'A Weird Kind of Beautiful' Review: Finds Grace in Grime and Grief
- Romey Norton
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
By Romey Norton - April 16, 2025
There’s something fittingly ironic about a film titled A Weird Kind of Beautiful opening with a funeral. But that’s exactly the tonal tightrope director Gabriel Mayo walks in his feature debut, which had its world premiere at this year’s Miami Film Festival. Don’t let the lo-fi charm and boozy banter fool you: beneath its indie grit lies a surprisingly tender meditation on memory, missteps, and the fragile scaffolding of friendship. It’s both cathartic and chaotic, and makes for an excellent watch.
Set mostly over the course of a single, emotionally messy night, A Weird Kind of Beautiful brings together a cast of likable misfits reeling from the death of their mutual friend. The premise is simple: drinks flow, stories unravel, and old wounds are ripped open when a long-lost friend crashes the wake after eight years of radio silence. The group is forced to confront not only what drove them apart, but also what might still hold them together.
The film begins with home-movie style footage, with montages from friends travelling together and one girl saying “Hi, and welcome to David’s life”. The footage is everything from drunk dancing, to pulling faces in the mirror, all is wholesome. Then audiences are quickly thrown into an argument after David's funeral.
Gabriel Mayo’s direction feels lived-in and intimate. He doesn’t rush the drama or overplay the sentimentality. Instead, he leans into awkward silences, whiskey-soaked laughter, and the kind of tension that only exists between people who know exactly how to hurt each other.
The filming style flits between being fly-on-the-wall documentary style and traditional filming. It’s clever - at times I felt privy to conversations I shouldn’t and felt like the awkward person in the room. There’s some excellent conflict throughout this film through the intense dialogue. It’s snappy, and feels authentic. It wouldn’t surprise me if these are based on real conversations or the cast were allowed to improv and bring out the worst and best in their characters.
There’s an easy chemistry between the whole cast that sells the history of the group, and why you’ll be compelled as a viewer. The film is shot predominantly in one location, outside in a back garden of someone's house, helping keep the group in a tight, intimate setting where the pressure can build and the conversations explode.
What I really like about this indie film is that It’s not trying to reinvent the genre, just to dig into something real. And it succeeds. A Weird Kind of Beautiful is, well, just that — a little rough around the edges, often messy, but honest and strangely comforting. It’s a eulogy for friendships that don’t always survive adulthood, and a love letter to the ones that do, if just barely. Those toxic friendships you can’t let go of - this film shows you why.
Want more honest, in-depth takes on emerging indie films and festival favourites? Keep reading at Film Focus Online, where cinema is always in focus
A Weird Kind of Beautiful had its world premiere at Miami Film Festival 2025
Want more film reviews? Check out more content on our website Film Focus Online!
