After 15 years, Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero are back on the screen. After the massive world wide success of The Room making them household names, they have taken time to hang out with fans, present midnight screenings, and relax. But they’re back, baby. They’re back!
Best F(r)iends is penned by Sestero himself, and directed by Justin MacGregor (The Generations). Tommy stays firmly in front of the camera this time, allowing himself to focus solely on this performance. This is a very good thing, because Tommy is an all-American, big time movie actor.
The film opens with Jon (Sestero) a homeless drifter. He awakens on a LA street. His white tee shirt covered in blood. Why? Not quite sure (I’m hoping it’s explained in Volume 2). After several days of asking for money on the street, with many creative signs, Jon begins to notice a white hearse passing him several times a day. Curious, he follows it to its destination, and discovers it is owned and operated by an eccentric and mysterious mortician, Harvey Lewis.
Desperate for help and intrigued, Jon wanders into Harvey’s bizarre life. Harvey takes his job very seriously, and has some…strange methods. Jon does notice that Harvey seems to save the gold teeth from the cadavers he works with, and begins to come up with a scheme to get rich. However, trying to execute his plan, and dealing with Harvey, may be much more than Jon bargained for.
I guess I should get right to the meat and potatoes here, what everyone wants to know. “How’s the acting? How’s Tommy?”. I am happy to report that…Tommy is Tommy. You are getting exactly the performance you are paying for here. Tommy’s strange line deliveries are all here. Some lines where he emotes counter to what he is saying or describing are also here. There is even an occasion where Tommy says a word, realizes he said the wrong word, backs up to the middle of his line and repeats it. Hell, at one point he calls a character by the wrong name, realizes, says the real name, and then plays it off like his character was just confused. Tommy is incredibly awkward, but amazingly so. He’s awkward in that endearing and heartfelt way that only Tommy can be.
The rest of the cast is…fine? Sestero, much like in some chunks of The Room, is decent. It sort of proves my gut feeling I had watching their previous film, “Greg really is trying, but the material sucks.” Performing his own script, he has many…good moments. Some even ‘really good’.
Kristen StephensonPino is probably one of the best actors in the film. She feels very natural amid all the bizarreness going on around her. She plays her part believably, and even goes far enough to seemingly do a bit of improv to deal with Tommy’s craziness and flubs on the fly.
MacGregor’s direction is very nice. Between his work and the cinematography, this feels like a very quality production. Tonally this movie weaves between comedy and thriller territory nicely. It feels very much like a standard crime thriller…just with Tommy Wiseau plopped into the middle of it. That is probably what makes this film work so well, as opposed to Wiseau’s previous project, The Neighbors. That one tried to be in on the joke, whereas Best F(r)iends plays it straight.
The thing Sestero’s script really has going for it, is that it plays to Tommy’s strengths. Having known each other for probably around 2 decades now, Greg has a good idea of what Tommy does well, and just lets him run with it. Aside from that, the script is a lot of fairly generic crime thriller tropes, but it uses them pretty well. The several winks and nods for long time The Room fans also don’t go by unappreciated.
Best F(r)iends is a decent enough crime thriller, except starring an eccentric alien who still hasn’t learned how to pass as a human. Sestero & cast turn in decent enough performances to make a serviceable film, but Wiseau’s quirkiness elevate it to a whole new level. It’s certainly not a bad way to waste an afternoon (or midnight screening).
I definitely can’t wait for Volume 2.
Verdict: Rent It (Must See for Wiseau/The Room fans)
Best F(r)iends: Volume 1
Director: Justin MacGregor
Writer: Greg Sestero
Starring: Tommy Wiseau, Greg Sestero
James was pretty confused by the Vol 2 teaser footage. Mostly how it was a lot of random cuts, weird things like shots of Tommy screaming, and scenes that seemed to contradict each other. It was almost… Lynchian. I can’t believe I’m saying that about a Wiseau picture.
Tracking Lines 