Craig Waterman doesn’t have any friends.
He’s generally ignored by his coworkers. Outside of work, nothing has really clicked either. Craig can be awkward. Off-putting, even. And that’s left his cupboard of honest-to-goodness friendships completely bare.
But Craig doesn’t seem to mind all that much. He’s content to live out his suburban existence going to work, hanging around his family and maybe checking out the newest Marvel movie every now and then.
Then Craig meets his new neighbor, Austin.
Austin is a local weatherman. He’s charming. He’s cool. And he’s unbothered by Craig’s cringey antics. He even seems to get a kick out of them. Craig quickly becomes enchanted by the prospect of male friendship, especially with someone like Austin.
The two become friends. And that’s when the problems start.
Friendship spends most of its focus on Craig’s crumbling psyche and unraveling relationships. However, there are a few brief stretches throughout the film where he connects positively with his wife (Tami) and his son (Steven). And though the his friendship with Austin quickly (and predictably) sours, Austin is initially very friendly and patient with Craig’s uncomfortable behavior.
We see a brief (but good!) example of positive male friendship within Austin’s friend group: One of the guys shares his concerns about his developing teenage daughter; specifically, the interest she is starting to draw from boys. The other men in the group encourage him and lift his spirits.
Tami says the beauty and intricacies of a flower point to an “unknowable intelligence.” Craig has a metaphysical reaction to a Stone Age tool that Austin shows him. After someone takes a hallucinogenic drug, they are told, “Time for you to touch God.”
Craig’s relationship with Tami is strained, to say the least. When talking to a support group, Tami openly wonders if she will “ever orgasm again” with Craig sitting right next to her. (He interjects, saying that he has no such issue.) Later, Tami reveals that did have that experience, on her own, seemingly after the realization that she needed to separate from Craig.
Tami rekindles a relationship with an ex. And though it’s unclear if it’s sexual in nature, that connection clearly makes Craig uncomfortable. Tami and son Steven kiss on the lips in a familial way, but it’s questionable enough to draw a confused comment from Craig.
Steven has two girlfriends, one of which comes over to his house while his parents aren’t home. Craig offers Tami “a lick” which seems to be a euphemism for oral sex. (Nothing comes of it.) A reference is made to a pornographic magazine.
Friendship generally keeps its violence in the realm of slapstick but occasionally delivers some darker and more intense moments. During a misguided attempt to reconnect with Tami, Craig loses his wife in a labyrinthine sewer system. The subsequent search for Tami is played straight and tense, and it’s some time before we find out that she survived the ordeal. Afterward, someone claims that Craig took Tami to the sewers with intent to kill her.
Someone steals a pistol and later holds a group of people at gunpoint while threatening to kill them.
Craig and Austin have what is supposed to be a friendly sparring session, with boxing gloves and headgear, but it goes bad: Craig gets hit in the face a few times before sucker-punching Austin.
After a work client chooses a coworker’s proposal over his, Craig tries to physically assault the client and must be pulled away. A man talks about the meal eaten by the members of SEAL Team Six after they killed Osama bin Laden. Someone mentions a fireman who was burned alive. A van is wrecked after hitting a speed bump.
Craig runs through a sliding door and gets cut by the broken glass. His nose bleeds profusely at times. A man slips and falls. Someone mentions getting into “gnarly fights” at a bar.
More than 60 f-words are uttered along with nearly 20 s-words. Jesus’ name is misused six times. God’s name is taken in vain more than a dozen times, twice paired with “d—.” Additionally, we hear uses of “h—,” “a–hole” and “jacka–,” “b—h,” “c–k,” “d–khead” and “p-ss.”
We also hear “crap,” “sucks” and “fricking.” Police are referred to as “pigs.”
At one point, Craig seeks out a drug dealer, hoping to acquire the hallucinogenic substance ayahuasca. He ends up settling for a toad instead—specifically, he licks a toad to experience the psychedelic effects of its venom. The drug dealer also mentions he has weed, ecstasy, mushrooms and Adderall available as well.
Craig, trying to impress his son, eats mushrooms found in the woods and gets sick. Austin smokes an “herbal cigarette” and is quick to clarify that it is not cannabis. People smoke and drink throughout the film, at parties and elsewhere. Craig offers a cigarette to a child and later tries to take his underage son to a bar. Someone gets drunk.
For the most part, Craig and Tami are two ships passing in the night—though it could be argued that Craig is in an entirely different ocean. He has difficulty interacting with his wife in any meaningful way and is unable to apologize for the ways that he’s hurt her. When Tami experiences personal success, Craig is quick to take credit for it. When she expresses fear that her cancer might return (she is in remission), Craig offers little support, brushing off her concerns. He is consistently self-absorbed and unhelpful.
It doesn’t go much better for Craig with his friends. While hanging out with a group of guys, he makes an uncomfortable encounter worse, putting soap in his mouth and calling himself a “bad boy.” The painfully awkward encounter leads to Austin breaking off their friendship. However, Craig remains obsessed with him, even going so far as to break into Austin’s house.
Craig works as a developer. And by his own admission, he tries to create “habit-forming” phone apps that manipulate users. He tries to host a get-together with some coworkers but kicks them out when they make fun of his clumsy attempts to connect. Later, he’s bullied by those same coworkers.
A man talks about helping his daughter shop for a bra. A prisoner pees in a jail cell—we see the stream. Two characters sneak into City Hall through the sewer system. A man ditches work to hang out with a friend. Someone lies about another person having diarrhea.
An impromptu speaker at a party says that American soldiers “should still be in Afghanistan.”
Friendship’s tagline is, ironically, “Men shouldn’t have friends.” With a guy like Craig Waterman as its main character, maybe a better line would have been, “This man shouldn’t have friends.”
That sounds harsh, I know. But as I watched Friendship, I couldn’t help but wonder: How did Craig ever get to this point in the first place? How did he manage to court Tami? And how could he possibly hold down a job? Tim Robinson plays Craig as aggressively odd and awkward to the degree that it feels like he’s in a totally different movie than the rest of the cast.
And to be fair, that is the intent.
The comedy here is derived from Tim Robinson’s signature style of surrealist cringe, exemplified in his Netflix-backed sketch show I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. That show specializes in upending mundane situations with a whirlwind of absurdity (mostly the courtesy of Robinson). Friendship is much the same, except in feature-length movie form. But even if you find Tim Robinson’s schtick hilarious, it struggles to support a coherent narrative.
Beyond that, the film is awash with problematic content. Friendship features harsh and profane language, drug use and suggestive dialogue, while presenting an endless parade of squirm-worthy situations.
Everyone should have friends. They’re an important part of life. They support you through tough times. Celebrate with you when things are good. Plus, you can do tons of fun stuff together, like sharing a meal, playing a game or watching a movie.
But if you want to do that last one with your friends, maybe take them to see something other than Friendship.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
