REVIEW: “That Friend” Descends Upon Athens Film Festival
That Friend, directed by Will Sterling and Alex Wall, made its Georgia premiere as the closing night film of the Athens Film Festival on Aug. 29, following its premiere at Tribeca in June
Many movies, and especially many independent movies, can be difficult to sell.
That Friend however, sells itself. All that an audience member needs to see is this indelible promotional image of actors Josh Brener, Harvey Guillén, and Billie Lourd, and the premise immediately becomes not only clear, but identifiable, relatable.
If you needed further context, however, you would not need to look any further than the Athens Film Festival press notes, where That Friend had its Georgia premiere on Aug. 29 (following its debut at Tribeca in June):
“All Henry wanted was a romantic weekend away in Palm Springs with his new girlfriend, Penny, and to take their relationship to the next level. But Henry’s idyllic getaway turns into a fever dream when his party animal best friend, Paul, crashes the trip.”
We all have “that friend.” That one excitable person that exudes the wonderment of seemingly infinite possibilities, only to leave a path of destruction in their wake.
“The one who begs you to come out for ‘one drink,’ and next thing you know you’re drunk on a weeknight, swaying in your kitchen eating dry Top Ramen out of the bag and wishing you hadn’t just sent that text.”
In the case of That Friend, this sense of destruction proves both emotional and literal, when Paul catalyzes the drama through the key mistake of inadvertently allowing his drug-laced cigarettes to wind up in the hands of a stranger.
That Friend proves itself to be a laugh riot from start to finish, lighting up the audience with a clever mix of slapstick comedy and references, whilst maintaining a palpable beating heart and true affection for its characters, even for Guillén’s often less-than-desirable Paul.
This precise tonal balance and care for their characters is the result of a years-long collaboration between co-writers and directors Will Sterling and Alex Wall, as well as producer Ryan Tillotson.
The trio met at California State University in Long Beach, CA, in 2008, and the conversation regarding potential creative projects never let up. They always envisioned collaborating on a feature film but were not sure what the story would be, until an unlikely course of events set That Friend into motion.
“I am in a fantasy football league with other writers,” Wall said in a Q&A moderated by Withdrawal filmmaker Aaron Strand. “And if you lose the league, you have to write a 15-page script… I lost the league.”
Wall stipulated that in addition to writing the 15-page script, the loser must also present their work in a feedback session. One further stipulation: one can only receive negative feedback during this session.
In 2021, after finishing in last place in his fantasy league, Wall serendipitously wrote the early inklings of what would later become That Friend.
After presenting his work and being ravaged in return, he did not have any expectations of taking the project any further. Yet, one writer friend (who was present, despite not even being in the league, funnily enough) was bold enough to offer positive feedback, that being Will Sterling.
Over the next few years, Sterling and Wall constantly re-worked the script, in tandem with Tillotson attempting to secure financing.
“In writing, and even as a performer, too, I just want to get a laugh out of Alex,” Sterling said. “A lot of our writing is just us blurting out ideas and improvising back and forth. If it gets a laugh, or we’re laughing about it, it goes on the page.”
This infectious energy and sense of spontaneity courses through every scene of That Friend, which is rendered all the more surprising given both the common and uncommon independent filmmaking challenges that this team found themselves facing.
One specific challenge cited by all was the rather unpredictable Palm Springs weather (in December, mind you) amidst a very tight shooting schedule of 12.5 days.
“We only could have shot the film [this quickly] if we were all this close,” Tillotson said. “All the key players, from our script supervisor, to our two camera operators, to our director of photography, are all people we were very close with, and I think it was the only way we could have pulled this off.”
Another challenge was the figurative musical chairs of the casting process, where name actors constantly seemed to attach and un-attach themselves as the project slowly and steadily accrued its $300,000 budget. At one point, Guillén even considered playing the role of Henry.
Despite these challenges, Tillotson was confident that the film would get made and confident in his creative partners to make the film on any budget level with any set of actors.
“We were prepared to make the movie at different budgetary levels, including $50,000 at one point,” Tillotson said. “We really took our time to figure out how to do this the right way, and it took all sorts of different shapes and forms in the process.”
After seeing That Friend, it’s difficult to imagine the movie in any of those other shapes or forms, or much less starring a different trio of actors, and the enthusiastic reaction from the Athens audience would substantiate this.
While That Friend remained the artistic white whale for Sterling, Wall and Tillotson for so long, the trio have their sights set on a whole slew of forthcoming projects. These include another comedy to be co-written/directed by Wall and Sterling, a project directed by Wall and produced by Tillotson, as well as Sterling’s own solo directorial work, including his wonderful meta comedy “A Cell Phone Movie” (which played at the 2025 Athens Film Festival) and an upcoming feature currently in post-production.
In a hilarious full-circle moment, Wall’s same fantasy football league held their 2026 draft the very same day as the Athens screening of That Friend. Wall joked about leaving his draft picks for the season up to random automation (writer’s note: Wall may find himself having to write another script).
