There are good films. There are bad films. There are fun films. There are films that are painful to watch. When I started watching Find Your Friends I was hoping that it would be a good film. After a bit of time had passed I started hoping that it would at least be a fun film. By the time it was all over I had to concede that I'd sat through something quite painful. Not only painful, but also involving people painfully unaware of the sub-genre that they're working in. Although the marketing of a movie and the substance of a movie are two very different things, I saw some recent interview with Bella Thorne that underlined just how little she knew about the tropes she was working with. Not only did she dive into something quite spoiler-ific just days after the film had been released, but she went on to discuss a certain scene as if it was a bold new cinematic vision, also bizarrely trying to state that we normally see that kind of thing portrayed with the gender roles reversed. When you've seen the movie then you'll know just how wrong that is.
Anyway, to the film itself. This is the tale of some young women who head out to a party in the middle of a pretty isolated desert area. There's danger all around them, of course, but some of the main characters seem more inclined to take a risk as they aim to make the most of their carefree time. The one person who seems aware of just how bad things could get is Amber (Helena Howard), but her friends think that she may be acting just a bit too highly-strung. In fact, she's really starting to make a habit of spoiling any parties.
Written and directed by Izabel Pakzad, her feature debut, Find Your Friends is arguably a much more frustrating viewing experience for what it almost does well. The opening scenes are an impressive mix of agony and ecstasy, and there's also a really good point made about how women can be vulnerable and targeted by abusers even in the most crowded and noisy spaces. There's also an interesting look at what it can mean to be a woman supporting other women, yet also wanting the time and space to make some potentially silly and irresponsible choices without having to fear consequences that could change your entire life. That clash, a clash that really never affects men, who much more often get to drink too much and party too hard and wander through different environments with a much less chance of being harmed (by anyone other than themselves), isn't explored in too many other movies, but Pakzad doesn't find quite the right way to explore it here. A couple of conversations work, but they have their impact lessened by the fact that viewers are waiting for the main, very predictable, plotline to pick back up again at some point.
Howard and Thorne are both fine onscreen, and they're accompanied by Zión Moreno, Chloe Cherry, and Sophia Ali. It's just a shame that the film doesn't give us any more depth to the characters than "these are young women, and they should be allowed, and able, to party if they want to". It's not worth mentioning the male cast members, who are all asked to generally portray various types of bastards, although Chris Bauer was a welcome familiar face in his couple of main scenes. Again, sadly, his character development was about as predictable as everything else here.
There's a decent soundtrack, and I guess there's also a decent feeling of disorientation here and there (that specific type of disorientation when you're on holiday and trying to find your way back from a good night out to wherever you are supposed to be spending the night), but most of this is one big wasted opportunity. Yes, many will be satisfied by a pleasingly unflinching set-piece in the third act, but the rest of the film really should have been much better, especially when considering the complexity and nuance of the thematic strands presented so clearly in a couple of key scenes. I'll be generous with my rating here, for what I consider to be the good intentions of Pakzad, but I don't think many people will get much from this. Feel free to ask me for five specific films that could be considered similar, but are much better than this, and I'll happily get back to you ASAP.
4/10
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