Exploring the power of teenage friendships, grief, and finding yourself within your youth, Not Friends demonstrates the incredible importance of support and connection when trying to realise who you are meant to be. 

Pae, a young man struggling with finding himself in the ever-changing world of being a teenager, realises early on that due to his lack of high academic standings, he will be forced to work at his father’s factory after high school graduation. That is, however, until he learns about an easier way to get to university – making a short film about loss that shows he is meant to attend film school. Now, has Pae ever actually made a short film? Of course not, and his lack of imagination skills isn’t going to get him far, either. That is until he realises that the recent loss of his classmate, Joe, and Joe’s award-winning short story is the ticket to making it out and finally leaving this world where he feels so alone. 

What comes next is building connections with his crewmates while trying to hide the fact that he never really had a good relationship with the so-called “best friend” of this story. This means building relationships with people who called Joe a close friend and sharing heart-breaking secrets from those still around to tell their story and those who have lost their chance to rewrite it. 

Overall, this coming-of-age piece will pull on your heartstrings and make you laugh. It will also make you reminisce about the good old days when high school-level problems were at the forefront of your brain waves. It teaches us the power of holding one another close while we still have the chance to try to be honest with ourselves as we continue to adapt and grow into our authentic selves.