Friendship (Andrew DeYoung, 2024)

[therewillbeblus]

Friendship marks the return of the actually-funny 'stupid comedy', a genre that seemed to die out many years ago. I Think You Should Leave fans and the core audience for this movie are certainly linked at the hip, but it should be noted that this has both a comically broader appeal (anecdotally, I saw this with a friend who doesn't like that show at all and loved this) and a dark Observe and Report edge to it that expands its reach drastically, while maintaining a bizarre ethos with its own internal logic (non-Tim Robinson gags like the incestuous vibes land just as well as his bits). If you think this kind of movie has a chance at working for you, and you're not sold on Tim Robinson, I'd still recommend seeing it

[Red Screamer]

Friendship marks the return of the actually-funny 'stupid comedy', a genre that seemed to die out many years ago. I Think You Should Leave fans and the core audience for this movie are certainly linked at the hip, but it should be noted that this has both a comically broader appeal (anecdotally, I saw this with a friend who doesn't like that show at all and loved this) and a dark Observe and Report edge to it that expands its reach drastically, while maintaining a bizarre ethos with its own internal logic (non-Tim Robinson gags like the incestuous vibes land just as well as his bits). If you think this kind of movie has a chance at working for you, and you're not sold on Tim Robinson, I'd still recommend seeing it

I’m not sure why I put down money to see this. I guess I hoped the mix of tasteful trappings and vulgarity would produce something interesting. Instead, I found it unenjoyable and predictable on two levels at once. With how little Rudd and Mara are given to work with, this is clearly built as a showcase for Robinson, yet his persona is barely defined beyond finding opportunities for him to yell as much as possible. As a feature, this is actually less able to sustain itself than Robinson’s comedy sketches, with every comic idea fizzling out within two minutes of its introduction. Scenes contradict or backtrack from previous ones to the point where it barely hangs together at all as a movie. For cringe comedy to work, there has to be some baseline of character and behavior delineated; for it to be an extended “omg so me” joke about social failure, the characters’ choices have to matter. Instead, it’s all-purpose absurdity to get a laugh — so, like twbblus mentioned, the character of Robinson’s son is introduced kissing his stepmom(?) on the lips, which is used for shock value then never mentioned again — but in that case, the film should be surprising and flexible instead of pedestrian and repetitive. Friendship reminded me of my adolescence being shown Will Ferrell movies (not only because Rudd seems to be reprising his character from Anchorman), with the same unpleasant feeling that these constantly-screaming comedians are trying to bully the laugh out of you. Fashions have changed. Now, those movies are lower budget and narrower. But that doesn’t make the shtick any funnier.

[therewillbeblus]

On some level it's probably foolish to argue the merits of comedy, due to its individualized nature, but I do think that Robinson's surreal tint on the genre belongs with The State, The Lonely Island, et al. in terms of 'clever-dumb comedy' in many ways. A simple joke like

Spoiler

the name "Jimp" isn't funny because it sounds weird. That's not even really the punchline. It's funny because the person with the name doesn't explain it with the base of a name. If he said, "It's like Jim with a P added on," it wouldn't be a strong gag, but because he says, "It's like 'jump' with an 'i'", explaining his own name with a bizarre internal logic of using a random verb as a base, instead of the obvious choice of a name, it is.

Now, this isn't immediately registered or anything, but it's subtly absurd - rather than just loudly absurd, which a lot of this movie is as well. And I personally felt that Tim Robinson reigned in his shtick well. The "Come on, who are you?!" freakout with the hand gestures only comes once, late in the film. He really spaces out his usual tics so as not to overuse the same bits. Though again, I'd never fault anyone for not clicking with the material - it's definitely reminiscent of a particular kind of comedy, even if I think that's Hot Rod crossed with Freddy Got Fingered, and not Anchorman. This didn't feel to be bullying laughs in quite the same way as Will Ferrell comedies do.

I recall a film critic attributing The Hangover's positive reception with critics and audiences of the time of its release to the film coming on the coattails of the financial crisis of '08, giving the collective masses an opportunity to just tune out the noise and laugh at something stupid, something we all really needed at the time. I'd add that there's a relatively universal element to that film (which I don't personally like very much) - the exposure of a sense of powerlessness, and a side of ourselves that is fallible. Friendship seems to be doing something similar with the struggle of social interaction and our own self-consciousness to fallible possibilities. Maybe audiences right now just desperately need a comedy that strikes more primitive parts of us under a smarter-than-you-might-think surreal bend. I suspect it would've landed well regardless, but its timing is perfect. People feel disconnected, as well as the pain that it's too late to change the tides. That's kinda what Friendship is all about.

[swo17]

A24 Blu-ray in August

[mfunk9786]

Puzzles me why A24 is so stingy with their own films. No reason this shouldn't be a 4K release if it got a 4K DCP from a 4K source (which it did)

[swo17]

And hasn't it been doing well at the box office?

[Mark L.]

Puzzles me why A24 is so stingy with their own films. No reason this shouldn't be a 4K release if it got a 4K DCP from a 4K source (which it did)

I agree and I find this extremely annoying. Queer and Different Man are two other galling omissions. At least Queer is getting a 4K in the UK!

I'm sure they have sales data and blah blah blah to back up why they aren't releasing specific stuff in that format, but I find it hard to square that with other labels releasing ever more niche stuff on 4K. Just looking at this month, you're telling me Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Scent of a Woman and Killer of Sheep are less niche than the wide-release Tim Robinson comedy that has done pretty well at the box office? Even if the answer is "Yes, these are less niche", I think it would be great for branding purposes to have releases of your own films in the highest quality format.

[PfR73]

On the other hand, at least they are getting released unlike some other A24 films I've been waiting on, such as Y2K and Problemista (yes, I am aware that they have some international disc releases, but they seem to be barebones so I was hoping A24 would put out better editions).

[Mr Sausage]

I enjoyed this. I had to pause it frequently for relief since I find cringe comedy difficult to bear. But I'm surprised to see above that Robinson's character was labled incoherent, since pretty much everything he does comes from the same conceit: a disproportionate response to stress. And this goes both ways: minor things are treated like they're major (sinking a bit in the mud makes him react like it's quicksand) while major things earn hilariously petty responses. Eating the wild mushrooms could've easily turned into a hacky bit, but it's so funny here precisely because it refuses to make much of it. Robinson's reaction to finding blood in his vomit is peeved exasperation, as if he'd dropped his car keys in the snow after already spending 10 minutes looking for them in the house. And even his comment is half heard in a fade out. I think the best example of this principle is the whole drug trip. Deciding to lick a toxic toad is just a wild response to what's going on, yet the trip itself is so harmless. The proportions are off for every part of that scene, and it's hilarious how cause and effect are so mismatched. Driving at that one particular effect across scenes, mixing different levels of disproportion, is I thought a perfect comic analogue for a story about a character trapped within one event, unable to get past it.

Everything in the movie either too big or too small for the space it occupies. Much like Craig himself. And because the movie resists psychologizing him, that inability to properly fit into a given space becomes metaphysical, like the burden of existence rather than merely poor choices. I mean, even giving him an impossibly beautiful wife and happy, well-adjusted kid feels like a joke on Craig himself. The ultimate joke is that nothing in Craig's life makes any particular sense, and yet he's forced to fill that space anyway.