It's hilarious. It's awkward. It's 'Friendship'

We support proceeding that we’re successful a male-loneliness epidemic. The agonizing and hilarious “Friendship” makes it consciousness similar the Black Death. Written and directed by debuting filmmaker Andrew DeYoung (TV’s “PEN15,” “Shrill”), this bromance trembles arsenic feline meets man-child, feline dumps man-child and man-child burns everything down. It’s a reflection of the big conflict to marque caller friends arsenic seen done a spook-house mirror.

Tim Robinson plays Craig, a dada who is delighted to pal astir with his caller neighbor, Austin (Paul Rudd), until a boys’ nighttime ends successful a punch and, eventually, idiosyncratic calling the cops. Craig’s grief implicit his mislaid BFF makes him fume with denial, anger, bargaining and depression. Acceptance is impossible. Spontaneous chemoreceptor bleeds hap twice.

Elsewhere, Robinson has go the poster lad for antheral societal anxiety: the pariah who is truthful flummoxed by the rules of polite chitchat that helium crosses the enactment and bursts into tears. On his cult sketch amusement “I Think You Should Leave,” he’s won 2 consecutive Emmys for the mode helium layers vulnerability nether anger, similar the skit successful which helium gets himself kicked retired of an adults-only shade circuit and blubbers, “I don’t cognize what is going on, but someway our wires got crossed!” Robinson has ne'er claimed that his characters are connected the spectrum, but autistic viewers person made fan videos astir however overmuch they subordinate to his confusion.

Only 5’ 8”, Robinson tin look threateningly huge. Choices that would diminish different actors — oversized jackets, hunched shoulders, nationalist mockery — lone marque him puff up bigger. When Craig senses humiliation connected the horizon, helium goes connected the attack. He wants desperately to acceptable in, but he’d alternatively interrupt, situation and close than fto the hostility relax. “Friendship” looks and feels truthful overmuch similar a feature-length hold of “ITYSL” that it’s worthy pointing retired that DeYoung came up with the publication thought successful 2018 earlier that amusement existed. The movie would beryllium a wholly antithetic carnal if it starred, say, Adam Sandler oregon Will Ferrell. Perhaps moving successful tv has trained DeYoung to accommodate to other’s sensibilities earlier insisting connected his own.

“Friendship” surrounds Robinson with normalcy: filler talk, obliging laughter and the benignant of handsome lighting you’d spot successful a home-insurance commercial. Craig someway has a beauteous woman (Kate Mara) and believable lad (the ever engaging Jack Dylan Grazer). Mara’s sensible Tami sets up the code successful the opening scene, which takes spot astatine a couples’ enactment group. She delivers the benignant of halting, relatable monologue astir intersexual dysfunction and malaise that you could find successful an earnest indie movie. Craig, naturally, quashes the mood. “I’m orgasming fine,” helium blurts.

It’s intolerable to ideate wherefore Tami ever agreed to wed him successful the archetypal place, arsenic she chooses to walk astir of her clip with her ex (Josh Segarra), a hunky and delicate fireman. Meanwhile, Craig swoons implicit Austin, a section weatherman whose hang-out ideas — mushroom harvesting, municipality spelunking, starting a punk stone store set — springiness Craig genuine joy. No one’s ever wanted to beryllium his person before. (Craig is truthful pugnacious to beryllium astir that we’re much apt to broadside with his bullies, similar Eric Rahill, who has a large spot portion arsenic a nasty co-worker.) When Craig spots Austin cracking a corny one-liner connected the nightly news, helium smiles similar Santa Claus is real.

Austin’s lush mustache and hammy Southern drawl aren’t rather successful sync with the tone; Rudd seems stuck successful the Ferrell mentation of the film. I’m good with the thought that Austin is simply a spot of a phony who pretends helium doesn’t ain a cellphone. But erstwhile helium admits to the lie, thing happens. (At slightest the fib leads to respective scenes astatine a telephone store with Billy Bryk’s precise comic clerk.) The movie doesn’t truly attraction astir anyone else’s psychology; it wants to support Craig marooned connected Oddball Island. Empathy would beryllium excessively easy.

Still, Rudd and Robinson’s scenes unneurotic are great. They get laughs adjacent going done the ritual of ordering a sandwich astatine Subway. And Rudd’s made an inverted mentation of this movie before, 2009’s sweeter and raunchier “I Love You, Man,” wherever helium played the wallflower with a buddy (Jason Segel) who teaches him to scream. There won’t beryllium immoderate learning here, though Craig tries and fails to mimic Austin successful his absence.

Robinson didn’t invent this benignant of cringe comedy. One of the astir sublime examples of the signifier traces backmost to Anton Chekhov’s wordless abbreviated play, “The Sneeze,” a proto-“SNL” skit astir a antheral who accidentally wheezes connected the backmost of a authorities official’s cervix and successful his escalating desperation to normalize his oopsie suffers a breakdown and dies. But “Friendship” feels precisely close for precisely close now. Cultural norms are shifting conscionable arsenic in-person communities are breaking down. At immoderate fixed 2nd successful public, you could spell from invisible to starring successful a viral video that puts you connected blast.

It’s hard to beryllium a human. No wonderment Craig feels much similar a clump of possums successful a tegument suit. By everything I’ve seen of Robinson off-camera (he doesn’t look to bask press), he’s a beauteous antheral raising 2 teenagers with his precocious schoolhouse sweetheart. He plays gauche connected our behalf.

Although this is his archetypal large movie relation aft his show’s breakout success, I tin spot him connected that clown-to-thespian trajectory that ends with an Oscar to spell with his Emmy. For now, however, I privation to apologize to DeYoung. He won’t get the recognition helium deserves for this terrific comic torment due to the fact that it conscionable feels similar different Tim Robinson masterclass successful self-immolation. Maybe that’s an awkward happening to say. Maybe it’s fine.