SLAMDANCE 2021 – I’m glad to say Best Friend has no real downer aspects to it. Instead it decides to tell a brief, pleasant, & relatable story of a newly relocated young lady who misses everything about her old life and the ways she and her parents deal with the situation. 

Gitane Neil portrays Deirdre the bummed daughter nicely and, cards on the table, I believed her more than any of the adult actors who come across a little like they’re on a lame sitcom. The hackneyed parental interactions make me wish they all existed in the background of Deirde’s world a bit more, but it’s hardly a death-blow. At least I got a chuckle out of an unflattering hat her dad wears.

Like I said before, I appreciate Best Friend for not falling into the trap of conflating misery/unhappiness with depth & meaning. So many films, short or feature length, seem to come from a mindset where negative emotions are deeply important whereas positivity or joy is somehow less than because nobody’s miserable. I’m not saying everyone should always be a bunch of shiny, happy people all the time, by the way, just that positive emotions deserve some time in the sun.

Also, as a sucker for dogs (or cats, guinea pigs, horses…) who’s even more powerless when they’re in little doggie-wheelchairs or have a canine prosthesis of some kind, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn I was perhaps most taken with the furry friends on display in Best Friend. I probably would have liked it all a bit more had the parents been left by the wayside so increased time could have been spent with Deirdre, her new friend, and their dogs

Best Friend is currently playing at Slamdance 2021.

7 out of 10 Doggie-Wheelchairs