In today’s blog, we are talking about Andrew DeYoung’s first feature film Friendship. It stars famous sketch comedian Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in the lead roles. The film is a kind of goofy-surreal comedy, which shows the friendship between men and their lack of emotional connection in a funny and strange way.
Let’s understand the 10 main aspects of this film one by one:
At first glance: A story based on the difficulties of friendship
The story of the film Friendship starts with a simple idea – how difficult it is for grown men to make new friends. However, as the movie unfolds, this topic becomes humorous, kooky and emotional.
It is a story of Craig (Tim Robinson), a corporate PR man, who resides in a quiet suburbiacity of America and lives with his wife Tammy (Kate Mara).
Main Character: The odd friendship of Craig and Austin
Craig is a quiet, nice guy who lacks excitement in life. His neighbor Austin (Paul Rudd) is stylish, famous and cool — even the weatherman at the local TV channel.
Craig is strangely attracted to Austin’s world and tries to befriend him. This is where the humor and complications in the film begin.
A satire on the emotional weakness of men
The film highlights the tendency of men to feel uncomfortable opening up emotionally or connecting with each other.
The ‘hangouts’ between Craig and Austin also clearly show that there is an atmosphere of fun and pretense rather than real emotions.
Storyline twist: Eating soap and “sorry”
In one scene, when Craig makes a huge mistake and to escape embarrassment, he literally starts eating soap and says “sorry” in a goofy way, the story turns into cringe-comedy.
This twist shows that men do even more weird things to hide their mistakes or to look stylish.
Innocence like a pet dog
Craig’s innocence, which is seen in his inability to understand his wife Tammy’s feelings even after she recovers from cancer, seems exactly like the family dog. He does not understand that Tammy is going to meet an old lover.
This is also a big message of the film that men often become very passive and emotionally absent in their personal lives too.
Psychedelic touches: The frog licking scene
The film has a strange but funny scene in which Craig licks a frog in order to have a psychedelic experience. But he only has a minute of simple mild hallucinations.
This makes the audience laugh and also shows that sometimes things that seem big are actually very normal.
Lack of female characters
The female characters in the film are not given much development. Characters like Tommy and Austin’s wife are just namesakes in the film.
This is probably done intentionally so that the focus remains completely on the men’s mutual confusion and strange friendship.
From cringe-comedy to loopy absurdism
Friendship starts off as a simple character study but gradually takes a strange and unexpected turn like a film like “Single White Male”.
At times, the audience may find it meaningless, but those who are fans of films like Jim Hosking and Todd Solondz will like it.
From cringe-comedy to loopy absurdism
This question will come to the mind of every viewer. Because at times the film takes such a bizarre turn that it may seem that the story has gone astray.
But actually this is a part of the film – to show how men put themselves in ridiculous situations to avoid their emotions.
Conclusion
Friendship is a film that you may not like immediately after watching it. But its characters, strange scenes and underlying theme gradually affect you. This is a kind of “acquired taste” film, like a particular taste or drink that is difficult to like at first, but starts to seem interesting after tasting it again and again.
