I saw Friendship in theaters this weekend. I will announce when spoilers begin.
I thought it was a comedic masterpiece.
I don’t want to hype it up too much, but I genuinely thought it was a masterpiece. I’m not sure I’m qualified to use that word given my limited experience in reviewing comedy movies, but that’s what I came away feeling, and I have a reason for it! I’ll explain why in the next section.
Obviously die-hard I Think You Should Leave fans will be biased towards finding it funny, and people who don’t like or haven’t seen the show will probably not feel that level of admiration. I’m curious what non-fans would think of the movie. If you do see it, know that the first ~30 minutes are solid, but the last hour is the real payoff.
Here’s my angle on the movie that explains why I’m so high on it.
The Reviews & My Deep Analysis
Spoilers begin now.
Most of the reviews you’ll read about the movie say it’s a commentary on the awkwardness of adult male friendship. They’ll say something like “it has funny moments but is too over the top and cringey or unhinged at parts.“. To me, pretty much every review I’ve read is taking the movie too literally. This review in particular captures perfectly what I’m talking about, which I’ll get back to below, and most reviews have a pretty similar tone.
To me, the brains behind this movie made a list of as many movie tropes they could think of and poured it into a massive satire of all of them. Points in specific genres where you typically think ‘this is a pivotal moment‘ happen over and over again, and they’re all meaningless. There are elements of:
- Buddy Comedy – The I Love You Man dynamic between Craig and Austin to start.
- Awkward Social Situations – Pretty much every scene involving Craig and another male.
- Romantic Drama – Losing Tami, her ex BF Devon, trying to win her back, standing up for her against he guy at the restaurant, buying her the van, etc.
- Father Son – They’re so ambiguous, intentionally I’m sure, on what the hell is going on between Craig and Steven.
- Horror – The sewer scene where Craig loses Tami is genuinely scary.
- Action / Suspense – When he pulls the gun at the party near the end.
- Search for Meaning via Psychedelics– The toad trip.
This notion of playing into the tropes became abundantly clear to me when Tami said she had an orgasm in the sewer. I was dying laughing. It’s this big reveal from something prior in the movie and the moment has a lot of suspense. Craig doesn’t know how to react. In countless other movies there’s some moment like that, a twist or revelation of some sort, and in Friendship, it was Tami having an orgasm for the first time in a year in a sewer, and it meant absolutely nothing.
So to my original point, this movie was a joke on movies dressed up as a commentary on adult male friendship and acted out by every character Tim has ever played in I Think You Should Leave.
That’s what the review I linked to misses. It thinks the movie is trying to be this awkward male bonding story that goes awry and ultimately doesn’t connect any dots, but that’s kind of the point. I don’t even remember how it ends. It was so abrupt and didn’t matter. Who knows, maybe Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson would read this and say I 100% didn’t get the point of the movie. They may also say “obviously that was the point of the movie“, but from all the reviews I’ve read about it, most don’t fully grasp that.
The Funny Parts
With all that said, you could make a movie like the one I described and it may still suck. But the amount of times I was cracking up from this was unmatched from anything I can think of.
I was optimistic early on when Steven kissed Tami on the lips, I was skeptical shortly after when Craig eats the bar of soap and says “I’m sowwy” over and over. But once we got past that, and the movie revealed itself as not actually about Craig and Austin, I thought it was golden.
The toad trip, Jimp, attacking the mayor, breaking the door both times, let’s have a parade, it goes on and on. The O’Malley cameo was spectacular. There’s clearly a lot that’s ripping off ITYSL, some almost verbatim, but it didn’t taint anything for me.
Maybe I’m drinking the Tim kool-aid too much. I can absolutely understand that someone who thinks ITYSL sucks would not like this movie. But it’s worth checking out, and seeing it in theaters only enhanced the experience.
Recent Comments