Tribeca Review: ‘Adult Best Friends’ is an Extremely Entertaining Story of Growing Up

Friendships that last a lifetime have to sustain a lot of challenges, since it can be hard to maintain relationships when people are at different stages of, or have yet to even begin to reach, adulthood. Getting a job, finding a partner, and having children are just a few formative moments that can lead to a reduction in shared schedules and interests, requiring far more effort from both parties to sustain what used to much more easily just be. Adult Best Friends follows two individuals whose lives are on different paths and whose bond is tested in a new way that threatens to throw everything into chaos.

Katie (Katie Corwin) is delighted and surprised when her boyfriend John (Mason Gooding) proposes, and when she mentions how her best friend Delaney (Delaney Buffett) must have had such a hard time keeping it a secret, John confirms that he didn’t tell her. His decision comes with good reason, since Delaney has never expressed much affinity towards the man who is dating her best friend, and Katie realizes that she’s going to need to adequately prepare Delaney for this big news if there’s any hope of their friendship surviving this life-altering development.

This film is especially fun because it comes from a script by Buffett, who also directs, and Corwin. They’re playing characters with the same names and bring an authenticity from their real-life friendship to the roles. Their personalities are surely exaggerated, particularly Delaney’s, since she expresses such a disdain for all mature-seeming institutions that it feels like she couldn’t possibly exist in the real world and be taken seriously by anyone else. Yet in this fictionalized comedy setting, she’s a fantastic protagonist whose sardonic comments prove endlessly amusing and who feels like the kind of person who could be friends with – if not all that much like – Katie.

This is the kind of film where situations emerge that could likely be entirely avoided with just a bit of direct and transparent communication, but that’s part of the enjoyment of it all, since Katie and Delaney’s friendship is built on a foundation of past experiences is and basing their interactions on what they know about each other. For Katie, that means not pushing Delaney into something without warning, while Delaney has to accept that there are certain behaviors and activities that she’s never going to like doing with her friend.

The weekend getaway that Katie plans for the two of them so that she can break the news is full of comedic mishaps, and, throughout all the antics, it’s watching the two friends together that’s most rewarding and worthwhile. The supporting cast does shine too, including Cazzie David as Delaney’s brutally negative roommate and Zachary Quinto as Katie’s less-than-sensitive brother, but it’s all about Corwin and Buffett, who know just how to write for themselves and how to make their words all the more effective through their portrayals.

All audiences should be able to see some of themselves in this film, which never overcomplicates its setup but instead adds new wrenches to what should be a simple transmission of information to make it all the more unlikely and create new layers of context. Flirtations with other men and an obnoxiously intrusive vacation rental host come ready to derail what should be a last hurrah celebration of friendship, and this film makes full use of typical comedy conventions and mixes in just enough creative flavor to make it feel fresh and keep it funny. Corwin and Buffett truly are a dynamic duo, and this collaboration absolutely should lead to other such projects together.

Movie Rating: 8/10

Awards Buzz: This comedy is likely too under-the-radar to command any awards attention, but if the right distributor picks it up, it should delight whatever audiences are lucky enough to see it.