Friendship

At first glance, Friendship plays like it's gearing up to be a quirky indie comedy - awkward banter, strained smiles, and just enough charm to make you think you're in for a sad-sack buddy flick with heart. But then something shifts. Slowly. Quietly. And by the time the third act rolls around, you realize you're not watching a comedy at all. You're watching a slow-motion car wreck of emotional codependence and social decay - and you're in the passenger seat.

The film's real trick (and possibly its curse) is how it messes with your sympathy. I started off feeling sorry for Robinson's character - lonely, vulnerable, maybe a little pathetic. But as the story peeled back layers, that pity curdled into discomfort. Then resentment. Then something colder. And yet, by the end, I still wasn't sure if I hated him or just hated how much of him I recognized.

That emotional whiplash is probably the movie's greatest strength - and maybe its biggest obstacle. This is not a film that wants you to feel good. It wants you to squirm. It wants you to sit in the tension between wanting to help someone and realizing you might be feeding the very dysfunction you're trying to escape. That's powerful. It's also exhausting.

The writing is sharp, but it doesn't hold your hand. The pacing is deliberate (read: slow), the tone slippery, and the morality murky. You can tell this film wants to be part of the post-Anora wave - intimate, raw, and morally complex - but it lacks Anora's clarity and brutal elegance. Instead, Friendship smudges the lines until everything feels a little too fuzzy to fully land.

If Friendship is about anything, it might be this: the strange, sad reasons we keep toxic people in our lives. Loneliness. Obligation. Habit. Fear of what comes after letting go. It's a film that doesn't provide answers - just a long, uncomfortable mirror.

I give it a 6.5 out of 10. It's well-made. It's interesting. It hits hard. But it also left me more overwrought than enlightened. There's value in that, sure - but I'm not in a hurry to go through it again.

I, admittedly, cringe very easily. I can't watch reality shows because the awkward conflict makes me uncomfortable. I like Tim Robinson sometimes when his outrageousness is so over the top that it's just separate from reality. In this film, he is great, as is Paul Rudd, and frankly everyone. The cringe is low key enough in most scenes to make you truly squirm. I found myself squirming far more than laughing in this movie. It was weird, wild, and unique. I liked it and it stuck with me. I am sure that the discomfort I felt watching it was the point. If you like that cringey feeling, you will really like this movie.

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.

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.