Best Friends Forever

Best Friends Forever is a low-budget, part-crowd-funded film currently travelling around festivals in the USA and internationally, starring Brea Grant (who probably remains best known for playing the sparky, super-speedy Daphne in Heroes) and Vera Miao, both of whom also handled various production duties along with a predominantly female crew.

Looking to piece her life back together after a turbulent experience, Los Angeles-based Harriet (Grant) heads out one last time with best friend Reba (Miao) for grad school in Austin. Shortly after they hit the open road, however, we see a mushroom cloud billow on the distant horizon behind them. Although the girls are cheerfully oblivious at first, as they approach Texas sinister travellers emerge from the desert, tensions rise and secrets surface, not just about the nuclear disaster but also Harriet and Reba themselves, with big consequences for their friendship.

As a sci-fi road movie focused on the bond between girls, BFF is an intriguing prospect given the recent popularity of that mixture of genres and its typically male focus. Certainly, the film throws in a lot of potentially interesting elements and quirks, ranging from Harriet's unusual job as a comic book art inker to several dramatic revelations that cast the trip in a very different light. It's disappointing, then, that the film doesn't really take these ideas anywhere. In fairness, road movies are usually very episodic and therefore sometimes prone to introduce encounters and expectations only to drop them just as quickly. All the same, I couldn't help feeling there was a better, more cohesive story waiting to be told here if only the film had kept to a sharper structure and actively done something with the genre conventions it plays with. In this respect, the film it reminded me of most was Night of the Comet, a low-budget 1984 post-apocalyptic sf/horror/comedy centring on two valley girls (much better than it sounds), but BFF lacked the wit, not to mention the instant quote-ability, of this earlier movie.

Part of this weakness, sadly, comes from the fact that Harriet and Reba are not set up especially convincingly as close friends, and for the story to work for me I really needed to be invested in their relationship. Grant and Miao's performances are enjoyable, relaxed enough to be credible in themselves and not stagey, especially when it really counts. Their characters are likable, if thinly drawn. Also, Grant offers a rather different performance from her role in Heroes, at least to my recollection. It's clear that the women playing these roles must have a good friendship, but the script doesn't really allow that to shine through (more scenes with them together at the start might have helped). Several story developments and the actions needed to set them in motion also come across as heavily contrived, recalling those moments in horror films where characters do ridiculous things even when they know the risks, but lacking the same fun anticipation. It also takes the characters a remarkably long time and a lot of strange behaviour to work out what the audience already knows from a very early stage. Perhaps the film would have worked better if we were kept as much in the dark as they were and obliged to put 2 and 2 together. The tone is also very uneven in places, making BFF's refusal to poke a bit further into some aspects of its story frustrating.

It's certainly not a total loss. The risk with low-budget sci-fi is that a film will push for visuals and a scope beyond its means, but BFF wisely concentrates on character rather than special effects. The locations are very well-chosen and save for a couple of rather jarring parts the film looks and sounds good. A nice line of humour runs throughout, especially when the film toys with some apocalyptic genre expectations (watching it with a savvy audience at a sci-fi film festival was especially fun). In general the film is very competently put together. It's just the script and story that let it down, a bit of a fatal flaw in such an insistently character-driven movie.

On the one hand, Best Friends Forever is more enjoyable and much more of a crowd-pleaser (assuming the crowd is already sympathetic to light sci- fi) than some other low-budget indie debuts I've seen recently. It's also very encouraging to see a partly crowd-funded project make it to completion and have some screenings overseas. On the other, I came away from it feeling pretty unsatisfied given that it seemed to have so many interesting but unexplored details. It definitely deserves a solid showing on the festival circuit, and for a first-time sf festival goer it made a nice change from the kitschiness I was expecting, but it's unlikely to stick in your memory.

Be sure to put a packet of bamboo toothpicks in your pocket before embarking on a viewing of this "creation" - you'll be poking them under your fingernails to distract you from the pain your eyes, ears and brain are suffering.

Seriously, this movie is just like "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" - but with none of the humour and none of the "deep and meaningful" conversations (yes, it really IS that bad).

This is a fine piece of minimalist art about 2 young people, each trying to get started, who unknowingly end up in the middle of catastrophe. What "action" takes place is integral and necessary to the story. The focus is unerringly and uninterruptedly centered on each of them separately and as they relate to each other. Well acted, well directed, well filmed, well edited. Well worth a watch!

Best Friends Forever (2013) is a movie written by Brea Grant and Vera Miao, directed by the first, and starring both of them as the main characters. The movie starts by alluding to the characters personalities and their pasts, their tensions and their shared relationship. The pacing is a bit slow and explores the apocalypse through the eyes of two women who are oblivious to it for the most part. It explores the harsh realities of a nuclear attack; the vast number of casualties, the limited resources and the heightened levels of violence and rape, as well as police corruption. If you plan on watching this movie, there are some parts which are hilarious, some parts that may be awkward and some disgusting. Overall, it requires you to get in touch with the characters and to see the intersecting approach of race and gender in times of crises.

The storyline is well thought out and does have an empowering aspect (the female is not simply being objectified) as well as trying to move past simple stereotypes. It tries to stay away from the gore, the actual explosion and focuses on survival, and how to move on. Not wanting to spoil the character's and their separate journeys, it is safe to say that the two main characters are juxtaposed at times, but it is their bond that helps them throughout the film as well as provides meaning. Both Harriet and Reba gain a sense of self by separating themselves from the other; and through this gain a sense of individuality.

The sound, lighting and pace are all decent to good, and help to set the tone for the movie. I found this movie to be extremely worth the 88 minute version (IMDB says 113, so I might have seen a different cut). I would definitely recommend it to people who want to see some character development, a well written and directed piece, and can sit through a slower paced film. The trailer does not capture the film at all, it is not as dark as it is painted, and much of the movie takes place outside time in a way (though supporting characters do have knowledge of the apocalypse and their actions are determined by that).

The ratings for this film will range from 3-7 on average, but because the film does what it seeks to do, does not try too hard, stray from their premise, I would rate it a 8/10.

i liked it very much! the story is very well developed, with hints of the life situations of the two girls and also of the grander picture, but it's the road trip of the two girls that we're following.

as on any road trip, there are 'interesting' encounters. it is kinda funny that the girls accept the people they meet and things that are happening to them not as something extraordinary (having no clue of the bigger accident), but more like normal and take it only unfortunate that it was them that stood on their way...like saying people do crazy and bad stuff in normal circumstances and you have to live with this, so is this really how you want to look at the world around you? so thats a good one, if you're willing to interpret it this way ;-).

very good production, very professional and really top class.

when will major studios learn that we're sick of them brainwashing us with their bulls# "movies"?