If you know Tim Robinson from his work on Netflix, you'll know he specialises in the kind of comedy that thrives in cringeworthy moments.
A comic who cut his teeth in Chicago's Second City Theater and who subsequently went from being a performer to a writer on 'Saturday Night Live,' his sketch show 'I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson' debuted on the streaming service in 2018.
Over three seasons, its brand of absurd and grotesque comedy built around a lot of humiliating scenarios earned him acclaim as well as Writers Guild and Primetime Emmy awards.
So it comes as no surprise to see the Detroit-born comic finally get his shot at a lead role in a movie after gaining big screen experience in minor roles in 'Brother Nature,' 'American Pickle' and 'Scream VI'.
Writer director Andrew DeYoung has cast Robinson as an everyday loser in 'Friendship,' a comedy that plays right into his comic brand as a king of cringe.
Robinson is Craig Waterman, a socially inept, beige wearing marketing man who is married to a florist, Kate Mara's Tami.
Tami has come through a recent bout of cancer.
Attending a therapy group for survivors and their spouses, Craig awkwardly inserts himself into the conversation at one session at the start of the film as his wife relays her experience.
In many ways, this moment sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
On one level, Craig is trying to sound supportive but it just comes across as awkward - like he's playing the part of a supportive husband when he is anything but.
Later at home, Craig is oblivious to Tami's needs - pestering her about going to the new Marvel movie and taking little interest in her florist business.
When a package is mistakenly sent to the couple's home, Tami sends Craig to the door of the intended recipient, Paul Rudd's new neighbour Austin Charmichael and is invited over later for a beer.
Austin is a weatherman on a local news channel who works nights but has the evening off.
The duo unexpectedly hit it off, with Craig starting to admire his neighbour's free spirit.
When he is not calling him out of the blue at work to go foraging in the woods at lunchtime for mushrooms, Austin is giving Craig an adventurous tour of the city sewers at night, so they can access the City Council offices and explore the empty building.
Inviting Tami and Craig to a gig with his band, Austin also collects ancient artefacts.
Craig is immediately smitten and decides to be more like Austin.
In turn, he encourages his neighbour to ask for his dream job of working the daytime shift on the local news channel instead of putting up with working nights.
Things start to go awry when Austin lands the new role and invites Craig to join him with some other friends at his house for a few beers.
Nervous about being introduced to the group, Craig spectacularly makes a fool of himself.
As a result, he is immediately shunned by Austin.
Traumatised by the sudden ending of his bromance, Craig becomes increasingly erratic at home and at work.
Attempts to impress his son, Jack Dylan Grazer's Steven and Tami disastrously backfire.
A pitch to Jury Henley-Cohn's Mayor Nichols goes horribly wrong.
Craig also starts to venture into stalker territory around Austin whose life also starts to fray around the edges.
What emerges is a comedy that will regularly make you wince but which occasionally confounds.
There are many laugh out loud moments.
However DeYoung's comedy is also uneven and while Robinson and Rudd's characters are fleshed out, Mara and Grazer's feel like the means to a comic end rather than being fully rounded.
There's definitely a rough edged charm to film which feels like an extended sitcom - jumping from absurd sequences where Craig is fantasising about being the perfect friend to Austin to moments of pure physical comedy.
Where 'Friendship' really scores is the way Robinson, in particular, toys with the viewer's sympathies - making us feel for Craig one minute and then recoil at his behaviour a la Larry David in 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' or Ricky Gervais' David Brent and Steve Carrell's Michael Scott in the British and US versions of 'The Office'.
Rudd, who executive produced the film, also from time to time nicely upends his character's man's man image.
Sometimes you wish the film would dig a bit deeper into Mara's character and her frustrations.
Instead of hinting at an affair with her ex-boyfriend, Josh Segarra's Devon, we only get to see him at a party in Craig's house gushing over her.
A gag about the weird nature of her mother-son relationship with their son Steven is raised but is also casually tossed away.
