Best Friends (1975)
Genre: Road Movie | Drama
Country: USA | Director: Noel Nosseck
Language: English | Subtitles: English (Optional, embedded in mkv file)
Aspect ratio: Widescreen 1.85:1 | Length: 83mn
Bdrip H264 Mkv – 1280×720 – 23.976fps – 1.61gb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072695/

Mature, stable Jesse, his nutty and impulsive longtime best friend Pat, Jesse’s caring fiancé Kathy, and Pat’s fragile gal pal Jo Ella all decide to embark on a cross country road trip in a Winnebago prior to facing the challenges of encroaching adulthood. Relationships between everyone become increasingly strained as things take a turn for the worse and the journey turns into a severely bum trip for everyone involved.

As the above plot synopsis alone suggests, this film sure ain’t your standard crude’n’sleazy Crown International Pictures drive-in exploitation fare. Granted, this feature does deliver the expected soft-core sex and tasty female nudity (Jo Ella does a wild impromptu tabletop striptease at a funky bar), but director Noel Nosseck and screenwriter Arnold Somkin focus more on low-key and incisive introspection rather than the usual seedy thrills.

The gradual pace and character-driven plot take a little getting use to, but thankfully this movie hits an appealingly mellow and laid-back distinctly 70’s groove early on and offers some poignant insights into the difficulty of growing up and facing responsibility. Moreover, there are quite a few bitter truths to be found in the tense and homoerotic friendship between Jesse and Pat. The acting from the attractive and personable young cast is uniformly strong, with Hatch in particular the stand-out among the bunch. Stephen M. Katz’s bright, sunny, sparkling cinematography makes exquisite occasional use of fades and dissolves. Rick Cunha’s catchy country-rock score likewise does the trick. An intriguing and ultimately pretty touching oddity.

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Best Friends (1975)