greg down the road in Manchester a couple nights before due to prior engagements, we made a special trip over to neighbouting city Leeds. However, my mind kept veering to that illusive first film on the bill, advertised as the first collaboration between Greg and Tommy since their most infamous creation. Greg explained in the Q&A that him and Tommy have accomplished a lot of things together but they had not completed one important milestone: make a good film. Thus they set to do this with Best F(r)iends, Vol. 1. What exactly do we have on our hands from this dynamic partnership? And is it actually any good?

We open with a homeless drifter named Jon (Greg Sestero) prowling the streets of L.A. looking for any kind of charity from passer-bys who largely ignore him. One day, Jon stumbles across an eccentric mortician named Harvey (Tommy Wiseau) and the two soon form a strange kind of bond as they begin to work together. Harvey is something of an odd ball (understatement) taking great delight in preserving the bodies that come into his morgue and crafting creepy plastics masks of famous people to place over the bodies. Cute. Most interestingly, Jon discovers something hidden away in Harvey's store cupboards and basement - millions of dollars worth of dental scrap and gold teeth. Seizing this as his chance to escape LA, Jon steals and sells a small amount of the stuff landing himself a mini fortune. Meeting a young woman who soon becomes his girlfriend, Traci (Kristen Stephenson Pino), Jon becomes increasingly paranoid about his betrayal of Harvey's trust and soon cuts him in on the deal. Harvey by turn begins to plan his own schemes as certain details from his past begin to become apparent to Jon...

Can director Justin MacGregor and writer/actor Greg Sestero get a good performance out of Tommy Wiseau?

What's quite telling about the film is that Sestero views Best F(r)iends as a more accurate adaptation of The Disaster Artist novel as opposed to the James Franco film, certainly in tone and in a metaphorical sense anyway. In the Q&A, Sestero bemoaned that the Franco film never ventured too far into the darkness and toxicity of the central relationship between himself and Wiseau (though he ultimately came out as liking the film). While obviously Best F(r)iends has little in common with The Disaster Artist narrative, it's hard not to see Sestero drawing upon the early years of his friendship with Wiseau for the characters Jon and Harvey. With Jon stealing the dental scrap for big monetary gain and Harvey hiding a secret motive from the first friend he has ever had, it's hard not to think of the relationship between Greg and Tommy when they first tried to make it in Hollywood in the early 00s. While the filmmakers were intent on distancing themselves from The Room as much as possible, Best F(r)iends wouldn't exist without it and there are a number of callbacks to that film (playing a ballgame, "oh hi Jon" etc.). It does just about enough different though to stand on its own but it's hard not to think about The Room when watching it.

So as a film, I think Best F(r)iends just about succeeds, mostly from the huge build-up of good will Sestero has accumulated over the years. It is like stepping back into the topsy-turvy land of The Room again, only with a competent film crew and director (Justin MacGregor) behind the camera. Wiseau delivers the lines in just the way you'd want him to but the humour mostly comes from him just being him. Unlike The Room, we're not laughing at Wiseau's eccentricities and terrible acting - we're laughing with him. I would even venture to say that this is a good performance. Sestero created a role specially for Tommy and he does really shine here. Sestero as well, being the architect of the project, manages to turn in an equally strange, though obviously more understated, performance, playing the first 15 minutes or so of the film as a mute.

Sestero also manages to turn in a good performance as drifter Jon

I think a slight negative is that the narrative does get a bit flabby. The story spirals out of control when Harvey starts to get in on the act. The duo soon become in involved in shady dealers (including one played by Paul Scheer), more details are revealed about Harvey's mysterious past (again, akin to the real life of Wiseau, which remains a mystery) and Jon beginning to concoct a scheme to get him out of the picture. If anything, there is an almost Lynchian air of surreality to the film, heightened further by Daniel Platzman's (of Imagine Dragons) synth-based soundtrack. That scene in Las Vegas could easily have slotted into Mullholland Drive at some point. The whole thing does feel a bit unwieldily (originally written and shot as one film, Sestero soon found they had enough material for a two-part film, with Vol. 2 releasing later this year) but the film does succeed at meeting the strengths of its two leads. The film has plenty of bizarre line deliveries, strange editing/camera quirks and future, potentially classic, quotes to get pass the fairly pedestrian plot (I think that clown scene has an infamous future ahead of itself). Indeed, while the film is very funny, the intention was to make it as serious a film as possible and it is more consistently dramatic throughout. Heck, I'd even call it a professional production.

So is Best F(r)iends a good film? Urm, I'm not sure. Did I enjoy it? Very much so. As part of the double-bill, it was actually very effective at getting the audience warmed up for the main event. There is a clear passion here to make the best film possible on a tight budget. It is very meandering and slightly self-indulgent at times but it comes out as an entertaining exercise. I think if you're a fan of The Room, there's plenty to lap up and read into its metaphorical narrative. There are several callbacks to The Room that the audience we were with just lapped up. If you're not a fan however, you might be scratching your head as to what all the fuss is about. There's some genuinely lovely cinematography and enough interesting narrative twists to make me look forward to Vol. 2. Most shocking is that Wiseau gives an honest-to-God good performance, finally putting his creepy and off-putting persona to good use. There's plenty of laughs to be had at his bizarre delivery of the lines but I think the film is pretty knowing about this. This actually is a black comedy! Sestero sees Best F(r)iends as being the third part of a "perfect, insane trilogy" started by The Room and The Disaster Artist. I for one am glad these two have finally got their dues. After, Vol. 2 I think it's time to close the book.