The night is young and so are Mercedes and Julia. As they get ready for a night out, the two best friends tip-toe the line between friendship and something more in the French short film, ‘Girls & the Party’.
A group of girls are heard speaking enthusiastically with each other over Mercedes who is sitting on her bed, observing them. Her room is beautifully lit with the colors pink, red, and a tinge of orange enclosing the surroundings with warmth. Mercedes’ friends are scrambling, trying to look for the perfect outfit for their night out. Mercedes teasingly snatches one of her friends’ tops and sings as the friend tells her to start getting ready.
‘Do you care at all? Does it make you wanna run to me?’
Mercedes and her friend jam to this specific song while goofing about and brushing their teeth in the sink. Although the scene plays it playfully, the lyrics hold a significant meaning to the emotional turmoil and longing that Mercedes feels towards her best friend Julia.
The scene cuts next to the girls now putting on their makeup. As they experiment with the shimmers of their eyeshadows, the intensity of the redness of their lipsticks, and the heat of the hair curlers and straighteners, they also talk about the hot gossip about one of their classmates. In the usual teenage girls’ fashion, the girls are gushing over the rumors about someone’s cousin’s ex’s brother. As young individuals do, they look up the guy’s Instagram to see what he looks like and to check if he is cute. Mercedes says that he is. Her best friend, Julia, comes into the scene and stands closely next to her to look at the photo. She disagrees with Mercedes and says he looks like a douche. One of the friends tattles on how the guy is a proper pervert, not only for partying and hooking up with girls but for allegedly drugging one girl so he can sleep with her. Another girl asks if he will be coming tonight to which one replies that he probably won’t since he is older than them. Julia chimes in, telling her friends that they should’ve listened to her when she said he was a jerk before. Mercedes jumps in and tells them that he has a brother anyway who is also cute.
Mercedes is busy putting on a striking blue eyeshadow when Julia–who is looking at Mercedes’ reflection in the mirror unbeknownst to her–quips in, commenting that Mercedes looks cute. Mercedes is not able to keep her straight face and lets a small smile slip her face.
One of the girls says that they should eat before heading out but Mercedes, shaking the tension and excitement in her bones from her small moment with Julia, suggests not eating so they can get drunk.
Mercedes and Julia are then left alone in the bathroom as the other girls go back to the main room. Mercedes goes to ask Julia if she wants her to do her makeup to which Julia says yes. Mercedes turns back to face Julia and softly touches her eyelids, dabbing some pink shimmer on them. Julia doesn’t say anything and focuses only on her stare at her friend. Mercedes guides the lipstick on Julia’s plump lips and follows as the cosmetic paints the paleness just prior to color. At this moment, the loud music that was heard reverberating across the whole house earlier is silenced. Between Mercedes and Julia, there is only their breathing and an electric feeling they can’t quite put a name to yet.
