A Blog About Friendship 🫂
Simon Kim’s film is three years in the making
blog.seventy // One of the most pleasantly surprising things about this season is the amount of story pitches we received for the magazine.
We couldn’t fit every guest contributor into this next issue—there were over one hundred and twenty submissions, after all. Still, we’re really proud to share that not only will the zine feature ten unique voices, but we’re also able to compensate each contributor for their work.
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Alright, on to today’s review, the fourth edition of Neighborhood Watch.
— NGL
P.S. Last blog, we introduced our next Creator Mag cover star. You can read it here.
Video: ‘a film about friendship’ (2025)
Creator: Simon Kim
Review by: Nate Graber-Lipperman
There's a scene in the movie Friendship (2025) where Tim Robinson's character, Craig, is wrestling with how to be a better friend. So he does what any of us would do: go to the back of a local cell phone store and take psychedelics via kissing a teenage drug dealer’s venomous toad.
I won't spoil what Craig sees in his vision.* I will say that he does not, in fact, find the answers he's searching for.
Plenty of ink has been spilled on the "male loneliness epidemic," a topic Tim Robinson’s movie loosely addresses. Yet the solutions seem pretty obvious—and right in front of us. It's never easy to make time and see our friends, but when we actually do show up for each other and stay involved in one another’s lives, we help keep our mental health in check (and even prevent chronic illnesses).
I was thinking about this while watching a different film about friendship, aptly titled a film about friendship. “Inevitably, the gravity of time will pull you apart,” creator Simon Kim narrates during the video’s opening.
He tells us how he went on a monthlong road trip out west with five high school friends in 2021. What followed was a spontaneous journey full of bits, hijinks, and lifelong memories—and Simon documented the entire thing.
The video that emerged went on to become “bigger than any of us could’ve imagined,” Simon says.** He continues to receive comments and DMs from viewers to this day; fans mention how the trip inspired them to push their buddies and plan similar adventures, too.
Nevertheless, three years after “Project West” concluded, Simon’s friend group rarely sees each other—if ever. They all attended different universities and chased unique career paths. Simon himself dropped out of college to pursue YouTube full time.
With most of the group set to start full-time jobs at the end of Summer 2024, they launched a group chat called “Project Europe.” Tracking down each member one by one is no small task; the last holdout, Chad, goes dark for several months, but finally books a flight the week before they head to Iceland.
Similar to the first video, Simon narrates this story with a vloggy feel. Cinematic shots mix with phone footage and well-placed memes. Specific scenes stand out: Late in the film, Simon sticks his head out the window of a moving train, the Swiss mountains splayed beautifully in the background. At another point, the group gets drunk at a local pub; Simon places a voice note and captions on screen as we hear (but don’t see) them stumble back to their hostel.
But the real magic is found within the friends’ intra-group dynamics. A couple of them get in an all-out pinecone war while hiking. One dude stops walking from place to place in favor of hopping around like a frog. Three of them write and sing a song to thank the owners of a döner kebab spot they frequent in Portugal.
Throughout the film, the group can’t stop making each other laugh. And as a viewer, it’s hard not to watch without a smile on your face. Eventually, however, the trip ends—like all things do.
“What happens when life gets busy again, when you stop picking up those calls?” Simon openly questions. It’s something I think about myself. I realized recently that my college roommates and I haven’t all been in the same room since graduating four years ago; one of us is getting married in just under three weeks, and at this stage of life, it took a wedding to bring us together again.
I don’t believe everyone needs to take a monthlong road trip to cultivate their platonic relationships. But there is something to be said about making the effort and going the extra mile, pushing each other to show up. Two months is a drop in the bucket across three years, yet the core memories made in a short amount of time can last a lifetime.
“They’re my best friends for life,” Chad, the more reclusive member of the group, says on their last day. “If they ever need anything, of course they can reach out to me.”
“What we have is worth fighting for,” Simon reflects, one year later—no poisonous toad required.
Nate’s Score: 4/5
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‘Dua Lipa versus the literary landscape’ (2025)
Creator: Below The Fray
Exploring what can be easily assumed at face value as another half-hearted celebrity side project, this video explores singer-songwriter Dua Lipa’s surprisingly deep foray into the world of interviewing authors. It compares her incredibly well-researched questions against other interviewers of the literary world (talk-show hosts, book clubs, colleges, and more) through a rather clever, gamified narrative structure.
Each interviewer is treated like a video game boss whom Dua faces off against, one by one, in a quest to determine “the best interviewer of novelists.” Below The Fray uses this metaphor as a quirky twist to what could have been a niche (even dull) topic, transforming the video into an engaging and entertaining introduction to the literary landscape through Dua’s unexpectedly sincere involvement.
Judd’s Score: 4/5
‘bro, GO TO SLEEP’ (2025)
Creator: David Achu
Ever wish Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was shot in someone’s basement instead of a million-dollar set—focusing less on politics and more on internet culture, technology, and all the weird questions that come with it?
Well, look no further: David Achu has you covered.
Achu takes us through his surprisingly varied basement set—complete with staples such as a floor green screen, old couch, and random cello—while delivering comedic, well-researched deep dives on topics like “Are we going lowkey deaf?”, digital footprints on social media, and (as explored in this video) sleep.
Diving thoroughly into each topic, he blends visualizations and reenactments of his research with relevant personal anecdotes to make these ideas both digestible and a genuinely fun time to watch. Achu hooks you in with these shower thoughts you may have once had and leaves you laughing—and surprisingly educated—by the end.
Judd’s Score: 4.5/5
Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.
* “Did you get the answers you needed?” “No! I ordered a sandwich!”
** Pun intended. I’m cheeky like that.