Psycho BFF (2019 Lifetime)

Psycho BFF (2019 Lifetime)

Cast: Juliana Destefano, Alexandra Doke, Kate Watson

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

When Renee’s (Watson) shy teenage daughter Deandra (Destefano) finally makes a friend, Olivia (Doke), she is thrilled. After Olivia’s initial bossiness turns into emotional abuse, Renee forbids the relationship from continuing, prompting the girls to run away together. Renee embarks on a desperate search for her daughter, before she’s gone for good

Thoughts

Sinister music plays as two girls with middle parts cross over a bridge crying and fighting. The lighter brown haired girl, named Olivia, goes off when her friend tells her that she never trusted her. Olivia grabs the girls by the shoulders and pushers off the edge. Realizing what she just did, she recoils in horror. Then she looks over the edge to see her friend dead.

Deandra is super sassy and talkative, her poor mother. The mother’s name is Renee, and she is a nurse who is divorced. They have recently relocated to town. Deandra got kicked out of her last school for writing an expose on the principal having a threesome with some teachers? (Can we see that movie?)

At her new school, Deandra gets bullied by some vapid popular materialistic girls. Their insults? “Dial-up phone, for a dial-up girl.” IT DOESN’T EVENT MAKE SENSE. Deandra does make a new friend Olivia. (Who is now goth.) They read poems that they are working on. She can’t stop writing, and it gets her in trouble tho!

Deandra joins the writing club and gets partnered up with the vapid materialistic girl; her name is Adele. Adele is in the writing club (but hates writing?) and tells Deandra to write the story for them, and she will “punch it up.” Deandra doesn’t want to but can’t be called “Dial-Up” forever and writes the paper. When she tries to give the assignment to Adele, she bumps into her spilling juice on her ugly pink sweater set. Adele yells at Deandra, but Olivia comes over and stops the who things by talking about the first amendment and being creepy.

After getting hit on by the school, Janitor, Olivia, and Deandra spend time together. They move traffic signs, sit on the quad, eat churros, and bread while laughing. A song about being best friends plays as the montage shows them becoming BFF’s. At the end of the montage, Olivia tells Deandra that she trusts her, which is a bad sign.

Next, we get some more inane bullying from Adele. A makeover montage happens at the mall! (in my dreams.) Really, they walk around a shopping center and touch clothing by talking about Deandra’s dad and how she wants to live with him in New York. Instead of buying clothes, they go into the dressing room and put on clothes to steal it. They get caught and taken to the police station.

At the police station, Olivia knows one of the guards and slips him some hush money. It is at this moment when Deandra should have realized that she should not keep being friends. Instead, they watch TV and laugh and laugh. Olivia goes to make popcorn and talks to Renee about her home life. She doesn’t trust her daughter’s new BFF. She is right not to trust them, Olivia and Deandra sneak out to a party.

The party scene happens, but the sound mixing was horrible, so I have no comments about this scene. (One note: Olivia throw bottles at Adele until she apologizes.)

After the party, Deandra sees Olivia’s hand is cut and calls her nurse mom. Olivia yells at her to hang up and says she can’t trust her anymore. Then, Olivia gets taken away by the police. They claim to “know what she did.”

I’m sooooo confused. The next day Olivia is giving Deandra the cold shoulder and is now BFF’s with Adele. (I do not miss high school.) Deandra tells her mom everything, and mamma bear goes over to Olivia’s house to confront them about being abusive. Her stepmother sets Renee straight. They aren’t violent and Olivia doesn’t even have a stepfather because her mother is dead.

Deandra and her mom decided not to switch schools, but agree that Olivia is most likely a liar. Deandra sees Olivia crying in the bathroom and feels sorry for her. Apparently, Olivia and Adele aren’t friends anymore, and Olivia hates everyone in the world except Deandra. Then Olivia starts breaking things in the bathroom with a wrench while admitting that she lied about her family and then opens up about her mother’s suicide.

Now BFF’s again, they plot revenge on Adele at the school assembly. While Deandra distracts the coach, Olivia uses her trusty wrench and loosens the bleachers. Adele falls off the bleachers and cries on the floor, a la Nancy Kerrigan. The gym coach and principle question Olivia and Adele with their parents. They both deny everything. Deandra is still expelled, and her mom is going to sue the school. (Haha.) Renee also bans Deandra from ever seeing Olivia again.

That is the exact opposite of what happens. Olivia and Deandra sneak out of the house with the destination of New York. (But, not before taking some boxes of Jello from the pantry.) The next morning Deandra’s alarm goes off, scaring Renee so bad that she drops a glass in the kitchen and throws the glass shards in the sink. She goes up to her daughter’s room and realizes that she is gone.

Renee, again, goes to Olivia’s stepmom and tells her that the girls have runoff. Olivia stepmom shows Renee a shrine that Olivia made of Deandra. Renee asks if Olivia is always this obsessed, and is she in danger. The answer is YES!!!

The girls hitch a ride with a hot bald guy. Deandra doesn’t want to ride with a stranger, Olivia says she has an insurance plan.. A gun. They stop at a seedy motel. Deandra goes to get food, leaving Olivia, the weapon, and the bald man. (Who finds another male friend.) They party.

Renee is frantically driving while crying. She tracks Deandra’s phone and finds it on the side of the road. Then cries some more and shouts for Deandra to show her a sign. Then she gets a call from the sheriff and drives even more erratically while crying.

Olivia and Deandra get into some trouble when Deandra gets felt up unwillingly by the bald guy’s friend. They lock themselves in the bathroom as the boys try to break in. Olivia gets out her gun and tells Deandra that she is going to kill those boys, just like she killed her mom and Liberty. (The girl at the beginning of the movie.) Realizing she is in real trouble, Deandra texts her mom from Olivia’s phone and tells her where she is. (The cops would have been a better choice.)

Renee shows up with the police. Olivia tells them to step away from the door and shoots at them. Deandra convinces Olivia that she trusts her, and it just “you and me.” She emotionally manipulates her long enough to get the gun away from Olivia. Then the girls’ struggle and Olivia falls into the bathtub, out cold. (Not, it is an opportunity for a jump scare.) They fight some more, this time with the shower running! Deandra grabs Olivia by the head and bands her into the wall, this time really knocking her out.

Six months later, Deandra and Renee are back to their everyday lives. Deandra even has a new friend! Olivia is in a mental institution fixating on another brown-haired girl.

Side Note

Minority Report: Mr. Mather (A teacher and writing club advisor) & The Bald man’s friend. (Maybe Lilith, if she is LatinX she is white-passing.)

The actress who played Adele was super over the top and made stupid, stupid lines work. I loved her but also hated her.

Based on true events? (Bustle breaks that down for you here)

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Overall rating

🔪🔪🔪🔪 (4 Knives)

🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required)