Of course the funniest film of the year<\/a> is about how hard it is now to make a friend. We\u2019re living in the age of social decay. Either you\u2019re parasocially attached to ChatGPT or starting fist fights at the cinema because half a row\u2019s been temporarily blinded by the glow of someone checking their likes on Instagram. No one knows how to socialise anymore and everyone\u2019s angry at each other for it.<\/p>\n Writer-director Andrew DeYoung\u2019s debut feature, Friendship, files all those anxieties into a lethally absurd point, summarised by its exasperated lead Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson<\/a>) when he cries out: \u201cI did one strange thing and I\u2019m toast!\u201d An erroneously delivered package has led him to the front door of his new neighbour, the moustachioed, twinkly eyed glory<\/a> that is Paul Rudd\u2019s Austin Carmichael. Austin collects Palaeolithic artefacts, plays in a band, does weather for the local news station, and doesn\u2019t even own a phone. He might very well be the ultimate man.<\/p>\n Craig\u2019s wife, Tami (Kate Mara), is 12 months cancer free. It\u2019s created an urgency in Craig that feels like watching a wheel spinning in mud \u2013 some ghost of the post-lockdown frustration of wanting to finally embrace life with no means or knowledge to do it. \u201cYou\u2019re healthy and we\u2019re here now,\u201d he urges her. That could have been a beautiful sentiment if he hadn\u2019t been begging her to explore a sewer system with him. Nothing makes sense: why he can never fill his coffee cup to the right level, why his wife and teenage son (Jack Dylan Grazer) kiss on the lips, why he\u2019s the only one to take the free biscuits at the counselling meeting.<\/p>\n But then, Austin \u2013 cool, casual Austin \u2013 tells him: \u201cYou crack me up.\u201d You can practically hear the angelic choirs as Craig\u2019s face lights up. It\u2019s perfect and beautiful, until Craig does the \u201cone strange thing\u201d, and suddenly his entire life spirals out of control because he can\u2019t handle the blowback. The \u201cstrange thing\u201d is an incredible punchline \u2013 entirely unexpected and absurd yet underpinned by a horrible logic that quietly suggests to the audience why Craig is the way he is. And it\u2019s one of several incredible punchlines, among them one of the funniest drug trips ever put to screen.<\/p>\n
![\"Tim](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/FRIENDSHIP_03.jpeg\")
Tim Robinson in \u2018Friendship\u2019 (A24)<\/p>\n