Friendship
Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson, TV's 'I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson') has been content to spend his evenings in a living room chair after spending his days making his company's clients' products more addictive. After trudging up the hill to bring a misdelivered package to new neighbor Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), the man calls to invite him over for a drink, something Craig's wife Tami (Kate Mara) encourages to get him out of the house. Craig is awe-struck by the cooler-than-cool local weatherman and thrilled to be thought of as his pal but when Austin invites him over for a Friday night with the guys, Craig's social awkwardness makes a bad impression and Austin tells him he's ending the "Friendship."
Laura's Review: B
Writer/director Andrew DeYoung (TV's 'Pen15,' 'Our Flag Means Death') tackles male friendship with a cringe comedy pairing one man who hides his insecurities with another whose confidence is misplaced. Canny casting has Paul Rudd repurposing his "Anchorman" persona as the former, and the latter Tim Robinson, known for obnoxious behavior on his cult comedy sketch show. American male friendship is known for outward expressions of manliness, exhibitions of emotional connection considered too vulnerable (see also Paul Rudd's "I Love You, Man"), and so when one character adheres to the model while the other does not, the laughs aren't far behind.
Craig appears to do OK at his job, although he notes his four coworkers out together on smoke breaks from his office window and this form of male bonding will be one of the first introductions Austin will make, offering him a hand-rolled. Like a teenaged boy showing off his toys, Austin takes out his stuff, including an ancient hard-carved tool and golden gun, then shows him his secret hang, an aqueduct beneath the city that leads to City Hall where Craig will bemoan the damage done to his Ocean View Dining catalog clothing. But Austin most impresses Craig as a member of a punk garage band, inviting his neighbor to see him play the next night. Craig fantasizes himself up on stage along with his new best friend and Austin indulges him, encouraging him to buy a set of drums. But when Craig arrives to meet Austin's Friday night friend grouping, he delights in their a cappella harmonizing of 'My Boo,' (inspired!) but his crashing through Austin's glass door and later over exuberance during some friendly garage sparring has everyone looking askance. Craig is soon being ghosted and when he arrives on Austin's doorstep to plead for a second chance he is informed that the friendship is over.
The subsequent acting out is wild as Craig begins to lean more into his family and job. His own attempt at a Friday night guys' night with his coworkers goes hilariously awry and his son Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer, "It"), who he couldn't get to go to Marvel movies, is now distracted by a new girlfriend Craig knows nothing about. He takes Tami, who's been asking for a larger car to support her home floral business, to Austin's secret underground lair and promptly loses her, turning her into a local celeb who, when found, spends more time with an ex and even appears on Austin's weather report. In the film's most off-the-wall scene, Craig pays $100 to lick some psychedelic toad venom, his subsequent trip consisting of a visit to a Subway where his order is taken by a man who looks just like Austin.
Cinematographer Andy Rydzewski creates warmth indoors with practical lamps and chill outside with grey skies (with an assist from Craig's oversized puff parka), men's garages where bodies huddle that space in between. While it stretches credulity that Mara's Tami would ever be married to Robinson's Craig, the actor's wide-eyed, awed response to acceptance is initially endearing, Robinson throwing himself into everything Austin. And if it also seems odd that Rudd's Austin would immediately hang with Craig, he reveals insecurities about work and his image which a dose of idolization could only help. DeYoung telegraphs hope for this odd couple friendship in two acts which initially seem anything but promising, Chekhov's gun theory hovering as Craig speeds up the hill in Tami's new SUV headed right for Austin's yellow Corvette (his hitting a speed bump along the way, sparks flying from the SUV's underside, is a hilarious callback to an earlier boast). The film concludes with a literal wink, a call and response that perfectly sums up its main characters. "Friendship" can be a little scattershot, but when it hits its mark it's glorious.
A24 releases "Friendship" in select theaters on 5/9/25, expanding on 5/16, then wide on 5/23.
