Friendship (2024)

I feel like I start so many posts now with some variation of “So it’s been a while”, or “I’ve been lazy, but I’m finally ___”. And it’s true that I have been pretty lazy with it. I think I just get caught up thinking how long it would take to write and publish a post in one sitting. It’s usually about 3 hours, if you’re curious. So now that I’m staring down the barrel of 3-4 posts that I have yet to write, perhaps it’ll be best for me to not focus on getting things done in one go and going about across a few sessions. I’m currently in my office at work and it’s a slow day. My supervisor is taking the week off and the co-worker covering dispatch duties is nowhere near comfortable at assigning me extra stops unrelated to my job as other past substitutes. Today, I’ll be writing about Friendship, a movie that I saw with friends back on 5/26/25, AKA Memorial Day Monday. 

The theater of choice was the Cinemark 16 XD theater in Victorville (The Ciney). As a birthday gift, my sister gave me a $50 gift card valid at any Cinemark theater, as such I used that to cover tickets for me and the friends that came along. We went to see the movie in the late morning, likely around 11-11:30am. I forgot to bring in my notebook this time, a trend that will continue for the next couple of reviews, so I can’t really speak on the trailers that played or the quality of the moviegoing experience. Actually now that I’m writing this, I recall the other people in the auditorium with us engaging with the movie and having a good time, something you want to see when watching a comedy.

Afterwards, we all took a little day trip to Wrightwood, California, a small mountain town on the way to the Angeles National Forest. We went there as one of my friend’s SO and her friend suggested we all go to a place called “The Yodeler” Bar *& Grill for burgers. My friend noted that his SO has a habit of driving far out for a specific restaurant and he often questions the move. This was funny because, I believe his SO recounted the “Prince St. Pizza fiasco”, stating that he had no room to talk after that. Anyhow, the food was pretty good and our party got a nice big table towards the back of the establishment. Afterwards, we walked on over to the “Village Grind” coffee shop for caffeinated beverages, sweet treats, and vibes. Overall, it was a nice change of scenery and a good prelude for our 3 day trip to Big Bear that we took on later that week.   

Friendship is a 2024 comedy written and directed by Andrew DeYoung in his feature theatrical debut. The film stars Tim Robinson as Craig, a socially awkward and emotionally adrift marketing executive who platonically falls hard for his new neighbor, Austin (Paul Rudd), a quirky and charismatic local weatherman. Right out of the gate, I’ll write that this movie definitely delivers on “The Funny”. For me the standout performance comes from Tim Robinson as Craig. I have not yet seen Robinson’s other work, but I would consistently hear high praise from friends regarding his Netflix sketch comedy show, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (2019-2023). From my understanding, writer/director Andrew DeYoung wrote the character of Craig, specifically with Robinson in mind. It’s a choice that I believe pays off in spades as Tim Robinson’s delivery and timing as Craig, whether in casual conversations or when he’s having a full-on crash out, consistently cracked my shit up, especially as the story progressed. 

Of course, a character as wildly cringe as Craig wouldn’t be as funny without other characters to bounce off of. As such, I feel the need to mention Paul Rudd as Austin. His initial bond and chemistry with Craig is not only humorous, but admittedly sweet to watch. In addition, it’s great fun to watch his character unravel as Craig becomes more manic. Moreover, I’ll also give a shout out to Billy Bryk who plays a young phone store employee named Tony who shares a few scenes with Robinson. I won’t spoil it here, but one scene between the two of them in particular had me dying at just how uncomfortable, yet absurd it was. This brings me into the screenplay which I feel is quite well written. DeYoung does well in complementing Robinson’s painfully cringe comedic stylings into a feature-length narrative. Additionally, the screenplay does well in bringing in recurring gags as well as introducing things earlier in the movie and then having them come full circle in such a smart and entertaining fashion. The only negative thing I had to say about this movie is that if you easily get second-hand embarrassment or can’t stand cringe or awkward humor, then you may not fuck with this movie. I know one of my friends that I sat next to was routinely wincing and recoiling from Craig’s dialogue and actions, often saying things like “Noooo” or “Why would you do that?” under his breath. To me that just added more to my enjoyment of the movie. 

With that being said, I’ll give Friendship a BEST MOVIE EVER. If there was some takeaway I got from seeing this movie, it would be that it presents the kind of crash out you might fantasize about having after a rejection (platonic or otherwise), but just can’t have in real life. Friendship demonstrates how ridiculous said crash out can be when you allow your fears & insecurities to sabotage yourself. I have definitely had some interactions with people that I’ve handled awkwardly, so seeing the even more uncomfortable and cringe situations in this movie play out puts those aforementioned interactions into context. Ultimately, it helps to not dwell on those past interactions and learn to just be more comfortable with yourself, which I feel this movie implies. My next movie post is likely to be on either Bring Her Back (2025) or The Phoenician Scheme (2025). Have a good evening.