Film review: ‘FRIENDSHIP’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
With a touch of the destructive disillusion of Falling Down and the unsettling oddness of Yorgos Lanthimos’ films, the very strange, dark and often very funny bromance cringe comedy Friendship is a bizarre take on the weird neighbour film.
Comedian Tim Robinson (Saturday Night Live, Detroiters, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson) plays the socially awkward, misfit office drone Craig whose life seems to have fallen into a rut. He’s ostracized at work and his wife (Kate Mara) is so fed up with him she openly spends time with her former husband. A ray hope appears when Craig meets new neighbour Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd) the “cool guy” local tv weatherman who also plays in a punk band. While they initially bond and Craig seems to be accepted by Austin’s tight and weirdly upbeat friendship group, an unhinged character like Craig inevitably does something offensive enough to cause a rift which sends him into a bizarre meltdown.
Depicting Craig’s oddball logic and volatile, unpredictable behaviour, Robinson alternates between disturbing and hilarious and creates one of the most entertainingly unsettling characters in movies this year. As Craig engages in both Walter Mitty-like fantasies of acceptance and bitter resentful and sometimes violent responses to being rebuffed, we are never quite sure what he’s going to do next. The ever-reliable Paul Rudd provides an excellent foil to Robinson, his floppy hair and voluminous Moustache making him look like a cross between his Anchorman character Brian Fantana and talk show host Geraldo Rivera. Rudd credibly gives Austin an everyman likeability while adding a few amusingly narcissistic quirks. Kate Mara’s deadpan performance is at times funny although she’s a little too peripheral to the story.
This is not just a gonzo mainstream comedy in the vein of something like Bad Neighbours, the otherworldly weirdness director Andrew De Young gives the film and the grainy muted cinematography courtesy of Andy Rydzewski are more typical of American art house cinema.
Whether DeYoung, who also wrote the film, is saying anything particularly profound about male friendship and suburban alienation is debatable but even if this film was just meant to be an crazy lark it’s a genuinely funny and inventive one.
Nick’s rating: ****
Genre: Drama/ Comedy.
Classification: M.
Director(s): Andrew DeYoung.
Release date: 17th July 2025.
Running time: 101 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.