Connect with us
Friend of the World

Film

Friend of the World is a Bracing Stocktake of a Crumbling World

‘Friend of the World’ mixes the zombie genre with the existential drama to bracing, bizarre effect. We dug it.

The end of the world has never felt more bizarre than in the black-and-white, black comedy stylings of Friend of the World, a perpetual grey zone caught between salvation and destruction, lightness and horror. 

A mere 50-minute bolt across the arm, the film plays something like 10 Cloverfield Lane directed by David Lynch. A mixture of a traditional existentialist play (characters stuck in one location and can’t find any way out of the constructions of their own minds) and a standard zombie movie (with the threat of death only a bite away) it finds a unique way to portray an irrevocably changed, and changing, world. 

It starts with the young Diane (Alexandra Slade) waking up in a room full of dead people. She was filming an art project in the mountains when the military rounded up her friends and started shooting. She climbs down an elevator shaft, where she meets the older Gore (Nick Young), who immediately disparages her work and accuses her of smoking too much weed. But slowly but surely, they realise they have to work together in order to find their way out of this weird quagmire. 

They are both filmmakers, but with diametrically opposed styles. For the most part we appear to be in Gore’s world — a strange, hopeless place filled with mutating creatures, surrealist flourishes and bizarre non-sequiturs. But these black-and-white images are also interspersed, Raging Bull-like, with Diane’s boxy home-footage; romantic shots of a gorgeous, now-forgotten world. In them, she testifies that the world is a “beautiful, chaotic mess, I find difficult to embrace” and that she’d give up anything to “truly live.” Friend of the World puts that message to the test: having avoided the collapse of the world, she may be living more than ever. But is this quite the life she envisaged? 

While Diane might be having a rough day, Nick Young is having a grand old time as Gore. Veering close to a parody of Sterling Hayden in Dr Strangelove, he chomps his cigarillos with relish and delivers wisecracks with cutting venom. He is well prepared for the end of the world: one even gets the sense that he is enjoying it. Young’s performance lifts what could’ve been an inconsequent film into something rather grand; holding our attention when the action lags and director Brian Patrick Butler tries things that don’t quite work. 

All in all, this is brave, fascinating stuff. Given the current state of the world, and the way it seems to be disintegrating at a rapid, often-confusing pace, Friend of the World — which wrapped filming in the equally dystopian year of 2016 — feels like a genuinely authentic attempt at capturing this sense of disorientation; mostly by not trying to tie things up in too neat a knot. While the execution is far from perfect, its crackling black-and-white images, acute body horror and existential conversations, maintain a captivating effect. This is how you take on a genre that has been done to death. 

Written By

As far back as he can remember, Redmond Bacon always wanted to be a film critic. To him, being a film critic was better than being President of the United States

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Facebook

Trending

Lauryn Hill Joins Drake On Stage During Night 1 Of Wireless Festival

Celebrity

Taylor Rooks Seemingly Responds To Drake’s Mention In Unreleased Song From “ICEMAN” Livestream

Celebrity

Jurassic World Rebirth review: Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey help the franchise roar back to life

Film

15 Best Military Movies Of All Time, Ranked

Film

Fat Joe accused of sex acts with minors in $20 million lawsuit filed by former hype man, rapper denies allegations

Celebrity

Tyler Perry Pops Out At Beyonce Show In Paris Amid Sexual Assault Lawsuit

Celebrity

The Best Albums of 2025 (So Far)

Film

Lil Wayne “Tha Carter VI” Review

Celebrity

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Review: The Best Trek In Decades Doesn’t Miss A Beat

Film

Mello Buckzz’s Boyfriend Shot-&-Killed During Her Mixtape Release Party

News

Eminem’s Stalker Gets Lengthy Prison Sentence For Home Invasion

News

Jameela Jamil Net Worth: Actress, Advocate, and Influencer

Celebrity

YNW Melly’s Family Shows Up To Support Him At Court Hearing

Celebrity

‘Christy’ Review: Brothers Estranged by the Care System Rebuild Their Bond in a Moving Irish Crowdpleaser

Film

Sabrina Carpenter unveils new album art ‘approved by God’ after controversy over original’s suggestive imagery

Celebrity

Trillian, Busta Rhymes’s Son, Prepares To Inherit The Throne: On NLE Choppa Collab, Lyrically Sparring With His Dad & The Significance Of Lil Wayne’s “10,000 Bars”

Celebrity

Connect