Bosom Friends: Animal antics or just old-school weirdness?

Is it worth your time?

If you like watching old black-and-white footage of a cat licking a dog’s ear for three minutes straight, then yeah, sure. This isn't a movie you watch for a plot. It’s something you put on when you want to feel like you’re sitting in a dusty attic looking at someone’s forgotten reel of 16mm film.

If you need dialogue, character arcs, or anything resembling a coherent story, you are going to absolutely hate this. It’s slow. It’s repetitive. It’s exactly the kind of thing that makes you want to check your phone every thirty seconds.

There’s this one part where a lion cub and a dog are just sort of sitting there. They aren't doing anything. The camera just stays on them. It’s almost like the cameraman forgot he was recording. It feels awkwardly long, but also kind of peaceful?

Honestly, the whole thing feels like a fever dream from the 1930s. It’s not quite as energetic as Scrappy's Party, which at least had the decency to be a cartoon.

The vibe is just... strange.

The film tries to sell this idea of "species-transcending tolerance," but mostly it just looks like someone had a lot of animals in a backyard and a very patient camera operator. I found myself wondering if they were actually friends or if the animals were just bored enough to tolerate each other.

Some of the monkeys look pretty stressed, to be honest. It’s not exactly the heart-warming vibe the title implies. It’s more of a 'please let me out of this enclosure' vibe.

• That monkey is definitely plotting an escape.
• The music choice is... a lot.
• I’m pretty sure the cat was just hungry.

It’s not as dramatic as the stuff you’d see in Fighting for Justice, obviously. But there’s a weird, hypnotic quality to watching a dog and a cat share a bowl. It’s the kind of movie that makes you think about how weird it is that we even film animals like this. It’s a bit unsettling when you really stare at it.

I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. I wouldn't even call it a good documentary. But it exists. And for about twenty minutes, I watched a kitten climb over a very confused-looking bulldog. So, mission accomplished, I guess? 🐾