Best F(r)iends: Volume 1

Best F(r)iends: Volume 1_720p(480P)

You're probably just wanting to watch this to see Tommy deliver lines and act in only the way he can. It makes good on that. The fundamental plot is a good idea but falls over face-first as soon as the wheels get moving. The tv soap-esque performances are a little better than The Room but it lacks "so bad it's good" element. It really doesn't need a sequel. If you're a Room fan looking for comforting warm hug check out Greg's audiobook The Disaster Artist. Heaps better than this and the film adaptation of the same name.

I had the chance to watch Best F(r)iends: Volume 1, Best F(r)iends: Volume 2 and The Room at Ottawa's famous Mayfair Theatre with Greg Sestero in attendance who would answer numerous questions about his latest project. The two volumes tell a story which is partially inspired by true events when Greg Sestero and Tommy Wiseau took a road trip many years ago. The two movies tell an epic story about betrayal, friendship, greed, love and trust but the two volumes are actually quite different. The first volume focuses on the growing friendship between the two main characters in Los Angeles while the second volume is an almost surreal road movie taking one of the lead actors and his girlfriend to Arizona. The plot focuses on lonesome and silent drifter Jon Kortina who has a shady past. He lives under a bridge and tries to get some money by walking through town with humorous signs. On his way through town, he comes across a mysterious hearse on several occasions. One day, the drifter observes how the driver of said hearse transports a coffin inside his mortuary. The mortician realizes he is being observed and spontaneously asks the drifter to help him out preparing bodies for their funerals. He later on introduces himself as Harvey Lewis, an eccentric loner who prepares masks to make the dead faces look beautiful. While the mortician is looking for a business partner and true friend, the drifter is only interested in stealing the gold fillings of the deceased's teeth to make money. One day, his conscience comes into play and he reveals his intentions to the mortician. The two start to get involved with shady underground businessmen and the more money they make the more risks they take. Things are getting even more complicated when Jon Kortina starts dating manipulative bartender Traci Walton who wants her boyfriend to take his share of the money and start a new life with her in Colorado. If you were expecting a sympathetic train wreck of a movie like The Room, you will be quite surprised by this film. This experimental movie is a mixture between a drama with sad undertones about two loners, a crime flick with sinister vibes and a dark comedy film with numerous awkward situations. The movie is told with calm, care and precision. It starts with slow pace but gradually gets more intense until the closing cliffhanger which is followed by a surreal preview of the second volume. The locations are quite intriguing and cleverly accentuated by calm camera work, light techniques and sound effects. Greg Sestero's acting performance is enjoyably minimalist while Tommy Wiseau's eccentric style perfectly fits the character he incarnates. The two actors complement each other perfectly. Despite being at times awkward, I would watch Tommy Wiseau's theatrical performance over any one-dimensional acting job by the terrible Dwayne Johnson. Despite the criticism he has faced, one can't deny that Tommy Wiseau puts all his passion into his projects and this is also the case here. A man who follows his dream no matter what like he does deserves respect. Greg Sestero's courage to create such a complex project and collaborate with the eccentric Tommy Wiseau also deserves recognition. In the end, I liked this movie for its unpredictable plot with numerous minor twists and turns, its unusual genre mixture that keeps the film interesting despite a slow pace and the surprisingly dynamic chemistry between an introverted Greg Sestero and an eccentric Tommy Wiseau. Fans of the aforementioned artists and those who like experimental art house cinema should give the two volumes a sincere try. I didn't have any expectations walking into this film and was positively surprised.

After all these years since The Room, he still can't act. I don't know who said everyone in the movie is bad at acting. I only see Tommy who doesn't belong. But the movie still sucks. Not even "The Room" kind of way sucks. It drags! Too many montages.

