One of 2025's Best-Reviewed Comedies Is Now Streaming. Here's How to Watch

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18 hours ago

Friendship, the new movie starring Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson, is one of 2025's best-reviewed comedies. In fact, it's one of the year's best-reviewed films, full stop. Currently, the picture holds an impressive 88 percent positive critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes. Is the movie, which is now streaming, as funny as its hype suggests? Here's how you can watch and find out for yourself.
What is Friendship about?
Building off of the cluelessly irascible character he honed in The Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, Robinson plays Craig, a suburban dad who feels unappreciated at work and home. His wife (Kate Mara) was recently declared cancer-free, but worries openly that she may never again orgasm, which seems less an issue with the illness than her marriage. Meanwhile, Craig's teenage son (Jack Dylan Grazer) bears outright apathy for his father while brewing cups of tea for his mother and then kissing her on the lips. At the office, where he works for big corporations to make their products more 'habit-forming,' Craig's co-workers do little to hide their disdain.
Into Craig's neighborhood moves the ultimate cool guy, Austin (Rudd), a local weatherman who, in his free time, plays in a punk band. Austin has all of the things Craig doesn't—namely, a group of supportive male friends and the adventurous spirit to consume alcohol in the middle of the week. Austin shows Craig an authentic blade crafted by Homo Erectus and then takes him on a midnight exploration of the city's sewer system, and instantly, the office drone is smitten.
For a brief, glorious spell, Craig is embraced by Austin and his pals. One of the smartest choices the film makes is to show that Austin genuinely likes Craig, at least for a period of time. But when Craig's true personality emerges, things take a turn. Austin politely breaks up with Craig, but the wounded father refuses to take no for an answer. So ensues an increasingly deranged and profoundly funny game of often ill-executed revenge by Craig, which has some tragically unforeseen consequences.Is Friendship worth watching?
Unsurprisingly, DeYoung, making his feature directorial debut, wrote the role of Craig specifically for Robinson. The part is irrevocably tailored to the comedian's particular schtick, which is hysterical if you're into that sort of thing. Here, Robinson shows himself to be an actor of tremendous empathy and range. Craig is a repellent character, not because he's violent or evil but because he's so aggressively anodyne. (He's the type who will shut down a conversation at the mere hint of a Marvel spoiler.) If in the hands of a different actor, or indeed director, Craig might've been insufferable. But with Robinson and DeYoung's craftsmanship, he's much more sympathetic, even heartbreaking, than he is obnoxious. There are many similarities between Robinson's character here and Robert DeNiro's Rupert Pupkin in Scorsese's The King of Comedy (1982). Rudd is equally sharp, giving one of his very best performances. The usually likable star plays an inverted version of his beloved persona to great effect, and is having great fun doing it. It's some of the veteran performer's finest work.
Delivering a familiar and straight-forward narrative, DeYoung sets his film apart from the pack by consistently contorting and twisting the expected developments. Those anticipating a Hangover or I Love You Man-style of comedy might be disappointed. This is not only much darker and more fearless in its satire of male ego and relationships, but it's also less routine. The familiar beats—a raucous party ending with a night in jail, for example—are all accounted for, but the way in which the situations occur and resolve are often deeply subversive and unexpected.
That's not to say Friendship isn't laugh-out-loud funny. Frankly, it's hysterical. The humor is largely of the irreverent variety which will be familiar to fans of Robinson and Rudd's comedic work; but there's a sweetness underpinning all of it, and DeYoung handles the material with a truth which makes the plot turns, some of which are completely out there, feel earned. It won't be for everyone; but for those it is, you're guaranteed at least eight scenes of extended belly laughter. Watching the film with an audience is an interesting experience, with some laughing less as the film goes on and becomes more disturbing and others laughing even harder. Admittedly, we fell into the latter camp.What makes Friendship stand out, and indeed cements it as one of the year's best movies, is not just that it's hysterically funny and brazenly, refreshingly risk taking. DeYoung has made one of the most affecting, fearless, and incisive examinations of male friendship ever put to screen. The movie will be particularly close to home for men, but it's almost equally relatable to anyone who has tried to make friends as an adult. The movie is not just a collection of random, goofy set pieces. Within each gag is hidden a tragic truth about the characters, a deep-down sadness which seems surging for release. The final movement is simultaneously silly, tragic, operatic, depraved, and heartwarming, all of it played in an understated key which stays true to the believability of its characters and premise. It's so rare these days to see a film, especially a comedy, which maintains the strength of its convictions until the end and utterly sticks the landing. Friendship is that rare exception.
How can I watch Friendship?One of 2025's Best-Reviewed Comedies Is Now Streaming. Here's How to Watch first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 30, 2025
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