Review: ‘Find Your Friends’ parties hard—and then crashes out

Bella Thorne doesn’t get enough credit as an actor. In last year’s Saint Clare, the starlet delivered one of her best performances to date, wrapping herself in themes of trauma, retribution, and morality. Find Your Friends, directed by Izabel Pakzad, sees Thorne doubling down in a similar fashion for an equally gripping performance in a story about what it means to be a woman moving in the world and how, when all is said and done, men are always the problem. Pakzad’s script feels lived-in, engaging with millennial and Gen Z culture that feels real and true. There’s no contrived “how do you do, fellow kids?” slang, or even the notion that the characters are anything but who they are. Find Your Friends is as horny as it is devastating; its swift genre-split feels earned, quickly raising the stakes with shock and awe.

A group of friends—Amber (Helena Howard), Lavinia (Thorne), Zosia (Zión Moreno), Lola (Chloe Cherry), and Maddy (Sophia Ali)—crash a yacht party. They’re looking for some fun, and maybe a little hooking up, with some of the cuties on board. They throw back some shots, talk about smashing hotties, and bask in the summer day heat. Amber catches the eye of one of the partygoers, and when they start making out hardcore, the room quickly clears out. But being alone is far from what Amber wanted. A tragic incident sends Amber careening out of control, leading to the group being kicked off the ship.

That’s just the beginning of the girls’ misfortunes. Once they get to the desert, they party some more—but not for long. A group of savage men stalks, taunts, and brutally attacks them. Find Your Friends shifts on its axis from boozy party flick to dark and feral thriller, plunging the audience into an unexpected and horrifying tale about the reality of womanhood. The young women fight for their lives in ways they never even dreamed of.

Izabel Pakzad profoundly understands genre, particularly revenge, where women are abhorrently betrayed and learn that the only ones saving them are themselves. Find Your Friends plays with your expectations, reworking reliable conventions for something bold, brash, and unapologetic. The entire cast, from Thorne to Howard, digs their heels into the material as though their lives depend on it. Because they do. Every day, women try to live their lives without the interference of the pathetic male ego and violent hatred, only to come up exhausted, deflated, and hopeless.

Pakzad also explores the fracturing and splintering of women’s relationships with a newly-sharpened scalpel. Amber increasingly feels isolated, and her friendship with Lavinia breaks apart, distance widening their emotional disconnect as each second passes. Find Your Friends might appear as a vapid attempt at deeply cutting social commentary, but peel back the layers, and you’ll find something more insightful boiling underneath.

Find Your Friends hits Shudder this Friday (June 12).