Friendship comes to us from writer/director/exec-producer Andrew DeYoung, here making his feature debut after a respectable career writing/directing for various short films and streaming comedy series. But of course the real headliner here is Tim Robinson, the SNL refugee who went on to “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson”, his own Netflix sketch comedy show that quickly racked up social media infamy through memes and YouTube clips. (And the show was produced by The Lonely Island, so of course I don’t like it.)
Which means that statistically speaking, you’re already at least passingly familiar with Robinson’s style of comedy. And now he’s getting a feature-length vehicle. So if you’re interested in seeing in seeing this particular schtick for 100 minutes solid, that’s your review right there.
Robinson plays… well, he’s playing another iteration of his established comedic persona, obviously. This particular iteration is named Craig, an executive at a software firm tasked with making apps more addictive habit-forming. He dresses entirely in shades of brown and beige. He has no hobbies and he has no friends.
His wife (Tami, played by Kate Mara) is a cancer survivor, she runs her own floral arrangement business, and she’s still on good social terms with an old ex-boyfriend. His son (Steven, played by Jack Dylan Grazer) seems to be a moderately popular and well-adjusted kid, though of course he has his own generic teen issues going on under the surface. And then of course there’s new neighbor Austin (exec-producer Paul Rudd), a charismatic gentleman with a loving beautiful wife and an assortment of close friends. Austin is also a local weatherman, lead guitarist and vocalist in a rock band, and he’s got several other interesting hobbies besides.
The bottom line is that Craig isn’t just lonely and bored, but he’s by far the most boring person he knows. So he sets about trying to change himself and ends up destroying everything. That’s it. That’s literally the entire movie.
Craig is jealous of everyone more attractive and interesting than he is, so he tries to make himself more like them and ends up losing sight of who he is. He tries to get what everyone else has, and he ends up losing everything he’s got. He tries to make himself popular and he only drives everyone else away. That’s pretty much the only trick this movie has. (Except for a brief drug trip scene roughly an hour in, that was new and hilariously subversive.)
Robinson is a comedian who’s built his entire brand on cringe. He’s an awkward man who makes everybody else around him feel awkward. I know there’s an appeal for this style of comedy, but it’s not for me. I don’t agree that all comedy is built on pain, unless maybe the joke is on a heel far more hateworthy than Robinson. And even then, 100 solid minutes of laughing at someone else’s pain is too much.
More importantly, so much of the comedy and plot development comes from Craig’s inability to figure out social cues in different contexts. When a bit of light pranking and joking crosses the line into cruel and inhumane bullying. The difference between something Craig can do with a good male friend but not with his wife. How to know which people are actually worth befriending and which connections are better off severed.
As a lifelong autistic, a lot of these topics hit close to home. I’m intimately familiar with a lot of Craig’s social anxieties and problems, and I could respect a film that tries to depict and explore these struggles in a relatable and sympathetic way. But given how much of the film plays it off for laughter, I can’t help but be personally offended to an extent.
Incidentally, it’s worth pointing out that the “male loneliness epidemic” is a very real phenomenon that’s been picking up a lot of press lately. I’d even go a step further and argue that this modern concept isn’t exclusively limited to men. Any kind of socialization requires time and money and effort, especially since all the third-spaces (i.e. any place to hang out that isn’t home or work) cost money. So many of us are pouring ourselves into raising kids or working multiple jobs that nobody has time or cash to hang out anymore. So instead, we all spend time on social media.
This is a very real topic that the premise was well-positioned to discuss. But it doesn’t. There’s nothing in this film about what socializing means in the social media age, and there’s no reason why Craig doesn’t have any friends except that he’s a boring and awkward asshole who gets insanely jealous.
Friendship accomplishes nothing, aside from giving Tim Robinson a feature-length showcase. That was a mistake. His cringe-y and over-the-top awkward style of comedy is funny in bite-sized sketches and memes, but a solid feature-length movie of this is pure torture.
I can only recommend this for fans of cringe humor and Robinson’s style of comedy. There’s nothing here for anyone else.