Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: THAT FRIEND [Tribeca Film Festival - New York, New York]
Road trips that go bad because a single friend has no filter or sense of control are nothing new. “That Friend” (Spotlight Narrative) finds that in Paul (Harvey Guillen) who has started finding a niche as bonkers characters that have some semblance of humanity but no sense otherwise…and yet people and drawn to them. Paul is the life of the party…but then your house gets destroyed. This film follows a weekend where a just burgeoning couple: Henry (Josh Brener) and Penny (Billie Lourd) agree to take him with them to Palm Springs before he heads on to Joshua Tree to meet with some other friends. Lourd definitely carries aspects of character personalities of her mom and grandma which serve her well in these indies. That said, her last film at SXSW where she was a sidekick to the main romance did work better because when you are not the lead character, as an actor you can settle in because you don't have to carry the full story.
Here it is a game of awkward play and some intentions and jokes go a bit over the line including a situation with a pack of cigarettes which is the running gag throughout the entire film. Brener as Henry is the straight man for the butt of the jokes here. The issue of an upcoming job for Penny settles over the entire weekend and is meant to be the pushing pointy. Like films of this nature, it necessarily gets more and more manic but never feels uncontrollable. It is just a weekend gone wrong. It is a solid enough character piece with some uneven but concrete performances. Despite its major MacGuffin, the through line is very relatable in certain ways, especially if you lived in the Los Angeles area for any length of time. Guillen has a great manic energy but it is hard to say how it would translate to fully mainstream (though he did do "What We Do In The Shadows”). "That Friend" plays its hand right and despite some eccentric story asides, some nice character moments exist without going too far off the beaten path, save for one or two scenes. B-
By Tim Wassberg
