Review: 'Friendship' is a comedy that takes apart male relationships, and centers Tim Robinson for some cringe-inducing comic genius

Writer-director Andrew DeYoung could have played it safe in his uncomfortable comedy “Friendship,” in which he dissects the nature of male bonding and its opposite in ways that might make the audience’s skin crawl.

DeYoung had already cast Paul Rudd, the Nicest Guy in Movies (trademark pending), as one of the two main male characters here. All he had to do was pick a comic actor with a little bit of edge, but not too much, and watch his movie travel familiar territory to please the audience.

But, no, he cast Tim Robinson, and the cringe factor got kicked up to 11, which is how DeYoung wanted it.

Robinson is famous among fans of nervous comedy for his Netflix sketch show “I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson,” where he plays characters in scenarios where things get so tense or unpleasant that one of the characters has to hit the eject button.

If you haven’t watched the show, you may be familiar with the most famous meme it produced — a sketch where a hot-dog car crashes into a clothing shop and Robinson’s character, a guy in a hot dog costume, tries to avoid blame for it.

In DeYoung’s comedy, Robinson plays Craig, a suburban dad and husband who works for a company that makes phone apps and other things more addictive. His wife, Tami (Kate Mara), is a cancer survivor who’s running a florist business from their dining table, and keeps asking Craig to buy a van so she doesn’t have to cram her deliveries in their hatchback.

One evening, Tami asks Craig to walk a misaddressed package to the new neighbors a few doors down. That’s how Craig first connects with Austin, Rudd’s character, a TV weatherman who is everything Craig is not: Cool, confident and affable. And, because he is all these things, Austin invites Craig to hang out — and even explore the secret passages under their town.

It’s when Austin invites Craig to be part of his established friend group that things go off the rails — because Craig, incapable of reading social cues, takes things too far. 

What follows, as Craig desperately tries to re-create the magic of his brief friendship with Austin, is by turns funny, unsettling and even sometimes cruel — to the other characters and to the audience.

DeYoung, a TV director making his feature film debut, perfectly calibrates how far Robinson will take a joke, then deploys Robinson like a missile at the comedic target. The result is a caustic, biting look at every idea we have about toxic male behavior in the 21st century.

Some may find it too mean-spirited — but if you can tune into DeYoung’s wavelength, there’s enough laughter amid the cringe to make “Friendship” a place worth hanging out.

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‘Friendship’

★★★

Opens Friday, May 23, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for language and some drug content. Running time: 100 minutes.