Friendship (2025)
Directed by: Andrew DeYoung
Premise: A suburban husband and father (Tim Robinson) lives an isolated life until he meets a charismatic neighbor (Paul Rudd).
What Works: A lot has been made in the press of the so-called “male loneliness epidemic” in which contemporary men lack friends and other social connections. Friendship riffs on that idea. The movie centers on Craig, played by Tim Robinson, a middle-class family man who has no friends and works for a social media company that develops apps to make them more addictive. The film is a portrait of isolation. Craig is estranged from his coworkers and he is emotionally shut out of the lives of his wife and son. The marriage between Craig his wife Tami (Kate Mara) is chilly. It’s obvious that they are unhappy but no one says that out loud. The marital tension is very specific and seethes underneath their scenes. Things look up for Craig when he meets his new neighbor Austin, a television meteorologist played by Paul Rudd. With his mustache and hokey confidence, Rudd recalls his character in Anchorman but to a different effect. Friendship has a unique pitch. A lot of comedy is about humiliation and Friendship has a cringy tone. Tim Robinson throws himself into the role. As a dramatization of male loneliness, Robinson and the filmmakers do not try to make Craig into a victim. The character is pitiable but he’s also responsible for his social ostracism. The whole film has the discomfiting feel of telling a joke that gets no laughs. Paradoxically, Friendship is very funny in its specific way.
What Doesn’t: How viewers feel about Friendship will largely depend on what they make of its unique tone. It’s a deliberately cringe inducing comedy. The discomfort is the point and what viewers get out of Friendship will depend on their willingness to along with the film. The marriage between Craig and Tami is never quite credible. They are unhappy at the start of the picture and that’s believable but it’s harder to imagine that these two ever got together in the first place. The major misstep of Friendship is the ending. Craig has reached bottom and in response has makes changes to his life that give him and the film a sense of forward momentum. This is undone in the very end of Friendship and the film feels like it is going backward and repeating itself.
Bottom Line: Friendship is a unique comedy. Some parts of it work better than others but Friendship epitomizes cringe comedy and it is a thoughtful riff on contemporary concerns about masculinity.
Episode: #1050 (June 1, 2025)