You might have seen the trailer for Friendship recently; it starred Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson. It’s a simple tale, where the cast and the journey are the main focus.
It stars Rudd, Robinson, Kate Mara, Jack Dylan Grazer, Rick Worthy, Whitmer Thomas, Danil London, and Jacob Ming-Trent. Andrew DeYoung is the writer and director.
The Story
As I said, the story of Friendship is not all that new:
A suburban dad falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor.
We’ve seen it many times before, the ‘mismatched buddy’ comedy. Like with most comedies like this, the main focus is Craig (Robinson) and Austin (Rudd).
Craig is looking to move him, his wife and family away from Clovis (a fictional city in the US). He gets a package, wrongly delivered, which is for Austin. He takes it over, and Austin invites him over for beers, with a few of the guys. Why had they never done this before? Don’t know.
The beer’s evening goes well until Craig takes a friendly boxing match a little too seriously. Things get out of hand, and Austin thinks it’s best for them not to be such good friends.
That’s Friendship in a nutshell. I’m not going to spoil the rest; there are issues with Craig and his wife, hidden tunnels under the city, and mushroom hunting. It is a good and engaging story, but it’s the cast that’s the best part.
The Cast
Rudd is Rudd, I like the guy, and he always plays the same type of character, but fortunately, I like that character. He seems like a nice guy.
The main ‘protagonist’ is Craig, played by Robinson. I have read that people know who he is, but I’ve never seen or heard of him before. He plays the ‘quiry’ one in the relationship, and he does it well.
Craig is a lovable loser, which is the main point. How would you put up with an annoying pillock of a man? Do you show kindness, or just call it quits and avoid him? Rudd always plays that nice guy, but even he has a breaking point.
In Friendship has Robinson plays Craig in a funny way, but still real. We all know a Craig, the annoying one in the group that everyone is polite to, but they all laugh at him behind his back. At the LMO, I think it’s me, but I’m just glad anyone will talk to me.
Overall
As I said, there’s a lot I’m missing out on Friendship, including dealing with some heavier subjects, like cancer. This movie isn’t about the end; it’s about the journey getting to the end.
I had a bit of an issue with the fact that you never know what plays out in real life and what Craig is imagining. You know how that pretty girl at the local supermarket is polite to you, and sometimes you daydream about going on a date with her, that first kiss, and then when you’ll get married and how many kids you’ll have. All she did was say ‘Have a great day’ and smile, you know, her job.
Craig is the same with Austin, he imagines how things might go and what good friends they could become. I think Friendship would need a second watch, to try and pick up on what scenes are real and which are Craig’s imagination.
Side note, I like A24, but I have said before, they are becoming a little formulaic. This is the same, it’s a weird story, the soundtrack is the same a most of their other movies. I hope they start to mix things up a little in future.
Friendship is a fun watch, it’s a block comedy, and it made me laugh in places. The humour is dark, but I’m good with that, which is why I found myself giggling a lot.
Friendship is still in some cinemas and on VoD.
