Freshman Friday – Film Review
A sheltered young man’s world is turned upside down by an array of colorful characters as he prepares for the first dance of his college journey. What happens at the Freshman Friday dance could affect his entire college career and maybe his life.
Robert X. Golphin’s Freshman Friday is definitely a commendable effort that could have been something truly great and memorable. Unfortunately, though, this comedy-drama feels extremely low-budget and not to its advantage. From the writing, directing, acting and even down to the editing, the movie feels amateur on so many levels.
Don’t get me wrong – I have seen plenty of student films that are truly excellent and have managed to blow me away. There are even some instances in which a short film made for next to nothing is better than a big Hollywood production. But Freshman Friday is certainly not one of those exceptions.
It’s an extremely short film clocking in at just eighty minutes which is definitely a disadvantage to the overall film because we really don’t get a strong sense of who our characters are. By the time the movie comes to a close, you won’t remember any of the characters and you definitely won’t care about them while in the moment either.
Courtesy of Slates Squared Entertainment
Jerrel O’Neal does do a decent enough job in the lead role of Spence and so do his supporting actors, but they feel saddled into a movie that has no meat on its bones. One of these days these actors will be in a great and interesting film, but sadly, Freshman Friday is not that type of movie.
To make matters worse, it’s a comedy with nothing really to laugh at. Its script feels extremely rushed the entire way and instead of trying to develop characters and make the audience feel for them and like them, the film constantly tries to be funny when in reality, the humor here is just dry. It is all surface-level stuff, sadly.
I’m sure Stephen Slates, who wrote the script for Freshman Friday, is a talented writer that is capable of greatness. It’s just that this movie was not the right type of movie to display that kind of talent. All in all, this movie was lacking in virtually every department. Hopefully, the team behind this comedy will go back to the drawing board and come up with a film that is truly hilarious and investing.
Freshman Friday suffers tremendously from an unfortunately unfunny script and a story that is never quite able to become truly interesting for its viewers to follow.
Overall Grade: F
MPAA Rating: N/A
Cast: Jerrel O’Neal, Marcus Nelson, Brian Mcknight Jr., Katie Koenig, Jarrett Matthews, Stephen Slates, Marcel Thompkins
Directed by: Robert X. Golphin
Distributed by: Slates Squared Entertainment
Release Date: October 13, 2020
Running Time: 80 minutes