by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Tim Robinson, Kate Mara, Jack Dylan Grazer, Paul Rudd, Josh Segarra, Billy Bryk
Intro:
… squirmily uncomfortable and darkly hilarious …
What is it about male friendships that are so hard to make, and sustain, in later life for blokes? When you’re a nipper, making friends is as simple as agreeing about your favourite (or most hated) Star Wars character, football team or the fact that “boobs are very nice indeed.” As an adult, however, forging the bonds of friendship with fellow XY chromosome-havers is a fraught, awkward nightmare of misunderstandings and cringe-inducing embarrassment. Said situation is a potent premise for both comedy (I Love You, Man) and comedy horror (The Cable Guy) but never has it been so squirmily uncomfortable and darkly hilarious as new flick Friendship from writer/director Andrew DeYoung.
Friendship is the story of marketing executive Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson), a deeply awkward dude who has somehow landed stone-cold foxy wife, Tami (Kate Mara) and spawned a very pleasant son, Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer). What Craig doesn’t have is a mate. Any mate, really. He’s a cack-eyed awkward knob, who speaks before he thinks, and has all the charm of a butcher’s hook. It’s something of a surprise, then, that he manages to strike up a relationship with new, cool neighbour, local weatherman Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), and the pair forge a close knit bond. Until Craig screws it all up by being stunningly awkward, then makes it worse by trying to fix the situation and then doubles, triples, and quadruples down, making everything so much worse and hide-behind-your-seat unbearable for an unsuspecting audience.
Friendship’s appeal (or lack thereof depending on the viewer) is watching Tim Robinson take a relatively low stakes situation and forge the worst outcome imaginable. Fans of his noisy but funny sketch show, I Think You Should Leave, will understand the vibe, but even the uninitiated will likely appreciate the comedic chutzpah on display here. There’s one scene during a work meeting that spirals so spectacularly out of control that it almost becomes surreal outsider art. Robinson is backed by an excellent performance from Kate Mara and a reliably ageless turn from Paul Rudd, who seems to almost be in Anchorman mode here.
What you won’t find in Friendship is a particularly cohesive story. It’s a film with lots of really good vignettes but not much of a throughline or satisfying narrative arc. Still, if you like your comedies a little on the quirkier, spicier side and you can handle the cinematic equivalent of Sideshow Bob stepping on a rake for 100 minutes, then Friendship is an engaging, occasionally hilarious, frequently horrifyingly awkward black comedy that’ll have you thinking maybe sometimes it’s better to be a Nigel no friends.