Sooooo....let's just be honest. This is an average film. There are some cool ideas in this film and some good shots, but let's not fool ourselves. Anything Greg Sestero does will be compared to The Room, and so anything he does will be infinitely better. The case in point was Best F(r)iends. And honestly, I love this freaking title. It's low key kinda genius. The story starts with Sestero being down on his luck as a homeless man in Los Angeles named Jon. A chance encounter with a strange man (expertly played by Tommy Wiseau) leads Jon into a strange underground of gold selling. You see, at least according to Sestero, there was a group of men that used a mortician to steal the old gold fillings of dead people. This happened during the recession of 2009 where gold skyrocketed in value. Anyway, Jon strikes a bizarre friendship with Harvey (Wiseau) as they start working together at the mortuary. Jon ultimately finds out Harvey has hundreds of teeth with gold fillings and talks Harvey into going into business with him, selling the gold on the black market and making some extra cash. All is going well until an obvious thing happens...a super hot girl gets between them. We all know how this turns out. Harvey gets suspicious of the new girl Traci. You see Harvey is withholding some of the profits from Jon and Traci starts planting ideas in Jon's head that he is being cheated. It makes it even weirder that Harvey is hiding the excess funds in an ATM in his garage. So they hatch a plan to get rid of Harvey and it inexplicably works, making it look like Harvey committed suicide while the couple runs off with the ATM/safe. The film is pretty basic in its make-up, but it is a fine showcase for Sestero. He has embraced his cult status as a D-list actor and while Best F(r)iends is not a masterpiece, it is also not a complete waste of time. I also liked the fact he specifically made the Harvey character a mirror of real life Wiseau, giving him a vehicle where he is not the butt of a joke but an actual participant in a film. I mean, this movie will be forgotten in the annals of history but if you like The Room and anything associated with it, then check this one out.

Before watching the first film of the epic 2-part 'saga' that brought back Greg Sestero and Tommy Wiseau on screen for the first time since the beloved and maligned 'The Room', I was unsure if these films were going to follow in the same vein of 'so bad they're good' or maybe this time they know the films are bad? My question wasn't immediately answered upon watching the first entry as it starts off with a promising premise, a good tone/setting (or so I thought), and even a score that feels perfect for this reunion. As the film goes on and gets more absurd as the characters start to show their true motives, I couldn't help but think that one: this film is beyond stupid and convoluted, and two: that it's also effortlessly entertaining and something I may think about re-watching if it's ever on cable. Now, onto part 2... 5.7/10

Tommy Wiseau is a national treasure. I love The Room. its phenomenal. Its obviously terrible but its probably the best worst movie ever made. I didn't think the trailer for Best F(r)iends was a real thing. Seeing Greg Sestero and Tommy Wiseau reuniting for a film, that's amazing. I tried to catch this in its very limited theatrical run but here we are the time has come for me to see this. Its not amazing or anything but its exactly what you want from this project involving the pair. The film is about a drifter who is down out of luck and how his life changes when he meets an odd and eccentric mortician. The mortician gives him a job and the pair become friends. The drifter takes advantage of an opportunity and sells gold teeth that the mortician has saved up and realizes that they could make a fortune off of it. The pair enjoy success at first but soon their friendship is tested. Loyalty, betrayal, trust, all of it is explored in this tale. Interestingly, Sestero himself wrote this picture in a very brief screenplay. The film isn't the most smartly written for sure and I think its purposeful. The odd nature of Wiseau and his terrible delivery is on full display here and its turned up to 11. I dug that; the film shouldn't really be taken seriously and its understood the goofy nature of the story itself and the oddball that is Wiseau. Yet just seeing the two on screen together and being able to play off each other was fun to see. I am actually curious to see the second part of this film, I never know I needed this. This film definitely won't be for everybody. I can imagine casual filmgoers won't find the enjoyment they seek in this. Why should they? Its not very good. This film is for the people (like me) who loved The Room and the lore that comes with it. That film is the most quotable ever and the bare minimum is delivered in this film. And that minimum standard is to see Wiseau being Wiseau and not making any sense. Bring on Volume 2. The wait is tearing me apart. 6/10

