In 2001, Tom Green tried to take his weird television persona to the big screen with the bizarre, unsettling Freddie Got Fingered. The film basically became the standard for what not to do when making a movie. (A few, me included, appreciated the effort.)
Now comes Friendship, a film in which Tim Robinson—of the TV sketch show I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson (and a very short stint on Saturday Night Live)—tries to do the same. Is he successful?
That probably depends upon your view of him as a sketch comic. Robinson specializes in uncomfortable, random, intense, raw situations that revel in the awkward. For his fans, what he does is miraculously relatable. For those unfamiliar or generally opposed to his efforts, the film will be pure torture.
I’m a fan, and so were a lot of the people in the theater where I viewed Friendship. The moment Robinson showed up onscreen, people just started laughing, even guffawing—and Robinson was merely walking, with his character Craig heading to his new neighbor, Austin (Paul Rudd, sporting his Brian Fantana mustache), with a misdelivered package.
The two exchange pleasantries, and they start hanging out. It’s the beginning of a great friendship begins … or maybe not. While Austin is patient with some of Craig’s quirks at the beginning, things come to a head when things get super-strange at a party, resulting in broken windows and lots of doubt regarding Craig’s social and mental stability.
Wives get lost in sewers; subway hallucinations ensue; and hairpieces fly off in a cascading cacophony of brutal failures that make Craig a monstrosity of mishaps.
Craig’s decline into complete whacko is not surprising. One shouldn’t walk into a Robinson film called Friendship and expect something warmhearted. Instead, one should expect the worst social anxieties and insecurities about yourself amplified 100 times—and then amplified a 100 times more.
Friendship is a nightmare comedy that makes you laugh despite all the squirming. Long live Tim Robinson!
