By George & Josh Bate
Girls just want to have fun, as Cyndi Lauper once said. But what happens if fun gets out of hand? What if our desire to enjoy ourselves masks deeper issues in our relationships with those we’re closest to? These questions and more are explored in writer/director Izabel Pakzad’s first feature Find Your Friends, a meandering blend of Spring Breakers and The Hills Have Eyes unafraid and refreshing in its raw portrayal of women.
Premiering at this year’s Fantastic Fest, Find Your Friends follows a group of girlfriends (Helena Howard, Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, Sophia Ali, and Zión Moreno) who decide to escape their lives in L.A. and head out to the desert for a weekend of sex, drugs, and loud music. As the rest of the girls enjoy their partying, Amber (Helena Howard) comes into the weekend feeling on edge, especially as the girls are visited by a threatening neighbor and harassed by local men. As the party goes on, Amber’s concerns about their safety are dismissed and her relationships with her friends is tested.
Pakzad wastes no time inviting audiences into the titular friend group. The very first scene sees the five girls dance, use drugs, and speak openly about topics typically deemed too vulgar or crass for women. This beginning sets the tone for an unfiltered hangout movie, one distinct in its willingness to have women engage in the same ‘bad behavior’ that is so normalized and regularly forgiven in men. The girls openly speak about their love for sex, desire for drugs, issues with previous partners, and more (one character even speaks about shitting on a butt plug her partner stuck inside her without her consent). The conversations about all sorts of taboo topics flow naturally as the five actresses brilliantly play off one another and act so organically.
While refreshing in its nonjudgmental approach to female characters, Find Your Friends finds itself meandering for much of its runtime. A substantial portion of the runtime is allocated toward partying scenes in which the girl consume excessive amounts of alcohol and drugs, often without a second thought. Eventually, these scenes grow tiring as there is little to distinguish one partying sequence from the last. The film’s narrative crawls forward, with few substantial developments until an admittedly tense and ultimately bonkers final act.
Although four of the girls are having the times of their lives in the desert, Helena Howard’s Amber struggles. After some initial partying, the film begins with an uncomfortable rape scene that scars Amber, especially as she felt abandoned by her dear friends in a time of need. From then on, Amber remains unsettled and particularly aware of any potential threats. Unfortuantley, Amber’s often well-founded concerns are often dismissed as paranoia by her friends, which adds another layer of discomfort to an already uncomfortable movie. Pakzad interestingly plays with the idea of internalized misogyny here in showing that, even among the closest friends, trouble believing in women persists.
After trotting long for much of its runtime, Find Your Friends picks up in its final act. At last, the film becomes more than a party movie with plot developments that raise the stakes for everyone involved. Eventually, these stakes culminate in one of the crazier we’ve seen in recent years. To call the conclusion satisfying may be a mischaracterization, although there is certainly some wish fulfillment at play.
VERDICT: 6/10
Find Your Friends blends Spring Breakers and The Hills Have Eyes for a refreshingly unafraid party-turned-horror movie. Featuring candid, vulgar conversations and women engaging in all sorts of ‘bad behavior’ that would be regularly forgiven in men, writer/director Izabel Pakzad’s first feature excels in its unabashedly open, honest portrayal of women, which is bolstered by five natural performances from Helena Howard, Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, Sophia Ali, and Zión Moreno. While refreshing in its nonjudgmental approach to female characters, Find Your Friends finds itself meandering for much of its runtime, plodding along from one party scene to the next with little narrative development. Eventually, the film’s explorations of internalized misogyny come to fruition in a finale that ranks among the crazier we’ve seen in recent years. Izabel Pakzad announces themselves to the world with intimate filmmaking to portray realistic and deeply believable characters. Although their first movie stumbles with its pacing, it is clear that an artist of genuine craft helmed Find Your Friends.