A suburban father develops a bromance for their neighbor in Friendship, but the attempts to become friends is where things go poorly.

It’s a fluke accident that Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) meets his new neighbor. You can thank the delivery guy for delivering a package to the wrong address. It’s because of that incident–the first time it happens, anyway–that Craig–an app developer and marketing executive by day–ends up meeting the recently-moved-in neighbor, Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), who turns out to work as a weatherman in local news. At first, the two appear to begin to befriend each other. But before they know it, it becomes more than a nightmare.

Think of it this way: Craig and Austin are completely polar opposites of each other. Craig–who wears Ocean View Dining clothing–comes off as a nerd of sorts while Austin is a man with charisma. And yet, strangely, my head canon kept thinking, okay, field reporter Brian Fantana has settled down, gotten married, and somehow become a meteorologist. Whatever works, right? But anyway, that’s beside the point. These two are not made for each other, although it was nice to see Raphael Sbarge as part of Austin’s friend group. Craig kept trying to break into the group, but it was an epic failure of colossal proportions.

When Craig isn’t trying to hang out with Austin, he’s married to Tami (Kate Mara), recently cancer-free and operates as a florist out of their home. In trying to be like Austin, Craig takes Tami through the subterranean tunnels. Not to say it doesn’t go well, but Tami soon goes missing in action. And again, this is something that only happens because Craig is trying so hard to be like Austin. He doesn’t need to be! The irony of it all is that Tami was the one who suggested that her anti-social husband hang out with their neighbor!

Being a student of comedy, I’m one of those who appreciates what the likes of Robinson and Rudd bring to the genre. It’s a different performance than what we saw from Rudd just a few months ago in Death of a Unicorn–coincidentally, also released by A24. Weirdly enough, filmmaker Andrew DeYoung, who directed a number of TV episodes before directing his feature debut, was inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2012 Scientology-inspired film, The Master of all films. It probably wouldn’t be the first movie that I thought about when it came to watching Friendship, but I digress.

Friendship first premiered during TIFF’s Midnight Madness program in September 2024. A24 acquired the rights shortly thereafter, waiting until May to give the cringe comedy a platform rollout in May. Time will tell if Friendship becomes a film mentioned along the likes of the great bromantic comedies of the first half of the quarter-century, including 2009’s I Love You, Man. Yes, this isn’t Rudd’s first go-around in a bromance on screen. Only this time, he’s acting opposite Tim Robinson rather than Jason Segel. Hearts Beat Loud‘s Keegan DeWitt handles the score.

If you’re a fan of cringe comedies or Tim Robinson, you’re going to more likely than not enjoy Friendship.

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Andrew DeYoung
CAST: Tim Robinson, Kate Mara, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Paul Rudd

A24 released Friendship in theaters on May 9, 2025. Grade: 3.5/5

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