‘Friendship’ Review

I need to be clear up front, I’m not sure how objective I can be about a Tim Robinson movie. I was first exposed to his work with the 2019 release of ‘I Think You Should Leave’ on Netflix, and was immediately taken in by his absurdist, theatrical brand of comedy. And to say I enjoy it is an understatement. His creative sketches, his line readings, his facial expressions, reduce me to a shell of myself, unable to speak through laughter. In my experience, there are people who see his comedy and find it nothing special, and there are people who have trouble breathing because they’re laughing too hard. I don’t understand it, but I’m in the latter group, his comedy flipping a switch in my neanderthal brain in a way I struggle to articulate.

‘Friendship’ is Tim Robinson’s first attempt at a feature length film, and plays out like a series of ‘I Think You Should Leave’ sketches all following the same character. At times, the entire film threatens to collapse into itself, with Robinson’s absurdist humor demanding such a difficult, sustained tone with a main character so childish and narcissistic that there are sections where it is almost unbearable to watch the screen. But the jokes pay off all of the awkwardness, bursting forth in ways both unexpected and over the top. Every scene, every line of dialogue, is an opportunity for comedy, either on its own or as part of a larger joke.

Tim Robinson plays Craig Waterman, a suburbanite with a wife who recently beat cancer and a teenage son whom he struggles to connect with. When a package is mistakenly dropped at his doorstep, Craig runs it over to a house next door where he meets his new neighbor, Austin (Paul Rudd). In an effort to be neighborly, Austin invites Craig over for drinks, thus starting a relationship that makes Craig start to think that maybe an adult, male friendship is exactly what he needs to feel more fulfilled in his life. Paul Rudd’s Austin is like a more down to Earth version of Brian Fantana, his character from ‘Anchorman’: a good natured charmer with a rebellious streak. Craig falls for him immediately, imagining a world in which they are best friends who spend all their time together. Tellingly, Craig’s wife and son are nowhere in these dreams.

Like most Tim Robinson characters, Craig is less a fully formed person than he is an alien’s best approximation at a human being. He is desperate for friendship, companionship, but is completely unable to read social cues or modulate his emotions. He wants to be liked, without doing anything likable. Any inconvenience is met with yelling or screaming, any challenge to his personality is met with genuine confusion.

The film is filled with performances that contrast with Robinson’s ridiculousness while hinting at the broader weirdness of the world they all inhabit. As Craig’s wife, Tami, Kate Mara is pitch perfect. She plays the role completely straight, as if ripped from a different movie. She is a cancer survivor who just wants to experience joy in life again, who tries to stay strong for her family even as she is continually dismissed or ignored in Craig’s childish tantrums. And yet she’s not without her own weirdness. In one scene, as the family is all sitting around the living room, the son walks up to Kate Mara and kisses her on the lips, holding for an uncomfortably long time, as Craig watches in confusion. Stunned, Craig asks if they always kiss each other on the lips, and they of course ignore him as if this is just another one of Craig’s odd fixations. It is never addressed again, but the strangeness lingers over the characters and their world.

While Craig’s quest for friendship is the main plot of the film, it mostly serves as justification to follow a Tim Robinson caricature as he attempts to exist in civil society to hilarious effect. Robinson goes loud, but he’s equally effective in quieter moments, where he cedes the jokes to a side character and just looks on in silence, his face its own masterclass in comedy. If you have seen ‘I Think You Should Leave’, and found it unexceptional or off-putting, you should probably just avoid this film. But if you, like me, wheeze laughter and cry tears at the mere sight of Tim Robinson’s goofy face, then ‘Friendship’ will deliver more laughs than any mainstream comedy in recent memory.

Friendship
Rated R for language and some drug content.
Running Time: 1 hour and 40 minutes

Director Andrew DeYoung
Writers Andrew DeYoung
Stars Tim Robinson, Kate Mara, Jack Dylan Grazer, Paul Rudd
Rating R
Running Time 100 Minutes
Genres Comedy