Everyone wants to be Paul Rudd’s new neighbour and best friend, and most people, presumably, fumble that bag. For Andrew DeYoung’s film Friendship, he chooses Tim Robinson as his everyman, playing campaign developer Craig Waterman. He becomes fast friends with his new neighbour Andrew Carmichael (Paul Rudd) but he loses that friendship just as quickly. Most normal people let things like this go but Craig is an exaggerated version of people, so no. Craig does things like bring over packages to Andrew’s home as a pretext to break into it.

Craig goes in and out of consciousness and steals Andrew’s gun that’s somehow made of gold.  He makes an ass out of himself in front of Andrew’s wife Bianca (Meredith Garretson), making Andrew replace him with Jimp (Carmen Christopher). He also relives his adventures with Andrew but with his wife Tami (Kate Mara), putting her in danger. His relationship with Tami and their son Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer) are mending. This is good because Tami is dangling her ex Devon (Josh Segarra) at him. But still, losing Andrew still bugs him.

I’m not necessarily too familiar with Tim Robinson – I only know him from I Think You Should Leave’s pilot. Online reviews warn this film’s prospective viewers that he has the same line delivery method in here. I didn’t notice how shouty he is because the writing in this film is pretty smart and relatable. And yes, because of or despite Friendship being a comedy, I’m going to take it too seriously.

Friendship puts Craig in a volatile place, so he’s already relatable, and in a way, both Craig and Andrew and relatable because I presume most people have been both the dumped and the dumped. People in real life fumbled so hard that they lose friends whom they want to keep for life, and conversely, many people have to cut off others in their lives because they’re too fucking weird.

Weirdness is what makes real life situations perfect for comedy fodder as well as perfect for entertainment. Both DeYoung and Robinson are able to find their niche in platforms like Netflix and studios like A24. Friendship fits the latter’s brand just as much by showing reality with exaggerations and its hyperreal twists. A welcoming home party for Tami turns into a free for all where Craig steals Tami’s spotlight.

Friendship marks DeYoung and Robinson moving from the television series world into cinema, because it’s a good introduction to both because they have a lot of things to say about men and loneliness. Craig and Andrew are mirror images of each other, a man coveting another man as men would. And it’s also funny in visceral and surprising waysAnd there’s literally a trip scene with Craig’s cellphone salesman Tony (Billy Bryk) that should be a modern classic.

Watch Friendship in select Canadian theatres.