However there's no doubt 'Friendship' is one of the more striking indie comedies of recent years - threatening to play out like a male comedy version of 'Single White Female'.
While the film may have little answers for males in crisis, its ability to laugh at their insecurities is nevertheless a big plus.
('Friendship' was released in UK and Irish cinemas including the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast on July 18, 2025)
Are you missing 'Succession'?
We all do and why wouldn't we?
For four seasons, Jesse Armstrong and HBO gave us one of the most perceptive comedy dramas ever committed to the small screen.
A mixture of tragicomedy, acerbic satire, black comedy and family drama, it was a beautifully directed show with a cast to die for who devoured some of the best scripts ever written for TV.
Now Armstrong and HBO are back - teaming up once more for another work that blends satire with tragicomedy and black comedy.
But does HBO's TV movie 'Mountainhead' hit the same heights as 'Succession'?
Set in a Utah mountain retreat owned by Jason Schwartzman's Hugo 'Souper' Van Yalk, Armstrong's film is about a gathering of four tech mogul "friends".
Friends, however, is a rather loose term because as the movie wears on, we realise their friendship is actually really shallow.
The group includes Ramy Youssef's Jeff Abredazi, the world's richest man who has made his fortune off Bilter, an Artificial Intelligence company.
Another member of the gang, Cory Michael Smith's Ven Parrish has become the billionaire owner of a social media platform called Traam.
The oldest member and mentor to the tech bros is Steve Carrell's Randall Garrett who has recently received an incurable cancer diagnosis but is more focused on his passion for business.
All of these men are phenomenally wealthy - Randall, Ven and Jeff actually rib Hugo because he's the only member of the group who isn't a billionaire yet.
That's why they call him 'Souper' - a nickname fashioned out of the joke that he's so poor compared to them he may as well frequent a soup kitchen.
However, as successful as they all are, they are "not serious people," as Logan Roy would say.
Each one is an emotionally stunted man child - insecure, narcissistic and with no empathy for people who suffer the consequences of their shameless pursuit of profit.
The quartet treat the world as if it is their personal plaything and they have no regard for what is morally right.
During a period of international instability fuelled by misinformation on Traam, they laugh it off - casually talking about calling the shots in Argentina, treating global financial insecurity as a game and taking for granted their easy access to the White House.
As the world burns, they fret more about getting each other's seal of approval and then they backstab each other.
In one case, three of them even contemplate murder.
Directing his own script, Armstrong clearly has his sights trained on the tech bros who delivered Donald Trump a second shot at the US Presidency.
Ven is the most Elon Musk like member of the group.
Randall is clearly modelled on Peter Thiel.
There are traces of Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman too in all of the characters.
However in true Armstrong fashion, these dislikeable figures are portrayed as hot air buffoons.
Rather bizarrely, society has somehow inflated them.
If you're being really honest, spending 109 minutes in their company feels a bit of a chore compared to the characters in 'Succession'.
Given that you are only getting to know them, you're just not as invested in them unlike a TV series.
As a result, you really need to persevere with the first half hour of Armstrong's talkfest.
There's also little to work with in the way of empathy for the four characters.
They lack a back story with the kind of depth you got in 'Succession'.
You are not as invested in the way you were with Kendall, Roman and Shiv Roy, who you knew had a childhood that nonetheless made them crave the affection of a ruthless, sociopathic father.
While there are moments of dark humour in 'Mountainhead,' the gags never quite hit the high watermark of Armstrong's TV show - although they certainly land better in the second half of the film.
Carrell, Schwarzman, Yousef and Smith attack their roles with enthusiasm.
But while Armstrong's TV film entertains, it doesn't quite rattle you in the way 'Succession' could.
It just makes you more disgruntled about a world that has handed over our right to privacy and the risk of subverting democratic norms to the tech bros.
('Mountainhead' was broadcast on HBO on May 31, 2025 and was available to stream on NowTV in the UK and Ireland on June 1, 2025)
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