Review Fix 2012 Tribeca Film Festival Coverage: BFF Review: Predictable
Despite its relatable premise, stylish shot techniques and good-looking cast, “BFF” is a predictable bore.
It takes only about 30 seconds to put the clues together in Neil LaBute’s short film, “BFF.”
Anyone who watches his or her share of the Maury Povich Show will quickly smell a rat here.
You can’t blame the actors for the weak script though. Gia Crovatin does a decent job as the concerned, yet freaked-out girlfriend, while Thomas Sadoski is pure evil as the “BFF.” By the end of the film, you’ll realize he was the one who kept this whole thing together. It’s on the strength of his performance that you’ll sit through the entire short. But it’s never fully captivating. It’s more like waiting for the inevitable.
While it tries to be shocking, almost like a “Sex in the City” meets “Twilight Zone” satire of sorts, it just never is. Everything feels phony and fake. Ultimately, that’s what the relationship between the two male leads in the film is. It doesn’t help that Crovatin is just annoying at times. It’s quite possible the word BFF has never been used that much in a span of eight minutes by one person.
The dialogue is the main reason for most of the film’s problems. It’s authentic for most of the picture, but the final scene is an anti-climactic mess. It’s understandable that some type of illusion was called for, but the lack of any real contact between these two makes it all feel cliché and done before.
In the end, that’s exactly what it is.
While Sadoski’s performance is noteworthy, there just isn’t enough everywhere else to make this short anything less than mediocre.
Patrick Hickey Jr.
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This is upsetting — I know nothing about “BFF” but I am a big Neil Labute fan, although, after reading and watching many of his plays most of his stuff is now predictable. While most of his stuff is “anti-climatic” he still manages to shock, or least, shock in a realistic fashion. I’ll probably still see this eventually.
patrick:
thanks for watching and reviewing BFF–sorry you didn’t enjoy the film any more than you did but i appreciate the coverage of short films by your website. that’s great that you figured out the story so quickly but 30 seconds? it made me go back and see where 30 seconds actually falls in the running time of the picture and at that point the two lead characters have barely begun to speak any dialogue. you would give hercule poirot a run for his money with your powers of deduction! i suppose you did add the caveat of ‘about’ so that might add a few seconds on to your estimate but still, excellent job! perhaps a career in the police force is in your near future.
good luck with your website until then. thanks again for the coverage and happy that you enjoyed the work of thomas sadoski who is a really talented actor.
nl
Not a problem Neil. Like I said, I loved the way the film was shot and Sadoski was excellent. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to share your thoughts on my work.
I think that the video has a few major flaws. The video is quick, non-transitional and almost jumpy, the acting was inorganic, the chemistry was forced and other than a Shadow-esque, “who knows what evil lies in the heart of man?” theme, there was no real point and no degree of subtlety.
The traditional format of a piece would be: Character, Conflict, Complication, Crisis into Climax followed by denouement. If one chooses to forgo this order there should be some justification as to why.
The characters were one-dimensional. We knew what they were doing at the time and their relation to one another, however there was absolutely no depth to them.
The conflict is there in a very simple way.
Complication is built into the conflict.
Crisis is toward the end and yet it is not climactic– well not for the viewer anyway. There is no closure, no solution and things are left unjustifiably hanging mid-air.
The shock value ending was uncomfortable and awkward. Again, if there was a purpose to it, then it would be fine, but there was none aside from attempting to elicit a cheap reaction.
In a sense, the piece had all the finishing touches and superficial necessities but the “drawing board,” part was overlooked in a very big way.