"Friend of the World" is an American English-language live action film from 2020, so still relatively recent without being super new and fresh. I guess at minimally over 50 minutes, it is not really inside short film territory anymore, but already falls into the full feature category. The writer and director is Brian Patrick Butler, usually a prolific actor as he has been in front of the camera for years, but here and there you also find him penning and directing his own (short) films as the man in charge of the project. This is one of those examples. In front of the camera, you may have seen him in big projects like Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" or on the small screen's "This Is Us" if you paid close enough attention. Today, however, we take a look at what he did when shooting the film "Friend of the World" from two years ago. Not in front of the camera this time. Nick Young and Alexandra Slade took care of that as they are the two leads in this film, Slade perhaps slightly bigger lead, even if she did not get first credit. She also acted before this film, but has not been too prolific since her debut in 2015. With Young there is a bigger chance you came across him in other projects. He also acted alongside Butler in the very recent release "Mike & Fred vs The Dead".
Away from that one, this 2020 film we have here is for the first half basically almost like a stage play with major focus on the two key characters. This is also where I felt the film was at its best. The introduction to the entire scenario was as mysterious as it was interesting when we see the female protagonist there in this mess with dead bodies lying everywhere around her. Well, one was not so dead as it turned out. These first ten minutes are also the reason why I would pick Slade over Young in terms of who is the bigger lead. He is not in the film there yet. It is pretty cleanly structured though. We have five segments of ten minutes each and every single one of those also gets their own title with white letters written on black background. Different chapters. Anyway, with this beginning what happens there and maybe also the female protagonist's looks, she reminded me a bit of one character/actress from "The Walking Dead" who also enjoyed some success again with the recent "Black Panther" movie. I am sure I was not the only one who thought so. For all I cared, the film could have stayed a mere character elaboration of the two protagonists and ran for half an hour only because I felt that the more the film went on the more it lacked focus. Basically, I am talking about the introduction of additional supporting characters who contribute something during these ten-minute segments. No matter if we are talking about the guy who has one line in Spanish, about the creature that literally comes right out of another character (like physically) or if we are talking about the female character's girlfriend, nothing really won me over there.
At the very end of the film, it is again back to basics. The relationship between the two protagonists is elaborated on again. This was critical at the very beginning (or second segment I should say) when they met and we could never really be sure if the guy is a lunatic or just a bit on the crazy side and making the most of this apocalyptic scenario with the help of his military background. This mounted basically in the not exactly sensitive statement (or rather how he depicted it was not too sensitive) on how lesbians can become biological mothers too. However, as the film went on, this was not a conflict at all anymore really because we see the two are getting along better or at least there is no more real dangerous tension between them and then there is this revelation at the end that the guy is apparently indeed really insane with what he does at the aforementioned movie theater and the audience there. This did come out of nowhere and I am not sure I liked it. But the fact that he is then shot by the female protagonist was not a huge surprise, or at least not that he died. There was some kind of foreshadowing going on when he mocks her in the early stages of their relationship about how he is so strong and tough that he will always find a way to survive, but she on the other hand is so powerless and helpless according to him. It was bound to happen. The only unclear thing was how he would die. It felt a bit too easy though how she takes care of him eventually unless we say he really had a suicide wish. Or assisted suicide wish. And also did not make too much sense to me that he was suddenly totally crazy again with how he even seemed fairly normal in those scenes before that and kinda scared and worried for the first time even when they run into other haunting scenarios.
To still end the review on a positive note, I liked the idea of how characters are melting with each other here. Physically in fact, especially through their faces I could add. It was also a nice elaboration when it happens to the male protagonist and he gets out of the situation and says something like how she must not worry because he is not infected or anything now. There are no zombie genes inside him now like it is always the case otherwise in these films. He was just back to normal quickly afterwards. On a completely different note, the inclusion of Beethoven's music is always appreciated. I liked it more at the very beginning though. I am not sure it fit so well with the scene later on when it is used to enforce some dramatic tension. By the way, wasn't it the guy there who saved the girl? So it made even less sense what happened in the end then. And him simply being unpredictable in his actions is not good enough of an explanation for me. Then he also could have killed her in the end and added her to his movie-goer group. Actually, I would have liked that ending more. Overall, I have to give the film a thumbs-down and negative recommendation, even if I liked the idea of shooting it in black-and-white. Not just here, but I dig b&w in general. The one moment when color is included almost at the very end still did not feel as memorable to me as I would have liked it to be. The drop in overall quality in general in the second half was too much for me to be more generous with my rating here. I am a bit conflicted given the film's running time: On the one hand, I would have liked the film to go longer because it needed more screen time to properly elaborate on some fairly rushed scenarios, on the other hand I was glad it was over because it just wasn't any good anymore for almost half an hour. I guess genre lovers can still give it a go. It's not a failure by any means.
