Review: Friendship

Posted by: Matthew Ardill  •  May 13, 2025 @ 7:52pm

Filed under: Reviews

Written and directed by Andrew DeYoung (Our Flag Means Death, I Love That for You), Friendship is the ultimate fake out. Going in based on the trailer and the casting of Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd, I was expecting a What About Bob? or Step Brothers-type comedy, but Friendship is actually a dark, funny, and ultimately tragic case study in alienation and obsession draped in the clothes of a sketch in Robinson's I Think You Should Leave.

Tim Robinson plays Craig, the husband of cancer survivor Tami (Kate Mara), with whom he shares a son Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer). It's clear in the opening seconds of the film that Craig and Tami are on very different pages in their lives. Tami has started a new business, reached out to an ex-boyfriend rekindling their friendship, and has created a newfound family with her group therapy. Meanwhile, Craig blithely insists "it wont come back" during a moment Tami is sharing with group, and is trapped in a cycle of work, home, and sleep, oblivious to Tami's dissatisfaction.

When a package for his new neighbour Austin (Paul Rudd) is accidentally delivered to his house, Craig is tasked with bringing it over, and he immediately develops a crush on the cool, handsome, and all-too-suave Austin. After a cordial and friendly introduction, we learn Austin is the evening weatherman at the local network affiliate and is the coolest person Craig has ever met. Taking him into swamps to hunt for mushrooms and into the aqueducts running under the city, Craig is utterly in platonic love with Austin.

This is where DeYoung's story excels; modern masculinity is ill-defined and often an uncomfortable set of contradictions, and after a certain age it becomes harder and harder to make friends. Once calcified into patterns of behaviour, it can be near impossible to break without some huge motivating factor in a world increasingly defined by social media, where we live isolated into our little bubbles, repeating patterns ad nauseum. Austin's utter coolness pops Craig's bubble, and he embarks on a journey of redefinition (unfortunately for everyone in his life). Meanwhile Austin – on the surface super cool – is equally as fragile and insecure, but simply hiding it via overcompensation and painting himself as the coolest kid in school.

After a bad hang with Austin and his friend group where Craig loses his temper during a boxing match and ruins the evening – creating a tension between the friend group and Craig – Craig moves from a crush on Austin to full-on Fatal Attraction-style obsession. We watch Craig spiral, but on this journey we also discover the fragility of his relationships. He starts by emulating Austin, then begins to resent him, before moving to a self-destructive spiral that leads to him lying on the floor of a room in the company of a young man who goes by the name T-Boy.

What is most surprising is the deft hand each of the characters are handled with in the film. It would be easy to make Tami shrill, Steven annoying, Austin a caricature, and Craig a monster, but what we get is a sympathetic portrait. Tami doesn't hate her husband – she's simply not happy being trapped in his bubble and is looking for someone who can see and understand that sadness. Austin is just trying to survive in a world where he's not respected and trying to maintain his individuality. Craig is looking for what many of us are looking for: love, friendship, and happiness. All of this is framed in an uncomfortable ludicrousness that is so beyond the pale it circles around to believability. The film is full of uncomfortable and weird situations; the audience veered from wild laughter to a moment later an attendee shouting "WHAT?" when Tami made a late film confession to Craig. This is the purest distillation of cringe humour in its peak form.

Lastly, I can't emphasize enough: see this in theatres. Produced by A24, it has their distinctive visual style with lush visuals and expert camera work (though there is a lack of bisexual lighting). The use of iris wipe transitions, unique angles, and intimate and at times claustrophobic cinematography creates a relationship with these characters that is best appreciated on a large screen. I can't recommend Friendship highly enough and everyone should see it today.

Tags: Friendship, Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara, Jack Dylan Grazer, Andrew DeYoung, A24

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