If you’re not familiar with The Room, then Best F(r)iends will be a massive waste of time. The Room has a cult following as one of the most ‘so bad it’s hysterical’ movies of the 21st century. I’d recommend The Disaster Artist (the book or the movie) to truly appreciate just how awful the production was, but suffice to say, it established Tommy Wiseau as a force farce to be reckoned with. He wrote, directed, financed, produced, and starred in The Room, and did all of those with a baffling level of incompetence.
Best F(r)iends, volumes 1 and 2, stars Tommy Wiseau alongside Greg Sestero, the other lead actor from The Room. Unfortunately, Tommy’s role was limited to acting, and the film suffers tremendously as a result. At times, it feels like the director is trying to recapture the low production value of The Room, but it mostly feels uninspired, not necessarily bad. And I hate to say it, but Greg Sestero just isn’t fun to watch. Nor is his script funny – it falls somewhere between ‘Screenwriting 101’ and ‘Let’s recapture the stupidity of The Room‘, and ends up being more painful than enjoyable.
Tommy though. Whether he knows it or not, the man is a comic genius – his aloofness, awkward laugh, mumbling, enthusiasm, accent… it barely makes the film worth watching. Well, it makes Volume 1 worth watching. Volume 2 mainly features Tommy doing voiceovers (perhaps because he couldn’t remember all his lines?), and while it’s still the highlight of the movie, it’s not worth sitting through the filler material about Greg trying to unlock a safe. I’d recommend skipping through Volume 1 to find Tommy’s scenes, especially the bit at the car dealership. Otherwise, it just feels like a half-baked attempt to recreate The Room. You’re better off watching The Neighbors, which, like The Room, was completely created by Tommy.
