Find Your Friends from first-time feature director Izabel Pakzad is a movie that you will not forget. That’s for sure. But, in the case of this film, that’s not necessarily a good thing. There are a lot of aspects about Find Your Friends that would ideally be wiped from the collective consciousness. But, at the very least, the fact that it sticks in your head, long after it’s over, means that it did what it set out to do.
What is Find Your Friends All About?
The movie follows a group of 5 college friends who are on vacation. While at a yacht party, Amber is left alone and is sexually assaulted. She bottles it up inside, and sets out with her friends to their next destination: a music festival in the desert. But, while there, the girls run into a group of no-good men who seek to take advantage of them. Isolated in the desert, the girls must band together despite their grievances with each other, to survive their vacation from hell.
What Films Can This Be Compared To?
Find Your Friends is like an eclectic blend of a few films. It shares a lot of the same DNA as Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, with its constant barrage of electronic music and hypnotic montages of debauchery. If Spring Breakers had been written & directed by a female, Find Your Friends is exactly what you would get. It also has the Gen Z quibbling & paranoia from Helina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies and the sun & blood-soaked thrills of Coralie Farget’s Revenge. It’s similar to all of these controversial films, for better and for worse.
Find Your Friends Has Alot On It’s Mind…
The movie has a lot more on its mind than just revenge porn, too. It tackles themes of consent, the toxic male gaze and the troubling complexities of friendship while heavy partying. But, while the movie seeks to be profound, it never quite hits the precipice of saying anything important. Yet, all of these themes were explored in Molly Manning Walker’s near-masterpiece How to Have Sex with much greater effect and nuance.
How is the Cast?
The talented cast of women in Find Your Friends add some credibility to the picture. Bella Thorne takes top-billing and an executive producer credit, although she is one of the more minor characters. It’s Helena Howard as Amber who plays the clear lead and she carries a lot of the film’s emotional weight. The baggage she is forced to carry after her assault is beautifully portrayed by the young actress.
Zion Moreno, who was my favorite part of HBO’s Gossip Girl, also ended up being my favorite character here, as well. Moreno is the real heart of Find Your Friends. But, Chloe Cherry, from Euphoria and Sophia Ali fare worse with much more thinly drawn characters.
Find Your Friends is a Bit of a Slog to Sit Through… Until the End
The real problem with this film though, is how long it takes to actually get going. Find Your Friends is less than 90 minutes long and the main conflict doesn’t really start until about 55 minutes in. I will say that once the film hits its stride in the last act, it is an incredibly tense thriller. But, for those first 55 minutes, it’s a slow build-up of monotonous substance use, partying and attempts at character building. At a point during the first few acts, the viewer might start to wander off wondering what the hell the point is. And there’s a really good chance, many will give up on the film entirely. Honestly, no one would blame them.
Furthermore, for those viewers who find “all men are toxic” storylines to be deplorable, this film is definitely not for you. Because there is not a single redeeming male character here. And that’s unfortunate, because Pakzad could’ve still made the points she wanted to make, without having every single man in her movie be a complete abomination.
The Final Verdict
Yet, for the last 30 minutes of Find Your Friends it is an excellent exercise in adrenaline-fueled depravity. And it contains one of the most brutal, horrifying acts of violence I have ever witnessed in cinema. One could only wish that writer/director Izabel Pakzad could have found her momentum earlier on in the film. If so, this could have been something pretty special. Still, I have to hesitantly recommend Find Your Friends for its riveting final act and memorability.
Find Your Friends is Streaming Now on SHUDDER.
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