©Courtesy of A24

There’s something very relatable human about the way adults mask their feelings, instead of finding a community in which they can freely express themselves. Writer-director Andrew DeYoung‘s feature film debut, Friendship, explores what happens when a middle-age man has kept his emotions hidden for so long that he no longer knows how to socialize with another man. The engaging comedy explores how attempts at male bonding can lead to men who have kept their emotions repressed ultimately becoming unhinged.

Friendship follows the reclusive Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) as he heads to the home of his new neighbor, Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), to hand-deliver a misaddressed package. Craig, sedentary family man, feels it’s the perfect pretense to make a meaningful connection with a man his own age.

Austin, who’s the new weatherman in the area, is not only happier and more productive than Craig, but also cooler. As a result, Craig hooks onto Austin as a confidant and role model.

Austin is initially charmed by Craig’s affections and admiration, but the latter soon becomes anxious and jealous by the possibility of his new friend forming emotional bonds with other men. Craig becomes further upset and resentful when Austin suggests they take a step back from their new relationship. As a result, the confused Craig finds himself falling into a desperate spiral of obsession.

©Courtesy of A24

In a society where many people value social status and success – or, at least how their peers perceive their achievements – more than anything else, Craig’s increasingly obsessive need to be accepted by his new neighbor is the true allure of the movie. Like so many of Robinson’s previous characters, like on his hit sketch comedy series I Think You Should Leave, his protagonist in Friendship is incapable of being his true self. The more Craig tries to act normal and prosperous, the more he alienates the very people he’s trying to impress.

The hook of DeYoung’s set-up in his first feature is the pairing of Robinson with Rudd, as the two actors perfectly complement each other’s comic range and lean into their respective screen personas. Robinson infuses Craig with with a tense nervousness, even while he’s making small talk, while Rudd channels his signature charm into the protagonist’s new next-door neighbor. Craig’s increasingly inept personality around Austin makes the latter so uncomfortable that their titular friendship soon turns into a one-sided bromance.

DeYoung was inspired to craft the main characters’ battle of wills in part by his own friendship issues that he was trying to resolve a few years ago. When thinking about his own tense connections, he realized that he had never seen a breakup story about two middle-aged men in a film before, even though it’s happening all the time in real life. He also recognized that the most tragic situations can ultimately become the funniest. As a result, he was inspired to create a self-contained narrative about an outsider who’s struggling to be accepted in a place where he wasn’t welcome.

©Courtesy of A24

The unsettling subtext infused in the increasingly tense eponymous relationship is also presented in Andy Rydzewski’s conceptually controlled cinematography. The way he shot the comedy emphasizes the warmth of the holiday season, during which time the story is set.

While Friendship‘s story is largely driven by its gripping sense of realism, there’s still always something uncanny lurking at the edges of the frame. Rydzewski, who wanted to make the project look different from most other comedies by going against convention, infused the feature with a more dramatic visual language. He used as much natural lighting as possible to showcase how the characters’ guards are down as they try to connect to their more genuine sense of self.

Robinson’s explosive comic rhythms are also captured by Sophie Corra’s uniquely attuned editing. As a result, the cinematography and editing perfectly come together in a sequence when Craig convinces his wife Tami (Kate Mara) to go on an ill-advised date to a maze of subterranean tunnels. The outing, which was inspired, like so many of Craig’s ill-advised ideas, by his insecurity over Austin’s rejection, baths Tami in spectral deep red.

There’s an overall sense of creeping terror in Craig’s obsession with Austin, which gives off the vibes of a fatal attraction as the protagonist searches for validation from his new neighbor. Robinson inhabited the character’s sense of futility without
condescension.

©Courtesy of A24

Meanwhile, cast in a part that calls back to several of his most beloved movies, Rudd brings his own likeability to the screen in Friendship. The charming actor was smartly cast as a suitable foil to Craig, who so desperately looks up to Austin and seeks his validation that he fails to recognize his invasive personality.

Beyond its exploration of the anxiety that accompanies the unavoidable disintegration of an increasingly toxic friendship through the main actors’ strong performances, the film is also a gripping satire of a world obsessed with branding. Craig works as an app developer who must make his products more addictive. His job in promoting the latest technology reflects his personality outside of his job – connecting with people by manipulating them.

The biggest technology brands have replaced society’s spiritual outlets and structures of belief. That feeling of spiritual emptiness in Friendship is amplified by its frostbitten upstate New York backdrop; it was shot over the course of 23 days over the winter months in Yonkers. The protagonist is always on slippery terrain, both literally and figuratively, as he tries to figure out where his life his headed.

DeYoung’s effortless infusion of suburban psychodrama elements into the bromance breakup story of his debut feature, Friendship effortlessly oversteps typical comedy genre conventions. Guided by Robinson and Rudd’s stellar performances, Rydzewski’s conceptually controlled cinematography and Corra’s uniquely attuned editing, the movie is an engaging parable about the hope of connecting with someone new as an adult. However, Craig’s arc ultimately proves how repressed emotions and unrealistic expectations can lead anyone into a desperate spiral of obsession that leads to heartache for everyone involved.

©Courtesy of A24

Grade: A

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Check out more of Karen Benardello’s articles.

Friendship made its U.S. premiere in the Festival Favorite section at the 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival. A24 will release the movie in limited theaters in the U.S. on May 9, 2025. The distributor will then expand the comedy into a wide theatrical release on May 23.

Here’s the trailer of the film.