Friendship

We finally got around to watching Friendship, a film we had sitting in our watchlist for a while, and... wow. We went in blind, only knowing the title-and what we got was a wild mix of laugh-out-loud absurdity and deeply uncomfortable emotional breakdowns. It's not your usual buddy comedy. This one's darker, messier, and much more personal.

Winny, always the first to catch emotional undercurrents, couldn't stop talking about how painfully real the main character's unraveling felt. He saw someone falling apart under pressure, stress, and years of not being understood-someone not evil, just painfully out of step with the world. Willow leaned in with a bit more logic, pointing out how a lot of the awkward or "cringe" moments felt more like defense mechanisms than malice. According to him, the character was a man trying to hold it together while everything around him changed.

Mimikyu brought both heart and sharpness to the convo-seeing the character as someone both tragic and responsible for his mess. The film's emotional whiplash between laughter and sadness hit her hardest. Amy, true to form, didn't let anything slide. She picked up on how the main character bulldozed past boundaries and social cues, making others uncomfortable without realizing it-or maybe not caring. Tails, of course, gave us the psychological breakdown, suggesting vulnerable narcissism as the root of the meltdown, while Sweet quietly pointed out how much the partner's emotional growth left the main character completely lost, stuck in the version of himself that no longer worked.

And then there's that moment-"She's in the sewer." Hard cut to a dog being pulled up a wall. We all lost it. The absurdity, the timing, the sudden break in tone-it was pure comedy gold in a movie filled with creeping emotional dread.

In the end, Friendship had us laughing, disturbed, reflective, and more than a little heartbroken. It's not an easy film to watch, but it hits a nerve in a way few comedies dare. 8/10 from all of us.

I imagine some people have a lot of trouble explaining Tim Robinson. I think I can. He is the new champion of anti-comedy. Anti-comedy is almost a performance art unto itself and would suggest a uniquely higher level of understanding of what is funny and what is not, and then taking what is not funny and making it funny. It feels almost accidental, but it isn't. The original master was Andy Kaufman, and since his untimely death in 1984, he's had many unsuccessful imitators. We very nearly had a second-coming in Tom Green, until he took things completely over the line with Freddy Got Fingered, a film that strived to be a surrealist masterpiece and ended up being the Pink Flamingos of the 21st century. But now, in 2025, we have Tim Robinson and I think he's just about mastered this difficult technique. Perhaps by sheer virtue of the fact that he looks supremely uncomfortable at all times. He's the human embodiment of a caged rat being poked incessantly with a stick. There's a level of fear and confusion, mixed with a hair-triggered rage that could ignite at any moment. He looks and behaves like the most maladjusted human on earth. Then you take that person and make him a full-fledged comedian. Perhaps this is part of his comedic routine, but whatever it is, he's got that Kaufman "It" factor that's needed.

Enter, Friendship. If ever you needed to know what a Tim Robinson movie would be like, this is what it is. Some would say it's a 90-minute I Think You Should Leave skit, and you'd very much be right. This is a dark comedy about why grown men shouldn't have bromances. That said, it's 97 minutes of exactly how far Tim Robinson can take that premise. The sky isn't even the limit here. Robinson explores obsession and insecurity through the eyes of a man who has zero control over his impulsive thoughts. The rest of the cast looks on in terror, especially Paul Rudd, who approaches the role similarly to how he did in I Love You, Man. But a classic Judd Apatow-universe comedy this isn't. This is Tim Robinson's unhinged world and we are all held hostage.

I haven't laughed this hard in a movie theater in a decade. Studio comedies are dead. Comedy movies, in general, have dried up worse than the Mojave Desert. A24, I can attest, might be about to change that, and they have the right man to do it. If we could get a Tim Robinson comedy movie once a year, I'd be very happy.

Making a name for himself with his particular brand of awkward humour that has served him well on various stand-up specials and Netflix backed series I Think You Should Leave, American comedian Tim Robinson makes the leap to leading man duties in Andrew DeYoung's feature debut that is one of the years most unique propositions.

