For my money, this is the strongest Tim Robinson’s character has ever worked. I love I Think You Should Leave as much as everyone, but more times than not the directing of the normal people/extras is stilted in a way that hampers their potential contrast with the skits’ crazy character. Simply put, they all ham it up too much. Andrew DeYoung has done a fantastic job avoiding this pitfall here. In Friendship the performances of everyone on screen are stellar, and they allow Tim’s insanity (which is also more withheld and saved for key moments) to shine. With this grounding, this movie plays like a version of Punch-Drunk Love that relishes in its main character’s social neuroses and outbursts. We are invited to laugh at rather than sympathize with Tim Robinson’s Craig, even when he is at his absolute lowest.

When leaving the theater, I found myself wondering how audiences would’ve reacted to this movie 20 years ago. The comedic tone and approach here feels entirely unique to our time in a way that might feel all but foreign before the irony poisoning and detachment of the internet. We’ve seen the death of cleverness and wittiness and the birth of absurdity as king. This is not a bad thing whatsoever. Sometimes I’ll laugh at a video online and realize you would need to provide someone from the 90s an entire glossary of references to even begin to understand it, and you’d also have to explain how many layers of irony deep you are. It’s funny because it’s not funny and it knows it but that’s also overdone and it’s also aware of that, etc. 

Theatrical filmmaking largely operates in two modes right now. It’s either glossy polished expensive sheen or “A24 style” muted colors with film grain (usually in an odd aspect ratio). I feel like the former has always been boring and the latter has become so through over-saturation. Friendship could’ve chosen either style easily, but picturing this shot like any other polished Hollywood comedy would rob it of so much of its alien realness. That choice imbues the whole movie with a feeling of “our comedies aren’t usually presented this way, what’s going on?”. For the first time in forever the “A24” aesthetic feels purposeful and used in a new way.

It’s too early to say if this will be a generational comedy, or merely the first of many to approach comedy with these new sensibilities we’ve developed, but it’s certainly great and I hope to see more features from all of these fellas!