Friendship is the funniest film you will see this year

Much ink has been spilt about the death of the mid-budget studio comedy.

Ever since the Netflix machine rolled into town in the mid-2010s, films that used to reliably fill cinemas have gone straight to streaming and are forgotten about within 48 hours of release.

Watching a comedy at home doesn’t quite hit the same; a great comedy relies on feeding off the energy of a crowd.

Friendship successfully revitalises the ailing genre.

For years, the best reason to keep a Netflix subscription is for the sketch comedy show I Think You Should Leave, which sees Tim Robinson and a revolving door of comedy friends placed in increasingly absurd or awkward situations until the rubber band stretches.

The genius of I Think You Should Leave is having a character, usually played by Robinson, commit a social faux pas and then double, even triple down, on their mistake.

The sketches end before you see what happens next or what the fallout – Friendship explores what it’s like to actually live with a Tim Robinson sketch character.

Robinson gets his Steve Martin in The Jerk moment with Friendship; a cult comedian makes a bid for the mainstream and succeeds with flying colours. 

Friendship explores the typical suburban life of Robinson’s Craig, who is pushed out of his usual comfort zone by his wife, played by Kate Mara, who suggests he go for a drink with their new neighbour.

Said neighbour is played by Paul Rudd, a charismatic, dashing weatherman with a moustache and a punk band.

Rudd’s Austin is everything that Craig is not, and after a few hangs, Craig thinks the two are becoming fast friends.

As is true to life, two or three good hangs don’t constitute a friendship, and Craig takes it up the wrong way – hilarity ensues.

Friendship can be best described as that one Simpsons episode where a new co-worker at the power plant, Frank Grimes, goes through increasingly elaborate attempts to show everyone the laziness of Homer Simpson.

First-time writer/director Andrew DeYoung uses a similar tactic here; we see Craig spiral and go through desperate attempts to win back Austin’s approval.

Shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm or the UK version of The Office are still influencing how creatives do comedy 25 years later; if you like the cringe comedy of those shows and watching people digging themselves deeper in awkward social situations, Friendship is the movie to see this week.

While Rudd is the big name in the movie that people know, the masses might not be as familiar with the works of Robinson; suffice it to say, this is his film, and the film is built around him.

The beauty of a Tim Robinson performance is seeing the character not knowing he’s the butt of the joke, or him not knowing he’s supposed to let the moment slide.

The script keeps finding ways for him to put his foot in his mouth or do something that isolates him from his family and friends; what Friendship does differently is it makes you sit with the character after he does something crazy.

When a scene ends on a sitcom or sketch comedy show, you’re left wondering what happens next; Friendship explores that detail and mines gold out of it.

We see what happens after the camera cuts away or the show goes to an ad break; the kind of person who is wild and wacky in the context of a sitcom is an absolute nightmare to be around in day-to-day life.

When you are married to the manchild, arrested development type, we see that life as someone’s wife is a living hell, and Kate Mara plays this really well.

Beneath the patented Tim Robinson craziness, we see the human side of this, too, and some of the film’s best moments rely on having a serious actor like Mara paired against a comedic buffoon like Robinson.

Likewise, Rudd’s character makes fun of the joke that he hasn’t aged since he was in Clueless, and we see that beneath all the slickness and coolness (which Robinson is trying so desperately to pick up some of) he’s nearly as shallow and empty as Robinson, he just covers it up better.

In the hands of a less capable filmmaker, the film could be recut as a psychological thriller about a man with no social skills trying to ruin the life of his neighbour; here, the film cleverly blurs the lines between laugh-out-loud comedy and Zodiac.

Trying to describe why a film is funny is surprisingly difficult, as what one person finds funny is likely to be totally different to someone else’s tastes, but trust us when we say that Friendship is really, really funny.

There is something for everyone: gross-out vomit gags, physical comedy, one-liners, the aforementioned cringe comedy, and a dash of the surreal make this a winning comedy dish.

A good frame of reference for Friendship is Wayne’s World; that film, apart from having two hilarious leads and side characters and a great script, had a great director in Penelope Spheeris to tie it all together.

Sphreeis’ background consisted of music video work and documentaries, and her documentary background grounds Wayne’s World, which is a silly premise, into something more human and real.

In Mike Myers’ later career, when he is going big and being a live-action cartoon, you wish he still had a director like Sphreeis reminding him to rein it in.

DeYoung, in his first film, finds his secret; lean into the uncomfortableness and the black comedy. 

And as if we haven’t stressed this enough, Friendship crushes with a crowd.

Don’t wait until this hits streaming – vote with your wallets and see this with a crowd if possible.

The communal energy, where everyone is waiting on the edge of their seat for whatever silly or outrageous thing happens next, cannot be beat.

Friendship is the kind of film we used to get all the time; films like Superbad, 21 Jump Street, and Step Brothers all spring to mind.

If you wish you could have seen those comedy classics with a crowd, here’s the next best thing.