Tribeca Festival 2024: “My Best Friend” - Short Film Review
Writer/director Elina Street’s My Best Friend is one of those deceptively heartbreaking short films. Its premise, two friends going on a mini staycation together, is simple and breezy. Its execution is divine. In a fleeting eighteen minutes, My Best Friend captures the intimacy of friendship and what happens when that blurry, platonic line is crossed.
Clara (Marie Zabukovec) and Léa (Lana Boy) are planning to spend the weekend together at Léa’s boss’ house. Clara is thankful for the escape because she’s going through a break-up that she’s definitely not yet over. Léa is also experiencing change with her boyfriend in the form of opening their relationship. Léa and Clara’s relationship will change forever after the two unexpectedly sleep together.
The friendship between Clara and Léa immediately feels natural. They have a quick way of speaking to one another, a lived-in sort of language that comes from knowing each other for many years. It’s always impressive when short films are able to convey so much depth and comfort in a relationship in such a limited amount of time. There’s a giddiness in their friendship that’s infectious. The viewer doesn’t even realize the inside jokes that Clara and Léa are laughing at, but there’s a smile on the faces of the audience anyway. This strong foundation has to exist in order for the weight of My Best Friend’s conflict to land.
courtesy of Tribeca
In a lot of queer friendships, the line between friends and something more is far blurrier. It’s not specific to this community though. My Best Friend feels personal and distinct, but it’s also universal in its specificity. It may sound counterintuitive, but the more honest a filmmaker is and the more they hyperfocus on a certain situation, the more general their work becomes. It’s not hard to find yourself in Clara and/or Léa. They’re warm and funny and messy, just like all of us watching.
My Best Friend is perfectly paced. Enough time is given to the introductions of the characters to show off what their friendship looks like. The build-up to the moment when the scales tip is smartly plotted. There are plenty of moments when their faces are near each other, when their bodies are intertwined, but in the moment before things change, they aren’t touching at all. Even the aftermath provides a solid amount of time to let the characters sort out what happens next, but one almost feels robbed when the film ends because there’s so much here that could flesh out a full-length film.
It’s endlessly fascinating that two people in the exact same moment will have entirely different experiences. That, of course, is the nature of human existence and what makes friendships and relationships endlessly messy. My Best Friend is a gorgeously executed examination of intimacy.
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