The Friend plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be coming soon. (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: Building on an odd, opening concern of “What will happen to the dog?,” we explore the story of a NYC professional writer (although she’s hitting a block now in pursuit of a novel) and university writing teacher, Iris (Naomi Watts), who was once a student of/short-term lover with/now close friend to notably-more-successful author Walter (Bill Murray), so when he stops teaching, then dies by suicide (early in the film, but he does appear in several flashbacks) she works with his daughter, Val (Sarah Pidgeon), to compile a volume of his correspondences (helped when Val’s friend is able to hack into Walter’s antiquated computer). However, she’s then called upon by Walter’s widow (1 of 3 former spouses), Barbara (Noma Dumezweni), to give a new home to Walter’s beloved huge Great Dane, Apollo (Bing), because this last wife has no interest in the dog while Walter considered Iris to be almost-closer to him than anyone else (not quite sure how Barbara factors into that equation) with the animal now in deep mourning for his former master, an offer Iris tries unsuccessfully to refuse with a further problem when she brings the dog to her high-rise apartment building where she’s soon told by superintendent Hektor (Felix Solis) this dog can’t stay.
Iris simultaneously works with Val on the Walter project while trying to find another home for Apollo who’s taken command of her dwelling by plopping his body onto her bed, forcing her to sleep on the floor. Slowly, Apollo warms up to his new surroundings, begins to respond to Iris’ commands as Iris and the dog develop a better sense of connection. Through her searches for an acceptable place to take Apollo (Hektor makes it clear her time is short to get rid of the dog or he’ll be forced to send both of them away), finally finds a rescue operation in Michigan so he gets Apollo into her car, heads west. She doesn’t get too far, though, before she gets an alternative idea: If Apollo can be declared a necessary companion animal for her then the apartment owners can’t evict her. ⇒This leads to a quick meeting with Dr. Warren (Tom McCarthy) who goes through some therapeutic analysis with her, agrees to advocate for the salvation-designation for the dog, although he notes Apollo’s already getting old for a Great Dane, hard to say how much time he has left. At the finale, Iris and Apollo are at some countryside cabin getaway of hers when she sees him lying still by the lake shore, fearing he’s dead until he responds to her presence, allowing this sweet story to end on a happy note.⇐
SO WHAT? This film’s adapted from a 2018 novel (same name) by Sigrid Nunez, who won the 2028 National Book Award for Fiction; based on a summary (not the actual book, of course!), this screenplay (by McGehee and Siegel) mostly follows the novel, although the written version seems notably more downbeat (this link contains Spoilers so decide how much you might want to read). Obviously, I can’t say how easy the novel may be to get into, although this film does have a slow pace at first which finally begins to show some life when Iris finds herself so befuddled by trying to share her life with Apollo, whom she doesn’t want to send to a big-city-based animal shelter (where he’d have slim chances of being adopted) given his important connection to Walter. As odd as this narrative might seem—although there’s some good humor in it regarding the difficulty Iris has in trying to integrate this sad, massive dog into her life—it works in many aspects as the scenes of Iris with her writing class show her to be sincerely interested in nurturing the emerging talents of her students just as her determination to find strategies of co-existing with Apollo make it clear she wants to find some means of connecting with the dog for his own sake, not just because he was so important to Walter. And, while there’s no intention here (as I see it) of trying to convince us Apollo is standing in for Walter as the close friend she’s lost through his tragic departure, she comes to love the dog for his own existence despite what an imposition such a massive beast makes upon her life.
(I live in a large condo complex where I often see neighbors walking large dogs, amazed at how these big animals can be comfortable in a home likely the size of my 1,064 sq., but then I realize what a bond these dogs and their owners must have to be able to live comfortably in our smaller surroundings—with the most heart-warming sight being one family who frequently brings their 3-legged pooch [lost the other leg to cancer] to the common grassy areas, carting the dog around in a wagon so he doesn’t have to navigate much.) Nina and I have never attempted to bring a dog into our home (when I see neighbors walking their dogs in the rain or at night I’m all the more thankful for our 2 cats and their litterboxes), but we’ve had many cats over the years, each one a tragedy for us when they’d die at roughly age 12—with the knowledge one of our current girls is already 9 so we hope she’ll endure for a few more years—who truly have become like children for us, so we could fully relate to how Apollo became such a sincere friend for Iris, without the presentation becoming a sloppy sob story. Watts and Murray are marvelous in their roles, just as the whole (mostly) low-key experience is such a pleasure to watch once you become fully invested in it, which I'll hope you will.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: The Friend opened on March 28, 2025 in domestic (U,S.-Canada) theaters, was showing at its height in 1,237 of them but now is down to just 67 (so far it’s made a mere $3.8 million at the box-office, plus about $29 thousand in worldwide markets, not a big splash when compared to current ticket-selling heavyweights [which I care little for] such as Thunderbolts [Jake Schreier] or A Minecraft Movie [Jared Hess]), so your best bet to find it is through streaming where it rents for a mere $9.99 from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+, which the CCAC encourages you to do as the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are at 84%, the Metacritic average score is 70%; I certainly support their “friendly” responses, think you’d find this film well worth your time to enjoy. In agreement is the Associated Press’ Lindsey Bahr: “It’s also one of those movies people complain they don’t make anymore, although its existence is a reminder that they do still make ‘them,’ meaning smart, emotionally authentic stories about people who seem real. They just might require a little more effort to find than they used to.” Of course, as Mr. Nelson said earlier in this posting, “You can’t please everyone,” as evidenced by Marshall Shaffer of Slant: “Hardly a false note is sounded throughout The Friend, but it operates within such a limited emotional range that it drifts into monotonic plainsong. McGehee and Siegel let in a few moments of levity with Bing’s antics, but these never rise above a chuckle when the humor could easily go for belly laughs without compromising the story’s rueful core. The tidiness of The Friend increasingly plays as timidity across the two-hour runtime.” I can’t say I fully agree with Shaffer, but in case a “doggone” tear-jerker isn’t your pleasure I wanted you to be properly alerted.
To bring all of this to a close, I’ll turn to my usual tactic of a Musical Metaphor, this time a very appropriate song, “You’ve Got a Friend,” written by Carole King, included on her marvelous 1971 Tapestry album but also a hit that year for her friend, James Taylor, who put it on his 1971 Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon album, so the version I’ll share with you is the 2 of them in duet that comes from their 2010 return to the L.A. Troubadour club, where their early careers were partially formed, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ySNPb9punk. Way back in 1971 this song was honored with Grammy awards to Taylor for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and King for Song of the Year. It’s still a pleasure to hear today and meshes well with our time spent with Iris and Apollo as noted in lyrics like: “Now ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend / When people can be so cold? / They’ll hurt you and desert you / And take your soul if you let them / Oh, but don’t you let them.” I guess for full coverage here I should also have somehow brought in the Friends (NBC TV 1991-2004) sitcom, but despite parallel NYC settings I never found it nearly as funny or relatable as Seinfeld (NBC TV 1989-1998 [probably due to my older-generation connections—and inherent cynicism—to Jerry’s group]), which I’ve recorded about 100 episodes of for relief from Trump news, so I’ll hope, dear reader, we stay friends over whatever I may ramble on about in my future postings.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Some cinematic options for your intense, studied, curious consideration: (1) What's new on Netflix in May 2025; (2) What's new on Amazon Prime Video in May 2025; (3) What's new on Hulu in May 2025; (4) What's new on Disney+ in May 2025; (5) What's new on Max in May 2025; (6) IMDb Staff Picks for May 2025; and (7) IMDb's Five Things to Watch on the week of 5/5/2025.
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