Review of “Friendship”: Tim Robinson transforms self-immolation into a comedy

We continue to hear that we are in a masculine-rein epidemic. The agonizing and hilarious “friendship” gives the impression that black death. Written and produced by the start of filmmaker Andrew Deyoung (TV “Pen15”, “Acute”), this Bromance trembles while Guy meets the child, Guy throws the man-child and the burning man who burns. It is a reflection of the adult struggle to make new friends as we see through a mirror of the snake.

Tim Robinson Play Craig, a father who is delighted to do with his new neighbor, Austin (Paul Rudd), until a night of boys ends with a punch and, finally, someone calling the cops. Craig's grief on his best lost friend smoke him with denial, anger, negotiation and depression. Acceptance is impossible. Spontaneous nose bleeding occurs twice.

Elsewhere, Robinson has become the poster for male social anxiety: the pariah which is so disconcerted by the rules of polished chitchat that it crosses the line and bursts into tears. On his cult sketch “I think you should leave”, He won two consecutive Emmys for the way he superimposes vulnerability under anger, such as the sketch in which he is expelled from a ghost tour reserved for adults and fats: “I don't know what's going on, but in one way or another, our sons were crossed!” Robinson never said that his characters were on the spectrum, but autistic viewers have done Fans videos On how much they relate to its confusion.

Only 5 '8 “, Robinson may seem threatening to be huge. Choices that would decrease other actors – oversized jackets, courted shoulders, public mockery – make him bigger. It should be emphasized that Deyoung had the idea of ​​script in 2018 before the existence of this program.

“Friendship” surrounds Robinson of normality: talking about filling, laughing forcing and the kind of beautiful lighting that you would see in a home insurance advertising. Craig has somehow a charming woman (Kate Mara) and a credible son (the always engaging Jack Dylan Grazer). Tami Sensé de Mara sets up the tone of the opening scene, which takes place in a support group of a couple. She delivers the kind of monologue Halting and relating to sexual dysfunction and discomfort you could find in an independent film. Craig, of course, cancels mood. “I am very well ordered,” he leaves.

It is impossible to imagine why Tami has already agreed to marry it first, because she chooses to spend most of her time with her ex (Josh Segarra), a Hunky and sensitive firefighter. Meanwhile, Craig Swoons on Austin, a local meteorologist whose meeting ideas – mushroom harvesting, urban spenking, the start of a punk rock garage group – give Craig a real joy. No one still wanted to be his friend before. (Craig is so difficult to be there that we are more likely to line up on the side of his intimidators, like Eric Rahill, who was a little left as a bad colleague.) When Craig spots that austin cracks a cheesy one-bound in the new nighttime, he smiles like Santa Claus is real.

Austin's lush mustache and Drawl Southern Hammy are not entirely synchronized with tone; Rudd seems stuck in the Ferrell version of the film. I agree with the idea that Austin is a little false who claims that he does not have a mobile phone. But when he admits lying, nothing happens. (At least, the FIB leads to several scenes in a phone store with Billy Bryki Very funny clerk.) The film does not really care about the psychology of someone else; He wants to keep Craig Maroron on Oddball Island. Empathy would be too easy.

However, the scenes of Rudd and Robinson are great. They even laughs through the ritual to order a Subway sandwich. And Rudd made an inverted version of this film before, 2009, softer and poorer “I love you, guy”, Where he played the clogged with a friend (Jason Segel) who teaches him to shout. There will be no learning here, although Craig tries and fails to imitate Austin in his absence.

Robinson did not invent this kind of creaky comedy. One of the most sublime examples of the form returns to the short game without words by Anton Tchekhov, “Sneezing”, “ A SNL prototye Skett on a man who accidentally whistles at the back of a government's neck and in his climbing despair of normalizing his oopsy suffers from a break and dies. But “friendship” seems exactly well for the moment. Cultural standards change as well as the communities in person are breaking down. In a second given in public, you can go from the invisible to the show in a viral video that puts you to the explosion.

It's hard to be a human. No wonder Craig feels more like a bunch of opossums in a skin suit. By all that I have seen from Robinson out of camera (he does not seem to appreciate the press), he is a charming man who raises two teenagers with his high school sweetheart. He plays left in our name.

Although it is its first major cinema role after the success of the program of its program, I can see it on this trajectory of Clown-Taspian which ends with an Oscar to go with his Emmy. For the moment, however, I want to apologize to Deyoung. He will not obtain the credit he deserves for this terrible comic torment, because it looks like another masterclass of Tim Robinson in self-immolation. It may be an annoying thing to say. Maybe it's okay.