Friendship (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – A suburban dad falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor.

My Take – Once you cross the 30-year-old threshold, it become quite hard to make new friends, particularly after marriage and kids. One may find colleagues they might connect with, probably due to a similar background, and throw in an occasional lunch too, but once the clock strikes 5pm or 6pm, they are all running towards the comforts of family and those older “real” friends.

But what happens when one such connection becomes all too real, and then the counter-part adult wants to back out of the perceived friendship? The rejection can in some ways feel more personal, hurtful and confusing than that of a romantic partner.

Using this scenario, writer-director Andrew DeYoung marks his strange and hysterical feature debut, that is enriched by a tone only a few degrees away from becoming a psychological thriller, yet manages to spin comedy gold out the straight male loneliness epidemic. Delivering a humorously cringe worthy but balanced tale about friendship, obsession, and human bonds. While it’s horrifically uncomfortable to watch at times, it’s also hilarious, with instantly quotable dialogue and characters that walk a tricky line.

Yes, at times, it does feel like one long sketch from the immensely popular Netflix sketch show ‘I Think You Should Leave‘, which is three seasons in and still going strong, and in a sense they are right.

After all, it sees Tim Robinson, the cult sketch comedian make his debut as a big-screen leading man and is known to possess a comic persona different from any other funny people currently working. A result of which the narrative is genuinely weird at times, and some viewers might struggle to invest in Robinson‘s frequently anxiety-inducing protagonist.

But director DeYoung leans hard on the fact that we all know someone like him. Probably, that’s us from another point of view. Making this is a tale about the struggle we face to forge bonds that stand true and last long despite prejudices, and self-doubts.

The story follows Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson), a hopelessly dorky suburban dad with little social life and a dull marketing job that involves coming up with ways to make apps more addictive. He’s married to Tami (Kate Mara), a florist, who has recently recovered from cancer, and the way focus has (rightfully) moved around her, even strengthening the emotional bond with their teenage son, Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer), Craig has been left feeling somewhat lost.

Things take a turn when Tami encourages the couch-bound Craig to hand-deliver a package meant for his new neighbor, he is introduced to Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), a seemingly cool guy. A weatherman on the evening news, he also plays guitar and sings in a gentle punk band.

Soon enough, the two men begin to spend time together, drinking beers, foraging for wild mushrooms, and even going on an ill-advised prowl through the town’s underground sewer tunnels. But when Austin invites his new pal to be part of his regular boys’ night in, the anxious-to-please Craig goes off the rails. But as his obsession with Austin begins to grow, his carefully constructed life around him soon begins to destruct.

If all this sounds grim, I can assure you it is. There’s an underlying darkness in the story that can easily be flipped into a horror tale. The film starts off as a charming bromance in the vein of I Love You Man (2009) before becoming something more radical. As director DeYoung stages their tumble into one-sided bromance with the unflinching seriousness of a psychological drama. All with a healthy dose of absurdist comedy, of course, pulling unexpected guffaws out of small pockets of dialogue and big physical swings.

And unlike your average buddy-comedy protagonist, Craig seems roundly incapable of learning lessons or experiencing personal growth. Austin at first sincerely charmed then put off by Craig’s obsessiveness, Craig sincerely intent on winning Austin’s affections and tantalized by the possibility of emotional bonds between other men. That is, until Austin suggests they take a step back, sending a stung and confused Craig reeling.

From then on every choice he makes, he digs himself deeper into a well of loneliness and rage, culminating in a confrontation that takes the story to a place that makes you doubt first Craig’s sanity.

But director DeYoung isn’t looking to terrify, instead he dissects the strange nature of male relationships, perhaps the hardest to cultivate and maintain in a society where honest connection is ever so fleeting. Particularly for male adults. Of course, we’re not always wired that way, but some folks watching this will relate to how Craig develops a bro crush on Austin and wants to be instant best buds, even if the way he goes about it is certifiably insane.

Agreed, not all of the bits land. By the final act, the film’s off-kilter proceedings, tangents and Craig’s penchant for self-destructiveness does begin to wear thin. But, director DeYoung sticks his landing with a touch of sweet in Craig’s otherwise curdled view of the friend who left him, even if it possibly destroyed everything important to him.

Performance wise, few actors are better equipped to mine the weird vulnerabilities, fixations and feelings of a platonic split like the cult comedy king Tim Robinson. Craig is a difficult character to like but Robinson’s perfectly calibrated turn ensures you still root for him, even when you are squirming. Paul Rudd once again weaponized his cool guy charisma, and strikes the right balance of comic exaggeration, straightforwardness and vulnerability for a man laughably pitiable in his own way.

Kate Mara gets to be more three-dimensional than usual, with her having both agency and a sense of humor. Despite her immense talent, Mara hasn’t always had the chance to shine, but she does here by delivering one of her more intricate performances yet. Despite a limited screen-time, Jack Dylan Grazer also manages to be very likable. On the whole, ‘Friendship‘ is an unpredictable and unhinged comedy that well oscillates between cringe-inducing and laugh-out-loud funny.