Baffling R-Rated Thriller On Tubi Is All About Found Family, And Stealing Lots Of Teeth

By Robert Scucci
| Published 27 seconds ago

Are you a fan of cinematic punishments like Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 disasterpiece, The Room, and have over three hours to kill? Then boy, you’re in for a treat because Tubi has finally delivered the goods. And what are the goods, you ask? A little two-part movie series known as Best F(r)iends, written by The Room star Greg Sestero and marking his first collaboration with Wiseau since they were both laughed out of Hollywood for what most of us now consider to be the latter’s magnum opus.

Best F(r)iends is billed as a dark comedy-thriller hybrid, but like The Room, I’m not sure if that was the intent or if it’s another form of backpedaling. For anybody who’s not in the know, Wiseau once thought that The Room was going to clean up during awards season, and he even used his own money to make sure the movie had a long enough theatrical run to qualify. When the movie earned its reputation as “The Citizen Kane of bad movies,” the filmmaker suddenly claimed it was always meant to be a dark comedy.

But here’s one thing to consider about Best F(r)iends that we can’t say about The Room: it wasn’t written, directed, edited, and produced by a single person who also wanted to receive top billing. It’s written by and stars Greg Sestero, sure, but if you look at the personnel pages on IMDb and Wikipedia, it appears this production actually had a team of competent filmmakers behind it, making it a much more well-rounded outing, right?

Yes and no. Best F(r)iends is a tough nut to crack because there’s a level of self-awareness that needs to be considered. These days, Tommy Wiseau is more than happy to lean into the “so bad it’s good” reputation he rightfully earned decades ago, and you see more of that personality here. It’s almost jarring because it feels like the man put a considerable amount of practice into trying to capture the same energy he stumbled into while making The Room by accident, and it makes the whole thing feel like a fever dream.

Still, it’s worth a watch if you’re looking for something just a little different from what you’re used to.

Best F(r)iends Is 203 Minutes And About Selling Teeth

Now here’s the burning question I know you’re all asking. Does Best F(r)iends need to be nearly three and a half hours? Absolutely not! The story told across both volumes could easily be locked into a 90-minute runtime, but for some reason we have to stretch it out. Fortunately, I’m a fan of Wiseau’s line delivery and always perplexing on-screen presence, so it’s a wild ride if you have the patience for it. What’s more, breaking the whole thing into two volumes makes it easier to digest because you don’t have to barrel through it all in one sitting. But you have free will, so do with that information as you will.

As for what Best F(r)iends is about, it’s actually quite simple. When suicidal drifter Jon (Greg Sestero) happens upon a lonely mortician named Harvey (Tommy Wiseau), the two form an unlikely friendship. Jon starts by working odd jobs and sticks around Harvey’s place out of morbid curiosity alone. Harvey’s specialty is making replacement faces out of silicone for cadavers who have been horribly disfigured, allowing their families to see them one last time the way they’d like to remember them. We never see any interactions with these families, though, and the masks are creepy as hell, so I wonder how his hard work is received with his clientele. 

The plot thickens when Jon learns about Harvey’s stash of gold dental scrap that he’s been collecting for years. The two partner up and start selling the scrap for an unthinkable amount of money, but the relationship begins to sour. Jon falls in love with a woman named Traci (Kristen StephensonPino), who doesn’t approve of his wheelings and dealings with Harvey. To make matters worse, Jon grows suspicious of Harvey, who’s spending the money they earned together recklessly while having mysterious behind-closed-door conversations with an elusive figure named Malmo (Paul Scheer).

Caught between a bag of stolen molars and a hard place, Jon’s loyalty is pushed to the limit as he tries to build a new life for himself in Colorado, but there will be collateral damage along the way.

If You’re Not A Superfan, You Might Want To Sit These Out

As somebody who always appreciates art made with reckless abandon and no concern for how it’ll be received, I’ll be the first to admit that Best F(r)iends is a rough watch. Greg Sestero is surprisingly solid here, but Tommy Wiseau is pretty much up to his usual tricks. His fashion choices are baffling, he speaks almost entirely in reverse riddles with a thick accent that nobody can quite pinpoint, and he spends half the movie wearing other people’s faces. No, he’s not a serial killer, but he is passionate about his work as a mortician and maybe likes wearing silicone masks modeled after his co-stars just a little too much. But that’s only when he isn’t wearing a knight’s helmet for reasons I won’t get into here. 

If you’re into “so-bad-it’s-good” cinema, or just like hanging around with the personalities found in Best F(r)iends, it’s definitely worth your time as one of those guilty pleasure oddities you’ll want to show your friends who appreciate the finer things in life.

But be warned: it’s such a strange movie about two strange people who somehow have insane chemistry together despite what their reputations suggest. And yes, I’m calling this a movie, singular, despite the fact that it’s split into two volumes because the whole thing plays like one story, and it’s not even a particularly complex one that comes close to requiring this kind of runtime.

As of this writing, Best F(r)iends Volume One and Volume Two are both streaming for free on Tubi. Check the first one out, and if you think you can commit, go for Volume Two. If not, just count your losses and move on. Nobody will be mad at you.