Friendship - Film Review Friday
How many times have you committed social suicide? How many times have you told a joke so much darker and unthinkable that your friends decide you’re the weird one? How many times have you accidentally injured a friend while joking around? How many times have you made a complete ass of yourself in front of a crowd? My best guess for myself is 5 or 6. Thankfully, those moments don’t keep me up at night so much anymore, and I’ve learned to mentally spit in the face of my younger self or laugh it off. Andrew DeYoung’s film ‘Friendship’ helps us with the latter method.
I believe Tim Robinson has cemented himself as the common man’s comedian, especially with his Netflix series ‘I Think You Should Leave’. No one else perfectly emulates the awkwardness of humanity to as much acclaim and laughter as he does. He effortlessly finds and demonstrates the humour in such mundane events as being the designated driver, attending a haunted house tour and being behind those god-awful drivers that plague the road. With such long wait times for such tiny seasons of ‘I Think You Would Leave’, it seems a blessing that we got the closest thing to a film adaptation.
Craig is an advertising executive with a non-existent social life. He spends his nights at home, watching TV and trying to spend time with his wife and son, both of whom are already busy with their jobs or social lives. When he meets his neighbour, TV weatherman, Austin, the pair form a seemingly unbreakable bond. Austin invites Craig to a boys night at his house that culminates in a sparring match, during which Craig breaks Austin’s nose. This is how the friendship ends. Desperate to recreate his now-dead friendship, Craig tries and tries again to bond with his co-workers, wife and son. Each leads to horrific results.
While the material is a perfect fit for Robinson, this leaves director Andrew DeYoung in an artistic dilemma. He’s written and directed for some of the most well-received shows of our generation, including ‘A.P. Bio’ and ‘Our Flag Means Death’, but by adding Tim Robinson to his already outstanding roster of actors he’s worked with, it concerns me that DeYoung may lack an artistic style. He absolutely masters the absurdity and awkwardness that comes with a Robinson performance, but does so to such an extent I can’t identify any features that could be DeYoungs, other than the script. DeYoung establishes himself as a Swiss Army Director so to speak, but does so at the cost of any artistic identification.
I believe Robinson nails the transition from TV to film. While his Netflix series mostly just consisted of 1-scene, 1-joke sketches, ‘Friendship’ has an entire list of plotlines to perform, and Robinson goes above and beyond to ensure not even a second is wasted. Some of my favorite jokes lie in the scene fade-ins. For example, one scene ends with Robinson being disgustingly ill after eating a poisonous mushrooms. As we fade into the next scene, you can still see and hear Robinson hurling into his smoothie cup and exclaiming, “Oh fuck! That had blood in it!” It’s the little touches that really made the film for me.
Paul Rudd plays Austin and makes a lovely return to the straight-man role in doing so. I’ve long missed the classic Rudd comedies that feature him as the normal lead. ‘Dinner For Schmucks’, ‘Role Models’ and ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ each have places in my heart and childhood. The sense of bewilderment, forced kindness and insecurity he portrays here are underrated abilities in his repertoire. I didn’t expect to feel sympathy or be on his side, but Rudd wins you over and shows that when ending a friendship, it’s not just the dumpee that suffers, but the dumper as well.
Kate Mara stars as Craig’s wife, Tami and she treads more or less the same steps as Rudd. Another “straight-man” character, Tami goes along with Craig’s plans begrudgingly, while picking out the flaws each time. Unfortunately, as the most realistic character of the cast, she only gets one big comedic moment, but I won’t spoil that one for you.
The supporting cast deserve honourable mentions. I haven’t been able to find the name of the actor, but one character, wearing a Vietnam Veteran hat, delivers one of the greatest scenes in the film, getting into a fierce argument with Craig and accusing him of trying to kill Tami. Another seemingly unnamed character sells Craig the opportunity to lick a frog to get high; the actor does a tremendous job of appearing almost blank and drugged himself. IMdB lists all the characters by name and since these two were either unnamed or only onscreen for a few minutes, it makes it quite a challenge to pick them out.
It’s incredibly gratifying and relieving to watch a reflection of humanity in cinema. It’s hard to describe the feeling when a director or actor seemingly recognises you in a way no one else has. ‘Casablanca’ recognised the scorned lovers, ‘Clerks’ recognised the pained retail workers, but ‘Friendship’ is a special case. It recognises everyone at their most awkward, it recognises how hard it can be to find someone to bond with. We’re lucky that in university, meeting and bonding with people is essential, but consider the future, when we’ve all got separate lives to live and it feels so difficult to schedule a night to go out and drink with the guys. It’ll be cold, it’ll be lonely, but we’ll have ‘Friendship’ to cheer us up.
Mason’s Top 3 Reasons to Watch ‘Friendship’
- Tim Robinson. Enough said.
- A comedy we can unfortunately all relate to.
- A script by DeYoung that almost transcends ‘I Think You Should Leave’
