There have been movies about characters trying to overcome their addictions for decades. It seems like at the turn of the century, stories about hard partying young people trying to fight their inner demons became even more popular. Find Your Friends sounds like another indie film with a female lead who wants to do more with her life than just get drunk and high. Amber (Helena Howard, I Saw the TV Glow) and her friends head out to Joshua Tree for the annual girls’ trip. It is all about positive vibes and healing. While there, they encounter hostility from a group of local men.
On the surface, it feels like Find Your Friends is going to be a story about female empowerment. After a traumatizing opening scene, the group talk about the comically awful experiences they have had with men. This is an ongoing theme throughout the film. Every encounter they have with males is a negative one.
Unfortunately, the writing is never able to tie it all together. While the majority of guys the friends meet are awful, most feel forced. Chris Bauer (The Wire) ends up being nothing more than a grumpy neighbor, while a musician Amber starts kissing before pushing him away never does anything clearly bad. (There is the possibility that he is taking advantage of the situation, but the movie never makes it clear if this is the case.)
The end result is that the very real incident in the beginning ends up feeling trivial. Find Your Friends constantly goes back to it as the inciting incident, but this goes against the film’s own writing since Amber was bothered beforehand. It feels like writer Izabel Pakzad (The Deuce) came up with the admittedly gruesome ending but had trouble finding a way to get to it. And the characters and some very serious themes end up suffering because of it.
Find Your Friends premieres on Shudder June 12.
