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.

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*