WFG RATING: B

A Goodwork Entertainment film. Written, lensed, and directed by Truman Kawley. Produced by Ryan Hoang. Edited by Truman Kewley and Michael Kewley.

Stars Adam Jones and Alexandrea Meyer

An unhinged young man goes to great and potentially dangerous lengths to find a cure for his loneliness in this sometimes intense thriller from filmmaker Truman Kewley.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, incel Daniel is extremely lonely. Feeling women don’t respect him and always rebuff him, he’s in a world where he’s alone. He spends his time spying on random women from his van, making snide comments. Even attempts to offer help have become futile. It gets to a point where he can’t take it anymore. He decides he will find a cure for his loneliness and finds it when he approaches a woman and kidnaps her 

Taking her to the desert first, he brings her out and forces himself on her before taking her to his home, where he has her chained to a room. There, Daniel decides to make a video about this new “relationship” and finding no other choice, the young woman, Madison, begins to warm up to him. However, the guilt of his actions slowly begins to eat away at Daniel. Will he find it in his heart to finally do the right thing or wll something dangerous await for Madison?

This film is quite a very intense thriller that meshes somewhat with an erotic drama that attempts to humanize a very dangerous person whose loneliness is the trigger that causes him to do what he does. What Truman Kewley does is give the point-of-view of the incel, Daniel, played by a really good Adam Jones. We see him stalking women, making comments on either them or in the case of one lady, her husband. He hides out in his van and from his equipment, looks to be somewhat of an aspiring filmmaker.

Aside from Jones, kudos goes out to Alexandrea Meyer as Madison, the young woman who becomes Daniel’s target and victim. She shows a range of emotions throughout her screen time. She is especially scared and in the very intense and disturbing rape scene, we see she has this mindset of “just let him get it over with” out of fear of death. 

However, as we see Daniel’s guilt getting the best of him slowly, we also see a shift in Madison as she slowly begins to warm up to him as if she is understanding of why he kidnapped her. Perhaps it was a means to find his weakness and take advantage of it. Or, it could be that she is genuine about her feelings. One thing is for sure, the final scene is one that is totally unexpected and made my jaw drop. 

Beautiful Friend is disturbing and intense and will not whet everyone’s appetites. Kewley’s attempt to humanize a man whose actions are inexcusable seems like a slow burn, but thanks to the performances of Adam Jones and Alexandrea Meyer, it does feel good to wait until the jaw-dropping finale. 

The film is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.