** Official Selection - Screened at Cinedelphia Film Festival 2018 ** Though both a perfect companion to "The Room" and a standout film in its own right, "Best F(r)iends" overall seems to be a meditation on the past fifteen years of Greg Sestero's life. But, that sentence should mean something to you before you watch this movie. Don't see this film yet if you haven't. It won't do anything for you, and worse, you'll never appreciate what inspired it. It says so right at the beginning of the film -- "Based On True Events." This two-volume film (which has a clear "intermission" moment at the end of Vol. 1) is really the final film in a loosely bound trilogy, which came together accidentally and incredulously. Now, if you are already well-versed in the mythology behind Sestero and his unforgettable counterpart Tommy Wiseau, you should see this film. I would go into it not knowing anything -- but the plot is classic California neo-noir and involves detailed, interwoven subplots. It's also a tribute to the beautiful city of Los Angeles, and the significance of Sestero's time there versus his time in San Francisco. Despite being a cult figure for fifteen years, this is Sestero's debut screenplay. At the wonderful Q&A I attended, he admitted that the script was written in only a few days, and inspired by both a fond (yet bizarre) memory and a cannabis edible. It lives up to this story and unfolds in a dreamlike manner, in which situational tones change rapidly and unexpectedly. Although clearly made on a limited budget, the film has simple yet effective cinematography. The direction is perfectly suited for both Sestero's script and Wiseau's acting, and there is a surprisingly great score by Daniel Platzman (of Imagine Dragons). It's a good movie. It's not an amazing movie, but that hardly matters. The important part is that you will discover there is major talent behind Sestero (who hopes to next write an unrelated horror-thriller). It's clear that he has the capability to become more than "the guy who played Mark," and this is him getting his feet wet. This his him laying "The Room" to rest. It's a first effort, and an impressive one. At the Q&A, Sestero explained that he wrote the characters of Jon and Harvey to be played specifically by himself and Tommy Wiseau. It was actually initially inspired by a memory of the two of them taking a road trip up the California coast, and Wiseau becoming paranoid that Sestero was going to kill him. Let me make myself abundantly clear -- there is absolutely no possible way for the characters in "Best F(r)iends" to be portrayed by other actors. The film would never work. To this point, it is clear that the film is a deep meditation on the complex relationship between these two men; one that has not always been great. Given this context, I personally found the first volume of "Best F(r)iends" to be beautiful and poetic. It's somewhat over-the-top; Wiseau really shines when he is playing a character that was (quite literally) written for him -- it's clear he's having fun, and it's refreshing to see him take on a more serious form of acting. He also seems to be acutely conscious of his image and the way his adoring fans see him, and is embracing his naturally eccentric personality. It's not ridiculous to say he can and will appear in more films in various roles. And the guy earned it. "Best F(r)iends" seems to suggest there is not much more to be said about the friendship between Sestero and Wiseau. It will always be there, and this two-part epic is its tribute. At the same time, it is being laid to rest in the cult circuit -- the memories will be there forever, but it's time to part ways and focus on the potentially incredible things that they create independent of one another. I am enthusiastically looking forward to Vol. 2.

You know that feeling when you fall into a deep coma when staring into the abyss of artistic mastery, like when a sculpture, song, or piece of exotic cheese speaks so deeply to your soul that you transcend the mortal coil if only for an instant. This film is more than an hour of pure rapture. This film is full of memorable quotes, such as "you're a homeless person with no soul and no friends" and "the only thing that I can do is i can send a few oranges" which should leave any die hard "The Room" fan waiting for the second volume. Overall this is a great film for the whole family, better by far than anything else you might happen to find.

Best F(r)iends was a bizarre, surreal experience, and I mean that in the most approving way possible. It's nice to see that Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero have crafted something truly original. I'm undeniably psyched to see Volume 2 this June! (Verdict: B+)