Friendship

It's easy to describe this movie to someone who has watched "I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE" tv show(with Tim Robinson). FRIENDSHIP is like a 100 minutes episode of this show, less insane/provocative than an average episode,also a bit more entertaining addressing to larger audiences.

However, it's very difficult to describe this to someone who hasn't watched Robinson's tv shows. One might think that it's something like a dark comedy(like THE CABLE GUY) and a satire about male friendship. Or a deconstruction of movies regarding male friendship.

Truth is, even this description doesn't even begin to portray the sheer insanity of this movie. The male friendship is just a pretext, an excuse for all this surrealistic spectacle. This is more Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí than "Cable guy". But even Bunuel's movies had a second layer and they had a meaning. FRIENDSHIP has zero meaning or moral lessons or an underlying purpose. This is not about about society, there are no messages here, nothing.

There is a reviewer here named "aciessi" and i think his review is absolutely to the point : "I imagine some people have a lot of trouble explaining Tim Robinson. I think I can. He is the new champion of anti-comedy. Anti-comedy is almost a performance art unto itself and would suggest a uniquely higher level of understanding of what is funny and what is not, and then taking what is not funny and making it funny. It feels almost accidental, but it isn't.".

This.

I liked it a lot, there were many hilarious scenes, for real i would like to watch a 4 hour movie of Robinson. However, this is definitely not for everyone. Many people will call it a bad movie, and i won't even argue. It's not about right and wrong, good taste in movies and bad taste. Tim Robinson's cinematic value " lies in the eyes of the beholder".

I, admittedly, cringe very easily. I can't watch reality shows because the awkward conflict makes me uncomfortable. I like Tim Robinson sometimes when his outrageousness is so over the top that it's just separate from reality. In this film, he is great, as is Paul Rudd, and frankly everyone. The cringe is low key enough in most scenes to make you truly squirm. I found myself squirming far more than laughing in this movie. It was weird, wild, and unique. I liked it and it stuck with me. I am sure that the discomfort I felt watching it was the point. If you like that cringey feeling, you will really like this movie.

Friendship is a fun black comedy about male bonding with a heavy dose of cringeworthy sequences which are hard to look away from as things keep getting worse for everyone involved. It's all built on the relatable desire to belong in a friend group and takes it to absurd extremes thanks to a main character who never knows the right thing to say in any situation. There's a nice unpredictability in seeing just how bad it gets too.

Tim Robinson is so perfectly cast it's impossible to imagine anyone else being able to handle this uncomfortable material as effortlessly as he does. He's incredibly comfortable in every scene that's heavy on the awkwardness and he never relents by constantly sinking further with occasionally really funny but consistently disastrous results. Paul Rudd is great by simultaneously leaning into and going against his natural likeability.

Andrew DeYoung's direction brings plenty of visual style through the lighting, suitably bleak look and a few surreal moments with the biggest highlight being the most mundane drug trip in cinema, sponsored by Subway. Andy Rydzewski's cinematography is creating meticulous framing from the first scene and Keegan DeWitt's score also stands out because its unusual sounds aren't the norm but certainly fits what this is going for.

The obvious comparison is "I love you man," because of Rudd and some of the other narrative parallels, but I like to think of this as the origin story of the "dangerous nights I used to be a piece of $h!t" guy from I think you should leave.

Robinson strikes just the right balance between doing the things he's known for from ITYSL and Detroiters, and the kind of dark sadness that could only be depicted by someone who had a prior career in advertising (I say this as someone with a current career in advertising).

There's a real undercurrent of existential dread running from start to finish and in the end, they stick the landing on never really knowing what was reality vs fantasy.

It's a strong recommend from me, especially for those who enjoyed Robinson's previous projects, because make no mistake - while the supporting cast (primarily Mara and Rudd) anchors the reality - it's Robinson who sells the surreality required to tie it all together. 8/10.

One-sentence summary: A standard suburban man's ideology changes once he becomes friends with his charismatic neighbor.

As an avid fan of the show "I Think You Should Leave", I've become fairly familiar with Tim Robinson's unique brand of comedy. He regularly makes me laugh with his patented awkward style of humor, and Friendship carries on that torch proudly. Throughout the movie, I found myself cackling uncontrollably while simultaneously covering my eyes due to the sheer discomfort of the self-inflicted situations Robinson's character found himself in. The film moves swiftly from one bit to the next and manages to weave some compelling thematic elements as well. If your sense of humor isn't on Robinson's wavelength I can see how you might not enjoy this movie, but if it is, you are in for quite the comedic treat.