Real BFFs make a real movie with laughs and truth.
I got into a conversation with my friend the other night about how the horror romcom “Heart Eyes” didn’t connect with audiences the way it connected with us. We both felt it knew what it was trying to accomplish within the genres, and we both suggested that maybe it was ahead of its time, and maybe people will appreciate it more as time passes.
The new comedy “Adult Best Friends” also features the “Heart Eyes” star Mason Gooding, but he’s plays a supporting character which the main heroine loves and which her best friend dislikes. These two friends have been inseparable since 2008 when they made a high school home movie and when they were against a kissing game. What aren’t BFFs without kissing games they don’t want to be apart of and home movies? And what isn’t a chick flick without positive messages about adapting and maturing?
“Adult Best Friends” is a small film with inspiration from “Booksmart,” “Frances Ha,” “My Old Ass,” “Babes,” and basically any small but wise girls comedy that doesn’t connect with as much moviegoers as they should. Believe me, I’ve tried to spread the good word about those films as much as I can. The writers Delaney Buffett (who is also the director and the late Jimmy Buffett’s daughter) and Katie Corwin (“City of Angels”) have been real life best friends since high school, and they had many lessons within their friendships. Maybe they should have a lunch meeting with Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, because they all have great taste in smart and funny female characters.
Here’s the deal. Katie is dating John (Mason Gooding), whom Delaney dislikes, as she’s not great with change much as I am, and I’m autistic. He pops the question to her, who happily agrees, and she hasn’t told Delaney yet. In order to ease her into this new change, Katie invites her on a girl’s trip to an AirBnB, whose flamboyant and wincing owner Dougie (Cory Walls) doesn’t allow alcohol or shoes on the premises. It’s always the wincing with those kinds of rules. In fact, he has security cameras in the house like he’s running his own Fort Knox.
What isn’t a girls trip without additional guys or turning points within their friendships? Even though their new vacation friends don’t have as much basis as the BFFs, I suppose these elements are supposed to help the film out within the genre.
“Adult Best Friends,” which also finds room for Zachary Quinto (who is also an executive producer and plays one of Katie’s friends) and Casey Wilson (who plays Delaney’s boss), is a short movie running for 83 minutes, but it’s just enough time to see these two main heroines and where they’re going in life. It’s all based on how they mature and deal with things. Katie is more mature than Delaney who drinks and snorts cocaine, and yet, they both have a likable chemistry that wants us to care about them.
The poster has Quinto and Gooding on it, but they aren’t the real reasons for you to see this movie. Delaney and Katie are the real stars of the show, because of how they display personalities and leisures in the analogy of opposite magnets and yet manage to have such a likable connection in that sort. Jimmy Buffett would be smiling down at his daughter at what she has accomplished. “Adult Best Friends” is a small movie with the right kind of laughs and consistency.
Streaming on VOD Tomorrow