‘I’m on the edge of life, and the view is gorgeous...’
Anyone who has seen Tim Robinson’s excruciatingly funny sketch show I Think You Should Leave will know what to expect from Friendship. Cringe comedy. Lots of shouting. Stilted, surrealist conversation. Despite the fact that Friendship is very much the creation of first time writer-director Andrew DeYoung, large swathes of it feel like a Robinson concoction. Basically, I felt uncomfortable throughout and never stopped laughing…
Craig (Robinson) is a dull man living a dull life as a marketing executive in the fictional city of Clovis. His wife Tami (Kate Mara), recently recovered from cancer and in the process of rekindling a relationship with her ex-boyfriend Devon (Josh Segarra), is increasingly frustrated by Craig’s lack of attentiveness. Everything changes through a chance meeting between Craig and his much more charismatic neighbour Austin (Paul Rudd), a TV weatherman and all round cool dude. The two begin a friendship that eventually has disastrous consequences for both of them.
Friendship uses cringe comedy as a trojan horse to discuss ideas about the loneliness epidemic that exists among thirty-something men. Craig is pathetically grateful to Austin for welcoming him into his life and finds something in their adventures together that his wife simply cannot give him – a feeling of worth. When things curdle, Craig’s attempts to recapture the magic of those heady first few meetings with Craig become increasingly unhinged. He licks a psychedelic toad. He buys a gun. DeYoung always ensures that there is pathos and a wistful sadness to go along with the laughs, however, and it is interesting to see Rudd subvert his roles in previous comedies like Anchorman and I Love You, Man into something much darker and more grotesque.
The bromance genre has fizzled out in recent years and Friendship might just be the final nail in the coffin for this type of movie. Once something has been parodied this brutally, there is no coming back. By combining Robinson and Rudd, DeYoung provides the former with the biggest platform of his career while allowing the latter to play a more complex and nuanced character than he is usually given. The end result is an utterly unique comedy that is as funny as it is affecting.