Working alongside seasoned audience favourite Paul Rudd, Robinson here plays everyday office worker Craig, a softly spoken and floating middle-aged man who has recently been supporting his wife Tami's (a typically strong Kate Mara) cancer journey and see's huge potential with a friendship he has been striving for with his new neighbour Austin (Rudd).

It's a simplistic set-up in principle and one that's been a tried and true narrative starter in a multitude of purely comical or more dramedy centred affairs across the years but with Robinson in the lead and DuYoung committing to making sure his debut is not a cookie-cutter affair, Friendship provides an odd, unexpected, sometimes hilarious sometimes sad journey that is sure to win as many fans as it loses.

Early on in the building block stages of the film and Craig and Austin's budding relationship, Friendship provides a healthy ratio of hearty laughs and awkwardly hilarious hijinks but as we move forward from the initial half hour set-up Friendship enters into darker territory and it's likely that many willing viewers will begin to wilt as Craig's venture into the depths of desperation and poor decision making takes hold over him and the story itself.

It's undeniable that Robinson has a particular range as a performer and you can't see him ever escaping a typecast scenario he has created for himself and is likely content in but for what Friendship required he is a great choice and his back and forwards with Rudd are a real winner for the film with Rudd becoming the perfect foil for Robinson's mannerisms and antics that won't be for everyone but work for what is required here.

The film's fantastic early stretch is sadly never formed into the potential classic genre entry it might have been as things progress and narratively there's some significant gaps in pay-offs and exploration but in a climate where a lot of films of this ilk play it safe or do the bare minimum, its refreshing to watch something like Friendship that's so content being something a little bit different and non-concerned with the towing the line of expectation.

Final Say -

A must-see for any Tim Robinson fans and for anyone willing to take a strange and off-kilter journey into one man's crumbling life, Friendship isn't always an easy film to digest and is as much a drama as it is a comedic trip but it's an intriguing watch throughout and proves there's a place for Robinson in the feature film landscape.

3 1/2 fast moving pigs out of 5.

Friendship is a fun black comedy about male bonding with a heavy dose of cringeworthy sequences which are hard to look away from as things keep getting worse for everyone involved. It's all built on the relatable desire to belong in a friend group and takes it to absurd extremes thanks to a main character who never knows the right thing to say in any situation. There's a nice unpredictability in seeing just how bad it gets too.

Tim Robinson is so perfectly cast it's impossible to imagine anyone else being able to handle this uncomfortable material as effortlessly as he does. He's incredibly comfortable in every scene that's heavy on the awkwardness and he never relents by constantly sinking further with occasionally really funny but consistently disastrous results. Paul Rudd is great by simultaneously leaning into and going against his natural likeability.

Andrew DeYoung's direction brings plenty of visual style through the lighting, suitably bleak look and a few surreal moments with the biggest highlight being the most mundane drug trip in cinema, sponsored by Subway. Andy Rydzewski's cinematography is creating meticulous framing from the first scene and Keegan DeWitt's score also stands out because its unusual sounds aren't the norm but certainly fits what this is going for.

The obvious comparison is "I love you man," because of Rudd and some of the other narrative parallels, but I like to think of this as the origin story of the "dangerous nights I used to be a piece of $h!t" guy from I think you should leave.

Robinson strikes just the right balance between doing the things he's known for from ITYSL and Detroiters, and the kind of dark sadness that could only be depicted by someone who had a prior career in advertising (I say this as someone with a current career in advertising).

There's a real undercurrent of existential dread running from start to finish and in the end, they stick the landing on never really knowing what was reality vs fantasy.

It's a strong recommend from me, especially for those who enjoyed Robinson's previous projects, because make no mistake - while the supporting cast (primarily Mara and Rudd) anchors the reality - it's Robinson who sells the surreality required to tie it all together. 8/10.