Clocking in at 37 minutes (largely because the majority of the film’s script was either not filmed or the footage itself was lost), My Best Friend’s Birthday tells the story of …. well, it’s not easy to say exactly what it tells the story of.

Clarence (Quentin Tarantino) and Mickey (Craig Hamann)  are two pop culture-obsessed radio DJs.  Clarence tries to snort cocaine while on the air but it turns out to just be itching powder.  The two of them spend a good deal of time talking about the movies that they love.  There’s a scene where Clarence has a conversation with an older man (played by Allen Garfield, who was Tarantino’s acting teacher at the time) who appears to be some sort of exploitation filmmaker.  It’s not always easy to keep track of what Clarence and Mickey are doing, largely because the film’s soundtrack is noticeably muddy.  Mickey is dumped by his girlfriend, Pandora (Linda Kaye), right before his birthday.  (Mickey comes home to find Pandora gathering up all of her belongings.)  Clarence, looking to give his friend a birthday that will cheer him up, ends up hiring a sex worker named Misty Knight (Crystal Shaw), who got into the business after being inspired by Nancy Allen’s performance in Dressed To Kill.  Misty has a pimp named Clifford (Al Harrell).  Mickey keeps getting interrupted whenever he tries to take a shower.  The movie is full of scenes that are linked by everyone’s shared love of pop culture but it never really comes together as a truly coherent story.  Again, this could be because the film was meant to 70-80 minutes long but only 37 minutes appears to have been filmed.

It’s not a totally hopeless film.  Taken individually, the scenes are are generally blocked out well.  Director Quentin Tarantino, who was still working as a video store clerk when he and his friends attempted to make this movie, obviously had a good instinct for camera angels and editing even before he hit it big.  That said, the film is still undeniably amateurish.  The sound quality is terrible.  The actors, most of whom were not professionals, struggle with their dialogue.  Tarantino gave himself a big role and, to put it charitably, Tarantino has always been a better director than actor.  Not surprisingly, Allen Garfield does well in his fast-talking role and Tarantino himself is better in the Gardfield scenes that he is in the rest of the film.  Crystal Shaw is likable as Misty Knight, bringing some much needed energy to her scenes.

This is a film that one watches solely because of who directed it.  If the film has actually been completed, it would have been Tarantino’s first movie.  By most accounts, the film was shot over four years and, eventually, everyone got bored with it and moved on.  It’s perhaps for the best as My Best Friend’s Birthday, with its grainy black-and-white imagery and it sometimes forced humor, feels more like a Kevin Smith film than a Tarantino film.  (Or at least, that’s the feeling one gets from the surviving footage.  Clarence and Misty’s relationship is a lot like the relationship between Clarence and Alabama in True Romance so who knows where My Best Friend’s Birthday would have ended up going.)  That said, if you’re a fan of Tarantino, this film makes for an interesting watch.  It’s a chance to see Tarantino when he was young and still finding his voice.  It’s a project that doesn’t work but there’s enough hints of Tarantino’s talent to make it must-viewing for fans of his work.