
I bet few of us can say that we have ever laughed so hard at a movie that we literally cried with laughter, in this day and age. While everybody enjoys a good joke, the experience of having uncontrollable laughter which results in one crying is entirely different. As part of the Midnight Madness programming of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, Andrew DeYoung’s film titled Friendship has been bolded and underlined by some of the critics as the most uncompromisingly funny film made in a long time. Even though the film stars Tim Robinson alongside epic talents like Paul Rudd Kate Mara, and Jack Dylan Grazer, the movie’s story is pure comedy gold.
In this crazy comic, Robinson does the lead voice along with Steve Waterman and Craig Waterman who is the father and husband of a stereotypical white middle-class American. Craig’s character is said to be monotonous in that he dresses in the same three outfits, visits the same three stores, and boastfully during work talks about the company he’s working for that sells all sorts of addictive things. There seems to be a lot of noise, “Do they really need speed bumps?” He is married to a very boring woman, Tami (Mara), and has a son Steven (Grazer) who are also boring which is why he prefers his friends over them. When his good friend Rudd moves next door, the order of the world is disturbed as it’s Rudd who hands Craig the parcel in question.
Rudd as expected stands a few good inches shorter than Craig, sports a weatherman mustache, hangs out with a punk band, and thinks it’s really fun to go down into the sewage system of a town and have a look around. Everyone knows that Brian is as great as Craig but imagine this what if we said that he is a degree higher than Craig. To that respect, it would be detrimental to try to seize Craig’s sole dominion over friends, not only Brian but some friends too, by altering him or stylistically him.
Just like Craig Robinson, who wrote Amadeus, DeYoung makes a big statement after writing his first feature film “Friendship” in which he improves the skills he had acquired working as a director on the episodes of The Other Two, Our Flag Means Death, Pen15, in addition, he co-directed and co-wrote the comedy With It Kills You to Laugh? with Kate Berlant and John Early. She had screenings of the film and after the screening, Dana had the time to elaborately explain that the film was about 90 percent done on paper because the lead character shamelessly assumed he wrote it and the character was a lead actor Robinson which only further proves how wonderful De Young is with his pen, I would call him a brain with the nose of a particular comic on it. He further reiterated that he intended this work as The Master of Paul Thomas Anderson, where, taking into account the close nature of Craig and Brian, this is an appropriate choice, and in a way, it really does look like a comedic spin-off of that PTA film.
There lies a certain mood in Friendship that resembles the odd tone that is found in I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson but it’s much more than a bunch of skits as such because it has its continuity. Each of the regulars Conner O’Malley as well as Whitmer Thomas who are guests of the ITYSL now have their rather great moments. DeYoung jokes and puts together all these really funny concepts in relation to Craig’s gradual contraction in an attempt to belong, to be someone, or to be someone too. I love how virtually every scene is focused on the development of the plot and when Craig finally stops pretending that he is making an effort to be liked, his last character is just too comical.
The most interesting and hilarious fact about Friendship is the way Robinson has delivered the performance throughout the film. Robinson doesn’t have to direct a segment or a line rather his tonality necessary and the angle of the scene already speaks volumes. This however is not the case with Robinson who is a serious character throughout the movie and is expected to deliver himself, for instance, Waiting does not appear to have involuntarily enlisted a Beatrice who retells the events in the film Beatrice is Robinson’s character, a homosexual. Robinson got his first big role in the series as the voice of Ugly Sonic in the Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers movie which he also acted in. The vibrant and engaging aspects of his performance are not only his facial emotions or most of it Robbinson who has breathtaking impressive different angles of each of his scenes that made him effective in his objectives. For example, he and his friends were uncomfortable with the image that was created of him as Brian and he and his friends were uncomfortable with how funny and weird it was.
The most entertaining part of this movie has to be Craig trying to make a silly movie, or Craig’s side of drug dealing and the whole movie can be said to be the best movie I have ever seen. It turns out he is a good comic, and the ability of Warsaw to transform bleak comic scenes into something more palatable for the audience is also better.” Robinson was a man who certainly had a brighter future in any comic like the one just described.
Similar to the rest of the cast who’s attempted most of these scenes with no comedy, Rudd joins the fun by making jokes. He seems to find great chemistry with Craig Robinson’s character but then retorts Only if Craig didn’t want him to be so charming. Rudd makes it seem that Brian is too nice to everyone around him which is why he gets so mad towards the end of the movie when Craig’s character irritates him. The woman I’m also required to play next to Robinson is the most difficult character, but I must say, Tami as her wife, Mara manages to do the role of the low profile wife whose life revolves around Craig without so much distraction perfectly. There are no accolades for such an ungrateful role but this is also something that Mara copes with. Grazer is good too in the role of Craig and Tami’s son who comes out on a few occasions but adds more details of the character that isn’t fully revealed yet.
In fact, during the scenes in Chicago’s suburbs, DeYoung starts with the absurdity of life in the suburbs. He suggested seeing the world and their characters, I believe to some extent, in a different fashion. If I understood correctly, his script conceptually manages to view the DeYoung story through the prism of placing all of the aforementioned characters as secondary actors and reconfiguring their anecdotes in light of the futility of life in the suburbs. Tim Robinson Looks Flabbergasted After Looking At Someone In Peels T-Shirts Do Andy Rydzewski’s Tag Team With Tom Sellers shirt, but made sure not to share the image as it looked unrelated.
It is vital that “Friendship” is watched in a Theatre on a full screen rather than on a setup at home. With the exception of the Midnight Madness TIFF, Robinson certainly had a few supporters in the audience who cheered for him in the same way they cheered for O’Malley. There is already one bonkers silent campaign they waged to ensure that the movie was released theatrically, otherwise, this peculiar form of comedy that is celebrated by critics would be what Better Attention negotiated. Amusingly, I was reminded of my dear friends who bought tickets to watch Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy or Bridesmaids, and how they cherished their experience. That was the sort of ice-breaking enthusiasm that I experienced while seeing Friendship. Friendship may not perhaps, as previously stated films, have outstanding success but that does not mean there will be no cult following for the film and people will likely quote the film for many years from now.
In all honesty, it would be a crime and an offense to the audience if they were to be deprived of the experience they could have had with straight-to-streaming. Friendship is looking forward to being that highly rated comedy with the combination of Robinson’s active participation in every scene along with DeYoung’s wonderful script.
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