We’re always telling kids not to take sweets from strangers but we never think to warn them about making friends with hitmen. ‘Léon’ might be the reason for this, because actually Mathilda (Natalie Portman, chillingly intense) is a 12-year-old whose life is turned around by Léon’s reluctant kindness and care following the brutal murder of her entire family. Their weird little friendship develops with all the intensity you’d expect from a trained killer and his child apprentice. You wouldn’t enter them into a BFFs contest, but as not-father-and-daughter relationships go, there’s none more solid.
Ashleigh Arnott, acting Things To Do editor
Not everyone has been in love, but most of us know what it’s like to have a close buddy. So why is it that in the movies, romantic relationships get all the love? It’s high time to give it up for friendship flicks – movies about the platonic bro-downs and girl crushes that can often define our lives as much as any great love affair.
So let’s raise a toast to our pals, homies, mates and BFFs – our cinematic ones, anyway. We asked the Time Out staff to name their personal favourite movies about friendship. Whether it’s between a hitman and a teenage orphan, high-school soulmates or two animated fish, we’ve spent so much time with these movie buds, we know them almost as well as our own friends.
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