This story contains mild spoilers for Friendship. By many accounts, straight men are unwell. From the “dating gap” to statistics showing they’re falling behind to the so-called “male loneliness epidemic,” we’re being inundated with discourse about whether there’s a crisis of masculinity and what the cause might be. While you could spend hours doomscrolling about the topic—and we should educate ourselves(!)—you could also see Friendship and laugh about it, too.
Directed by Andrew DeYoung (best known for directing TV comedies like Pen15 and Shrill), the A24 film centers on suburbanite dad Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) as he befriends his new neighbor Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd)...and spirals when their relationship falls apart. Craig (awkward; works a deadend corporate job; only wears clothes from a brand called Ocean View Dining) thinks Austin oozes cool (weatherman with a porn stache; plays hooky to go on “adventures;” performs in a punk band). To Craig, he’s a role model, being that Austin’s both an all-American bro and open about his feelings. Their dynamic feels pointed at a time when there are very few examples of healthy masculinity in pop culture, and instead, toxic figures have found an audience in impressionable young men.