Away from that one, this 2020 film we have here is for the first half basically almost like a stage play with major focus on the two key characters. This is also where I felt the film was at its best. The introduction to the entire scenario was as mysterious as it was interesting when we see the female protagonist there in this mess with dead bodies lying everywhere around her. Well, one was not so dead as it turned out. These first ten minutes are also the reason why I would pick Slade over Young in terms of who is the bigger lead. He is not in the film there yet. It is pretty cleanly structured though. We have five segments of ten minutes each and every single one of those also gets their own title with white letters written on black background. Different chapters. Anyway, with this beginning what happens there and maybe also the female protagonist's looks, she reminded me a bit of one character/actress from "The Walking Dead" who also enjoyed some success again with the recent "Black Panther" movie. I am sure I was not the only one who thought so. For all I cared, the film could have stayed a mere character elaboration of the two protagonists and ran for half an hour only because I felt that the more the film went on the more it lacked focus. Basically, I am talking about the introduction of additional supporting characters who contribute something during these ten-minute segments. No matter if we are talking about the guy who has one line in Spanish, about the creature that literally comes right out of another character (like physically) or if we are talking about the female character's girlfriend, nothing really won me over there.
At the very end of the film, it is again back to basics. The relationship between the two protagonists is elaborated on again. This was critical at the very beginning (or second segment I should say) when they met and we could never really be sure if the guy is a lunatic or just a bit on the crazy side and making the most of this apocalyptic scenario with the help of his military background. This mounted basically in the not exactly sensitive statement (or rather how he depicted it was not too sensitive) on how lesbians can become biological mothers too. However, as the film went on, this was not a conflict at all anymore really because we see the two are getting along better or at least there is no more real dangerous tension between them and then there is this revelation at the end that the guy is apparently indeed really insane with what he does at the aforementioned movie theater and the audience there. This did come out of nowhere and I am not sure I liked it. But the fact that he is then shot by the female protagonist was not a huge surprise, or at least not that he died. There was some kind of foreshadowing going on when he mocks her in the early stages of their relationship about how he is so strong and tough that he will always find a way to survive, but she on the other hand is so powerless and helpless according to him. It was bound to happen. The only unclear thing was how he would die. It felt a bit too easy though how she takes care of him eventually unless we say he really had a suicide wish. Or assisted suicide wish. And also did not make too much sense to me that he was suddenly totally crazy again with how he even seemed fairly normal in those scenes before that and kinda scared and worried for the first time even when they run into other haunting scenarios.
To still end the review on a positive note, I liked the idea of how characters are melting with each other here. Physically in fact, especially through their faces I could add. It was also a nice elaboration when it happens to the male protagonist and he gets out of the situation and says something like how she must not worry because he is not infected or anything now. There are no zombie genes inside him now like it is always the case otherwise in these films. He was just back to normal quickly afterwards. On a completely different note, the inclusion of Beethoven's music is always appreciated. I liked it more at the very beginning though. I am not sure it fit so well with the scene later on when it is used to enforce some dramatic tension. By the way, wasn't it the guy there who saved the girl? So it made even less sense what happened in the end then. And him simply being unpredictable in his actions is not good enough of an explanation for me. Then he also could have killed her in the end and added her to his movie-goer group. Actually, I would have liked that ending more. Overall, I have to give the film a thumbs-down and negative recommendation, even if I liked the idea of shooting it in black-and-white. Not just here, but I dig b&w in general. The one moment when color is included almost at the very end still did not feel as memorable to me as I would have liked it to be. The drop in overall quality in general in the second half was too much for me to be more generous with my rating here. I am a bit conflicted given the film's running time: On the one hand, I would have liked the film to go longer because it needed more screen time to properly elaborate on some fairly rushed scenarios, on the other hand I was glad it was over because it just wasn't any good anymore for almost half an hour. I guess genre lovers can still give it a go. It's not a failure by any means.