Friendship – losing everything in the pursuit of belonging (UK cinemas from 18 July)

If you’re a fan of Tim Robinson (and the I Think You Should Leave series) then you can stop reading this review and just go to the cinema and enjoy the new film Friendship that he stars in as Craig, a socially awkward ‘product addiction’ executive.

Others will be tipped over the edge to purchase a ticket when they see that Paul Rudd plays a charismatic weatherman Austin who has a buzzing social life and lives across the road from Craig.

Kate Mara plays Craig’s long-suffering wife Tami … and her performance makes me ponder the distracting question of whether House of Cards (in which she played the investigative journalist Zoe Barnes who has a close encounter with a moving train) deserves a rewatch despite the troublesome presence of Kevin Spacey as troublesome Frank Underwood?

Tami pushes Craig to get out and make friends. But it’s not something that comes naturally to him. He has no sense of when a joke might go too far, when to dial back when he’s trying too hard, and how not to become a needy hanger-on who is competing in a race he’s invited himself to participate in.

Right from the start, director and screenwriter Andrew DeYoung sets up Friendship as a catastrophe that will bubble and brew and eventually explode all over the screen. I’m fine with a build-up of tension in spy films and thrillers, but I find this kind of stressy self-inflicted stupidity and humiliation excruciating to watch. That means that Clockwise, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation are all painful viewing in my eyes.

Friendship is less frenetic, but the character of Craig still gives me the ick. Tami’s renewed friendship with her ex smoulders like a cigarette discarded into a city centre bin that could potentially trigger an inferno. Craig’s budding bromance with Austin – laced with late night urbex adventures and copious male camaraderie – is doomed to be one-sided.

There’s some lovely visual humour: look out for a sinking shot that keeps the audience a few seconds ahead of Craig’s latest misadventure. But while others at the screening I attended hooted with laughter throughout the 101 minute film, I slipped further and further down into my seat, squirming with anticipation at the looming calamity.

Aspects of DeYoung’s script are intelligent. Underneath the constant stream of gags, if you look carefully, you’ll spot that Craig’s new hero Austin is not some kind of unattainable alpha-male. He too battles with being accepted in the workplace and other personal issues whose revelation I’ll not spoil. What’s less pleasing is the way that Austin’s wife Bianca (Meredith Garretson) is woefully underwritten to the extent that you’ll watch much of the film thinking that Austin is single. This is a film that almost exclusively examines male friendship and even leaves what’s happening between Tami and her ex as a underdeveloped plot device.

Friendship is being screened at Queen’s Film Theatre as well as local cinema chains.

 

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