We use essential cookies to keep OyList working. With your permission, Google Analytics cookies help us count visits and understand which pages are useful.
Ferris Bueller can organise an unforgettable day out, provided Cameron supplies the anxiety and his father's Ferrari. Persuasion keeps sliding into pressure, which is less charming when you imagine being the friend saying no. He does offer to take responsibility when the car plan collapses, so the affection is earned. Still, a mate who treats your boundaries as the first obstacle in his adventure needs a quieter hobby.
Tony Stark gives Rhodey the sort of friendship that occasionally requires a military press conference to explain it. In this first film, Tony's secret flight forces his friend to cover for him before the wider consequences are settled. His change of purpose is real, and so is the courage. The exhausting part is being expected to turn a brilliant man's surprise decision into everybody else's workable plan.
Captain Jack Sparrow makes teamwork feel like a contract whose small print keeps moving. Will wants to rescue Elizabeth; Jack also wants his ship back, and he is rarely in a hurry to disclose every part of his thinking. The improvisation is terrific adventure entertainment. As a mate, though, he would have you checking whether your lift home had quietly become a bargaining chip. His genuine flashes of loyalty are welcome precisely because reliability is scarce.
Shaun's solution to a zombie emergency still involves getting everyone to the Winchester. That loyalty to a familiar pub is funny because it grows from the same rut already wearing down his relationships. He does become more resourceful and caring under pressure, so this is a roast of the habits he has to outgrow. You could trust him to know your usual order; persuading him to help build a different sort of evening might take an apocalypse.
Annie Walker turns a best friend's wedding into an unofficial competition for Most Important Friend. The engagement-party speech duel with Helen is hilarious to watch and a useful reminder to keep the microphone moving. Her money worries and fear of being replaced make the behaviour understandable, rather than harmless. The film leaves room for repair, but Lillian should not have to prove their friendship by managing Annie's entire emotional guest list.
Rob Gordon has excellent material for a late-night music conversation and a worrying ability to make every subject loop back to his romantic grievances. His top-five-breakup audit turns other people into supporting evidence in the case of Poor Rob. The film knows he needs to grow up; the joke is not that caring about records makes someone difficult. It is that ranking feelings is much easier for him than listening to the people having them.
Cher Horowitz would arrive with a spare outfit, a social plan and firm views about whom you should date. Tai's makeover shows how easily her generous impulse becomes a project in which Cher supplies both the help and the definition of improvement. She is capable of learning, which keeps the teasing affectionate. Until then, brunch comes with action points, and being accepted as you are seems to require an appointment.
Scott Pilgrim can face a spectacular boss battle more readily than an honest conversation about the girlfriend he has not properly left. Knives is treated as a problem to postpone while he pursues Ramona, leaving the people around him to supply the emotional administration. The arcade exaggeration makes his romantic self-absorption entertaining, and the film does challenge it. A friend should not need an extra life just to persuade you to apologise.
Dewey Finn repays Ned's patience by impersonating him to take a teaching job. There is borrowing a mate's charger, and there is borrowing his employability. Dewey's enthusiasm eventually helps the children find their own strengths, which is why the film remains so joyful. That growth does not make the original favour reasonable. Enjoy the jam session, but do not let him answer your work calls.
This Batman insists he works alone while Alfred keeps his life running and Robin tries very hard to become part of it. His commitment to the solitary-hero image makes accepting affection look more threatening than another villain attack. The brick-built absurdity is the point, and learning to need other people is his story. Early on, he is the mate who would post a heroic group photo, crop everyone else out and call it personal branding.
Peter Quill introduces himself as Star-Lord and then has to deal with the room not supplying the expected recognition. The self-appointed legend is part of his charm, but the first film also begins with a thief whose plans are chiefly about his own payday. Becoming part of a team asks him to change that. He would bring a brilliant playlist to the trip; you might spend the first hour reassuring him that everyone had heard the introduction.
Early Phil Connors treats his producer, cameraman and temporary home as indignities an important man should not have to endure. Repeating the day initially gives him more chances to pursue his own wants, rather than more interest in anyone else's. The fantasy becomes moving because that outlook can change. This entry concerns the Phil who needs the lesson, the mate who would review your hometown before learning your neighbours' names.
