02/07/2023 - Candy Guard, creator of Channel 4’s famous Pond Life, returns with a new, short, animated film, exposing the true colours of a long-term friendship with the help of classic British banter

Are we always honest with our best friends? What do we say behind their backs? London-based cartoonist Candy Guard sheds light on these issues in her four-minute film She’s My Best Friend (and I Hate Her). In 1964, The Beatles sang "And I Love Her", praising the virtues of a loved one. Impishly, with a touch of bittersweet British humour, Guard delivers a twisted take on great friendships, exploring moments of failure which can lead to surprising conclusions.

Two friends, June and Molly, plan to meet at Wolverhampton train-station, but neither can find the other. This situation sees the pair musing on the past and analysing their years of friendship. Pandora’s box opens and the viewer discovers all the negative sides of their relationship, ranging from blunders vis-à-vis a particularly sensitive situation to jealousy, pure and simple.

Bold complaints issued from both sides rattle in our ears as the women are finally able to speak their minds without risk of offending one another. But they have been friends for as long as they can remember, sharing many life-events, and they both have sharp tongues and strong personalities, characteristics which do not exactly make life easy for anyone. In colourful surroundings, the director offers up many ways to interpret the storyline and to draw conclusions from the plot’s ups and downs, which can be applied to daily life.

Guard is known for her distinctive drawing style, often depicting wobbly-looking women by means of simple lines. This economical approach also features in She’s My Best Friend (and I Hate Her), allowing the plot to take the lead whilst lending a playful mood to the overall work. Another tendency of the writer-director is to offer up a blunt but insightful interpretation of women’s daily frustrations, notably in her Channel 4 series Pond Life (1996-2000), portraying Dolly Pond's neuroses.

Her latest film corresponds to that same style of storytelling. It gives us frustrated characters and amusing banter, bringing to mind beloved British comedies about working-class life, such as The Full Monty (1997). But Guard also manages to incorporate universal messages about friendships - especially between middle-aged women - into this brisk but brutally honest film.