A seriously sinister comedy written and directed by Andrew De Young, FRIENDSHIP is a vessel of unhinged cringe.
Craig Waterman is a bloke with a good job, a wife who has survived cancer and a son showing Oedipal tendencies.
He spends his off time sitting at home in an armchair, a solitary socialising with spouse and offspring. It’s as if the pandemic isolation prevails.
When an Amazon parcel is incorrectly delivered to his address, Craig is persuaded by his wife to take it to the correct recipient, a neighbour just up the road.
The neighbour is Austin, a self assured weatherman on the local television station and reciprocating Craig’s neighbourly effort invites him in and fosters a friendship. Further, he invites Craig into his circle of friends.
Socially inept and out of step, gauche in gait and awkward in conversation, instead of ingratiating himself within the group, Craig disgraces himself with his clueless, gormless behaviour. Cut adrift from this sinking friendship, Craig embarks on a series of catastrophic escapades.
FRIENDSHIP is a comedy of the unsettling, wince rather than whimsy, delivering a simmering unease that boils over into a societal horror. Friendship can be hard and fast but fragile and can easily founder.
Tim Robinson as Craig is a seething mess of pernicious patheticness, a powder keg pressure cooker of impending doom. Paul Rudd as Austin, Kate Mara as Craig’s florist and fireman flirting wife, and Jack Dylan Grazer as Craig’s affable son are all excellent in support.
Off kilter comedy like FRIENDSHIP can be hard to like but it certainly serves up a meatier metier than the predictable and puerile pap offered as fun.
