Friendship Review: The Need for Human Connection

Friendship shines a spotlight on the comedic genius of Tim Robinson while daring to unpack the behemoth that is genuine friendship.

When we enter adulthood, things become more muddled. Longstanding commitments to careers, hobbies we already struggle to make time for, and romantic relationships (paired with the concept of marriage) seem to take priority in people’s lives. However, this doesn’t make friendships and the need for genuine human connection any less important.

Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship absurdly explores the challenges of navigating the formation of new friendships in adulthood. While the film’s exploration of the, at times, desperate desire for human connection is comedically hyperbolic and situationally hilarious, it also packs a decent amount of depth and commentary on how disconnected the modern world feels. 

Friendship follows Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson, of I Think You Should Leave), a suburban dad who is buried deep in his comfort zone. His wife Tami (Kate Mara, of Call Jane) has recently beaten cancer and wants to dive back into the world after feeling held back by her treatment. While she reconnects with the world and her handsome, rich, firefighter ex-boyfriend, she urges her husband to seek companionship outside of their relationship, too. 

When a package intended for their new neighbors gets mistakenly delivered to Craig and Tami’s, Tami asks Craig to walk the package over. After trudging uphill in the chilly New York winter, Craig arrives at the new neighbor’s house and meets the effortlessly charming Austin (Paul Rudd, of Death of a Unicorn), who takes a liking to Craig. When Austin calls the Waterman house to invite Craig over for a drink later that night, Tami accepts for him in hopes this can be a new friend for her self-isolating husband. 

As the men begin to hang out, Craig becomes transfixed by Austin’s natural charisma. Austin is a weatherman who smokes hand-rolled cigarettes, plays guitar in a punk band and has a supportive and emotionally intelligent friend group. As Craig tries to integrate into Austin’s friend group, he makes several unrecoverable faux pas, causing Austin to take a step back from their budding friendship. With no other meaningful relationships outside of his wife and son, Craig is heartbroken by Austin’s rejection and finds it impossible to return to life as usual after finally experiencing a meaningful platonic connection.  

The pairing between Andrew DeYoung and Tim Robinson is kismet. Friendship feels like an extension of Robinson’s runaway hit show, I Think You Should Leave; however, the film is held up by a depth that the sketch comedy show has never taken itself seriously enough to explore. 

This isn’t to diss on I Think You Should Leave, but rather to say that the comedy of the show, as well as the comedic persona Robinson has created, can be explored in an entirely new light if given the platform to. While Friendship is laugh-out-loud, gasp-for-breath, tear-up-crying funny, DeYoung’s directorial feature debut has far more to say about its titular subject material than meets the eye. 

Craig is someone who can see his future, almost hold it in his hands, but just can’t grasp it. He has a beautiful family, he’s in an important role at his company and he has a routine that works for him, but something is missing. Outside of reaching certain meaningful benchmarks in his life, he has no community. He works as an app developer at a company that actively tries to get people more addicted to their phones. His sense of connection to the world is loose at best. While the film’s conversations around “seeing the new Marvel”, as in the latest Marvel film, are hilarious on the surface, when looking deeper, you realize Craig’s desire to see this film is an attempt to connect with a cultural discussion in some way because it’s an easy enough access point. 

With the nature of his work and how it impacts his view on the world, Craig is so deeply embedded in creating synthetic relationships that when a real one comes about, it’s understandable why he grasps so tightly at it. In that sense, Friendship begs to ask the question: how far would you go for connection? 

DeYoung packs the film full of small moments that subtly add to his larger conversation he’s having with the audience about modern connection, without taking away from the comedic elements of the film that will draw in its viewers. Craig repeatedly walks uphill to Austin’s house as a visual of what it feels like to put yourself out there. Craig only buys his clothing from one store to show his discomfort with branching out. Craig is obsessed with eating the “SEAL Team 6” meal special, indicating his desire to be seen as traditionally masculine. All of these weird character elements that seem baked into the script solely for comedic effect are able to round out Craig as a character in a nuanced way.

Tim Robinson is a genuine and one-of-a-kind comedic genius. The film simply would not have worked with anyone else at the helm. Friendship truly is a match of wits, as Andrew DeYoung perfectly utilizes Robinson’s gifts to guide an interesting and well-rounded conversation about the modern state of human connection.

Friendship will be released in US theaters on May 9, 2025.