Though he started out on Saturday Night Live, Tim Robinson remains best known for a Netflix sketch comedy show called I Think You Should Leave. Robinson gets a big screen lead role via 2025’s Friendship.

As his wife Tami (Kate Mara) recovers from cancer, ordinary suburban dad Craig Waterman (Robinson) plans to move the family elsewhere. He also copes with Tami’s renewed relationship with ex-boyfriend Devon (Josh Segarra), a choice that makes him feel threatened.

All this changes when Austin meets charismatic new neighbor Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd). This leads to a mix of complications as the two men become pals.

Since I don’t stream, I never saw I Think You Should Leave. This left my only real exposure to Robinson via a segment from the show that turned into a viral meme in which an obviously guilty Robinson – clad in a hot dog costume – tries to shift his blame to others.

With its combination of drama and comedy, Friendship requires Robinson to shift gears. Unfortunately, he fails in this task.

While Mara plays her role wholly straight and Rudd falls somewhere between serious and comedic, Robinson goes kooky from the start and never stops. He makes Craig such a cartoony part that much of the film goes off the rails.

Craig seems “off” from the get-go. The viewer will find it difficult to believe he married a smart babe like Tami and enjoys a successful career just because he seems so weird out of the gate.

We need to see Craig as essentially normal to start the film and then watch him disintegrate due to his obsession with Austin. Instead, Craig feels like a loose cannon from the beginning so his decline doesn’t come as a surprise.

This reminds me of a big issue I found with 1980’s The Shining. Whereas Jack Torrance should feel like a reasonably well-adjusted guy who goes bonkers, Jack Nicholson plays him as unsettling from the movie’s first scenes so we don’t experience a clear shift in mental status.

The same holds true for Robinson’s Craig. He doesn’t seem like a pleasant guy with some awkwardness, as instead, he feels like a total weirdo from minute one.

Thus his psychological collapse lacks impact. Robinson hams up the role and he just never fits with the more natural performances from the rest of the cast.

Friendship feels like a missed opportunity because it could’ve offered a good look at the awkwardness of new adult male connections. It’s tough to make new pals once you’re older, and there’s good territory to mine there.

Instead, Friendship presents a juvenile moron as its lead and goes down a series of increasingly ludicrous plot points. With every new scene, the tale becomes less coherent.

Too dramatic to be a wild and broad comedy but too silly to become a quality drama, Friendship satisfies neither side. I really wanted to like the movie but the end result just doesn’t work.

Friendship appears in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with a fairly positive presentation.

For the most part, sharpness worked fine. Occasional shots felt a bit soft, but the movie usually came across as largely accurate.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred. I also saw no edge haloes or print flaws.

Colors leaned toward some uglier greens and browns along with more natural tones at times. These didn’t excel but the disc reproduced them as intended.

Blacks looked fairly deep, while low-light elements appeared concise. All in all, the image worked well, even if it didn’t dazzle.

As a mix of drama and comedy, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio lacked much ambition. This left us with a track heavy on music and ambience.

A few scenes popped to life a little more, such as a storm or a bar segment. Still, this mostly remained a subdued soundscape without a lot to make it stand out from the crowd.

Audio quality seemed good, with speech that always came across as natural and concise. Music showed appealing range as well.

As noted, effects didn’t get much to do, but they felt accurate and reasonably dynamic. Though not impressive, the mix suited the film.

A few extras appear here, and we get an audio commentary from writer/director Andrew DeYoung, director of photography Andy Rydzewski and actor Connor O’Malley. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, photography, and related domains.

O’Malley appears here mainly to provide comic relief, as he does little more than offer alleged witty remarks along the way. This doesn’t work and O’Malley becomes an annoyance.

We get sporadic insights related to the production. However, too much of the track veers off-topic to pursue potential laughs so don’t expect much from this frustrating track.

In addition to one extended scene (12:21), we find four deleted scenes (8:32). The former elongates a confrontation between Craig and a surly party guest.

It seems amusing on its own but would’ve been far too long to include in the final cut. The sequence as included in the finished film goes for one minutes, 43 seconds so funny as it can be, the longer clip would’ve definitely worn out its welcome.

As for the four deleted scenes, they offer a little more character information and some added comedy. They entertain but don’t bring anything substantial.

Called Men Talking In the Dark, a Q&A lasts 18 minutes, 46 seconds. It involves DeYoung and actors Eric Rahill, Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson.

They cover the inspiration for the film, real-life friendships, "meeting your heroes", and general thoughts about the production. Why did they shoot this in the dark? I have no idea, and it adds nothing to the featurette.

Not that it stands out as memorable otherwise. Rahill asks a few quirky questions and it's fun to see the director and two leads interact, but there's not a lot of real substance here.

Like apparently all A24 releases, this one comes with six Photo Cards that display behind the scenes stills. They seem forgettable.

While it offers some amusing scenes, Friendship fails to mesh as a whole. Its tonal shifts don’t connect and Tim Robinson’s lead performance feels out of place. The Blu-ray comes with generally good picture and audio plus an erratic collection of supplements. Friendship fails to live up to its potential.