Besties (Movie Review)

Besties is a film by writer/director Rebecca Cutter that pushes the envelope of social acceptance and details the unlikely friendship of two young girls. The movie introduces viewers to the plain, simple girl next-door Sandy (Olivia Crocicchia) and her blonde bombshell neighbor Ashley. Ashley (Madison Riley) is the queen bee of their high school and Sandy has worshiped her most of her life. Ashley even use to babysit Sandy when they were younger which just impacted the relationship even more since Sandy saw her as an older girl to look up to.


As the girls got older, Sandy no longer needed a babysitter so she didn't have Ashley in her life anymore. However, Sandy's dad has to take a business trip and she sees the perfect opportunity to pull Ashley back into her life. While Sandy may be too old for a "so called" babysitter, she is still too young to be left completely alone. She decides it is the perfect time to ask Ashley in a jokingly manner if she would like to be her babysitter. Ashley finds the suggestion a little weird but sees the perfect opportunity to throw a party. Of course, Sandy automatically agrees to allow Ashley to invite some guests over if she accepts.

Sandy and Ashley have a great chemistry in the movie, but it is hard not too feel bad for Sandy throughout the course of the movie. Their relationship evolves and features many twists throughout the movie. Ashley is the life of the party with her boyfriend Chad attached to her hip while poor Sandy goes around the party cleaning up the nonstop mess. The cops soon bust up the party and Sandy finally gets her one-on-one time with Ashley. Not moments later Ashley's older ex-boyfriend, Justin, who is intoxicated and just out of jail shows up at the house. Ashley doesn't want anything to do with him so his advances soon shift to innocent, naive Sandy. This is when the movie gets completely uncomfortable to bear and really starts to make your skin crawl. It doesn't take long and Justin is being too forceful with Sandy and Ashley attempts to get him off her. The next few moments of the film happen so fast that within minutes Justin is dead on the floor. The fight scene and death of Justin is probably the highest point of the film and is eerily realistic.

What happens after this moment makes no sense no matter how you try to look at it. The teenagers never do call the cops and the way they go about getting rid of the body is ridiculous. You can contribute their actions to be young and stupid but even then you would think a little more common sense would be used. The movie slowly goes downhill after this as Ashley deals with the murder like it was nothing while it continuously weighs on Sandy's conscience. Ashley soon lets Sandy into her clique of the popular kids and they are soon doing everything together. Sandy continues to get more popular and even has to deal with the affections of Justin's younger brother Jay.

In the end, Besties is a decent thriller that has an amazing beginning full of drama, suspense and horror. Besties features superb writing and great acting, however, after the first act it slowly goes downhill and there just isn't much left in the manner of twists and turns to keep you going. Sandy ends up getting just what she wanted which was to be accepted and close to Ashley. Alternatively, she finds that getting what you want can sometimes come with consequences and now she has to live with the decisions that were made to get her there. Besties is mainly about the two teenage girl's relationship and the darkness that lingers in all of us for the ultimate need to be accepted and loved.

Score: 7 out of 10

Movie Information
Writer/Director: Rebecca Cutter
Release Date: January 2014
Genre: Thriller
Starring: Madison Riley, Olivia Crocicchia, Corin Nemec, Christopher Backus, and Jackie Debatin