Best F(r)iends: Volume 1

I am well versed in the story of the Room and Greg Sestero's acting journey. I think it is fantastic that he not only has kept his acting dream from being completely extinguished by his association with the mother of all bad movies The Room, but managed to write and act in a gem that will hopefully open up the doors to him that seemed closed permanently.

It is difficult to categorise this movie into a genre. It's funny, strange, scary and silly, frequently all at the same time. If you don't know much about the plot, it makes the experience far richer, the surprises are half the fun. Greg is very good, but his reluctant life partner Tommy Wiseau is, believe it or not, actually quite good as well. I have a feeling they didn't let him go full on tyrant on this set and let him run completely amok like he did back in '03. He more or less plays a version of himself, or at least similar to how Greg describes him in the disaster artist, and is a compelling guy to watch, despite looking like dawn of the dead at whatever his age is.

The production value is good. The dialogue wasn't dubbed back in. I couldn't see any green screen rooftops and the dialogue is strange at time but not exactly "Oh Hi Mark" strange if you get my drift. Even if you know absolutely nothing about the story of these 2 men and just watch this movie like any other, you will still probably enjoy it. It's never boring or repetitive. In short, it looks pretty darn good.

If you really are sick of movies, even the good ones, that follow a very recognisable formula and want something truly unique and unpredictable then this is for you. It left me scratching my head, wondering exactly what it was. That is the highest compliment I can pay to a movie. In the words of harmony Korine "Please just give me something different."

Best Friends is about as different as Transformers is the same.

This film is way wackier than The Room on terms of sanity, it's written by Greg Sestero and he did a great job with it. I saw it at an event with Tommy and Greg live and it had the whole audience in hysterics. Although, we did only watch a 'preview cut' for it and I was rather disappointed to not see some of the scenes that I've viewed in the trailers online.

Tommy is crazier than ever in this and is more like you'd imagine him in real life which is a pretty stellar depiction of what he is actually like.

It started off slow and I was getting a bit bored but it picked up quickly. It's truly cinematic despite being filmed on a 'small' budget. The sets look great and the story is original. This is really a film where you can see the friendship of Greg and Tommy flourish. I look forward to seeing the theatrical version in hopes that some of the funny scenes from the trailer like Tommy smearing Vaseline over Greg's face makes the cut. If you love Tommy Wiseau, you'll love this!

It was ok. nothing really great about it or as memorable as the room. the best parts of the movie were the room references. they were very crafty and well placed. after that it was pretty blah. the production and acting were a little better but the plot lacked and i almost dozed off a few times. greg is definitely a talented guy but i really feel like he should let tommy write the scripts moving forward.

Best F(r)iends establishes Greg Sestero as an interesting and quite exciting storyteller. And at the same time it serves as a great closing chapter in the entire Room story that has now expanded over books and film - not to mention The Room itself. Its a great love letter to the unique friendship between Sestero and Wiseau, and its great to see how Tommy actually gets a part that suits his style. In this film, he delivers genuinely touching moments and shows a great vulnerability at times. Greg also creates a nice underplayed character in the homeless Jon, searching for some sort of human relationship after the loss of his mother. These two souls who each has a deep sadness in their lives, finds a kinship in each other. Probably not unlike the real versions of Sestero and Wiseau. The story is told as a noir thriller, and works like this in quite a few places, as well as taking really intersting and original turns, which kept me curious about what was waiting around the next corner. Unfortunately the direction and editing drags the film down. In some scenes it seems like the director has been more interested in the technical aspect, instead of directing the actors, or maybe it comes down to inexperience. But the editing is what really does the film a huge disservice. Scenes go on way too long, they dwell on overly long shots, and there are several moments that just seems unnecessary, and dull. Scenes that should have been cut. And then there are several slow motion cuts, which just seems kinda pretentious. The film is also edited by the director, and its seems to me like has been way too close to the material to actually see what the film needed. He is in love with his own shots (he is also the DP), and seems more interested in showing those, than actually telling a story. And the score (great as it is by Dan Platzman of Imagine Dragons) is also weirdly edited, and seems spliced together with other parts of the score in some scenes. And generally the film would benefit from more quiet moments, without having the score intrude in basically every scene.

Because of all this, the film at times comes across as more of an amateur / student production, which is really too bad because as I've stated, I really enjoyed the story as well as Wiseau and Sesteros performances, which still made me have a good time. Better editing could have just lifted this into something really special and totally unique. I am still looking forward to part 2 though, since there are a lot of exciting questions being put forward in this one, and a lot of places it could go. Just hope that it will be a tighter experience.

Some of this is great, especially Wiseau's gonzo,crazy performance, but some of the rest is utter crap, Sister's awkward performance & the pretentious shooting. So it's hard to pin down because it can be entertaining and boring, captivating and infuriating. In a way it tries too hard , but fails too far. See it anyway.