Latest news with #IThinkYouShouldLeave
Globe and Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Oh, Hi!: What happens when a rom com meets Misery
Oh, Hi! Directed by Sophie Brooks Written by Sophie Brooks, Molly Gordon Starring Molly Gordon, Logan Lerman Classification R; 93 minutes Oh, Hi! is what might actually happen if your approach to true love was tinted with Misery. After four perfect months together, Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) embark on a relationship milestone and flee the big city to spend a romantic weekend at a rented farmhouse in upstate New York. Obviously, they're cute. They're happy. Isaac cooks scallops. Their banter is healthy, their sex life is fun. The two resemble a photo spread from a J. Crew catalogue at its peak: beautiful and tousled and unbothered by mosquitos at night. This is what it looks like when you've found your soulmate. At least that's what Iris thinks. Choosing the worst possible time, Isaac informs her that they're not exclusive. He doesn't want a relationship, and up until that point he didn't think they were serious. Iris, heartbroken, responds the way anybody would if they'd attended the school of Annie Wilkes. She holds Isaac captive in an attempt to convince him that he's actually in love. Positioned as a romantic comedy, Oh, Hi! is less Nora Ephron than I Think You Should Leave. Bizarre and deranged, its characters are chaotic, narcissistic and profoundly unwell. In fact, they're both terrifying: Iris is what happens when you apply fictionalized grand 'romantic' gestures to real-world situations, and Isaac seemingly lives by the ethos of a Weeknd song. Yet the film still works. Directed by Sophie Brooks and co-written by Gordon, it subverts both the rom-com and horror genres to produce an original story that thwarts predictability. Gordon is sharp, funny and brings just enough humanity to Iris that you feel sorry for her broken heart and terrible judgment – despite desperately hoping that you never meet her in real life. It also helps that she's aided by comedy gold: Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds show up just in time to add levity and fresh perspectives to a premise that could easily get stale. Especially since Lerman plays an everyman whose sole personality is 'totally perfect, until not.' Is any of it believable? Relatable? Does it need to be? Hardly a Hallmark film, Oh, Hi! is a testimony to what happens when we pour creative energy into original storylines instead of the dark abyss of reboot culture. By blending romance and horror tropes, Brooks and Gordon highlight the ridiculousness that defines each and illuminate the toxicity sensationalized by the classics. (There's more than one Casablanca call-out involved.) The story isn't aspirational and its characters are mostly irredeemable, but it exposes the outlandish nature of most rom-com plot devices by committing to the most common: two characters who suck. Oh, Hi! is the last love story you want to cite when writing your own, and Iris and Isaac are the last people you would ever want to spend a weekend away with. But for 90 minutes in a movie theatre? Their company will at least keep your attention.
Washington Post
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Patti Harrison has a plan for survival. It's absurd.
For a while there, Patti Harrison got used to strangers screaming in her face. People would approach her on the sidewalk, recognizing her from the Netflix sketch comedy series 'I Think You Should Leave' and yelling things like, 'I'm not popular at all?' — the way her character does in a 2019 episode after her co-workers refuse to laugh at her jokes about their new office printer. As the slighted co-worker, Harrison projects the distress of someone experiencing actual injustice. Her committed performance heightens the absurdity of the situation, cementing the sketch — and her whiny line delivery in it — as one of the show's most memorable.
RTÉ News
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd's Friendship is a laugh-out-loud comedy masterclass
Forming new friendships as a middle-aged man is notoriously difficult, even when the men in question have a lot in common. In Friendship, we have two very different budding buddies. Craig (Tim Robinson) is a loudmouth, socially inept, and infuriatingly unaware of the fact that he's not witty, smart, or remotely pleasant to be around. Somehow, he is both dull and wildly unpredictable in his behaviour. Craig's wife, Tami (Kate Mara), is the picture of elegance. She is in post-cancer recovery and clearly considering rekindling a relationship with an old flame. Craig is completely oblivious to this. Tami persuades a reluctant Craig to hang out with their new neighbour, Austin (Paul Rudd). On the surface, Austin is the polar opposite of Craig - suave, charming, philosophical, and cool. Austin is a weatherman frontman of a band, making him a well-liked local celebrity. The two at first seem to bond, with Austin appearing indifferent to Craig's awkward and asinine remarks. Craig quickly becomes infatuated with Austin and his laid-back energy. Adoration sets in. However, after an uncomfortable night with Austin's friend group, Craig is devastated to be essentially "dumped" by Austin. Needless to say, Craig takes this in the worst possible way and refuses to let his cool new friend cut ties so easily. Fans of Tim Robinson's I Think You Should Leave will be happy to see familiar elements to Craig's character that overlap with characters in the Netflix sketch show - stubborn, socially clueless people who always say and do the wrong thing. That said, this is far from I Think You Should Leave: The Movie. Friendship exists in a much more grounded American indie-comedy world. Writer and director Andrew DeYoung has created the perfect vehicle for the comic skills Robinson has honed, one where he gets to explore the reality of his go-to I Think You Should Leave character archetype in a more naturalistic setting. This gives us the opportunity to see those skills stretch and evolve in ways a seven-minute sketch could never allow for. Robinson's unhinged energy works well with the effortless charm of Paul Rudd, whose character slowly moves from the most relaxed man in town to an anxious victim of his friend-turned-stalker. It's a formula that works. You could argue that the female characters do feel a little underwritten, Austin's wife is barely seen, and we never really learn why Tami is with Craig in the first place. Perhaps that's intentional; the film is largely told from Craig's point of view, and he is clearly oblivious to his wife's feelings or motivations and barely acknowledges Austin's marriage exists. With countless comic moments that land hard, Friendship isn't just the best comedy in cinemas this year, it's one of the funniest films of the decade. Some of the biggest comedic moments blindside the audience. A scene involving a "psychedelic trip" sets up what you think is going to be a tired comedy trope, only to deliver the film's best punchline. It's unpredictable without verging on the ridiculous. A hilarious character study of delusion, inadequacy, and neediness, painfully real and hugely entertaining. Hopefully, it marks the return of comedy to cinema screens.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd star in cringe comedy Friendship
Produced by indie darlings A24, Friendship is the debut starring role for Tim Robinson, best known for hit Netflix sketch show I Think You Should Leave. The show propelled the comedian to TikTok stardom, becoming the punchline of the viral 'I'm doing my part' meme and having catchphrases from the show enter social media vernacular. This week, he teams up with Marvel star Paul Rudd for the excruciatingly funny Friendship. Robinson plays Craig, a marketing executive whose lack of emotional availability means he is disconnected from his wife Tami (Kate Mara) and son Steve (Jack Dylan Grazer). His isolated life turns around, however, when he befriends Austin (Rudd), a charismatic weather man who has moved onto his street. Craig becomes energised by his new pal, but when his social awkwardness ruins the friendship, he becomes obsessed with winning Austin back. The film is a platform for Robinson's humour, with his misinterpretation of social cues and increasingly desperate behaviour leading to several moments that are both hilarious and cringe worthy in equal measure. What makes it more than a series of wacky antics, however, is an underlying theme of just how difficult it is to make friends as an adult. Every character in the story has some need to reconnect, and while Craig takes those insecurities to an extreme, there will be moments that will feel uncomfortably familiar. The intelligence of writer-director Andrew DeYoung's story lies in finding a degree of empathy to a man who clearly is the villain of his own story. With floppy hair, a thick moustache, and a TV news-centred job, Rudd's Austin feels like a modern riff on his Anchorman character Brian Fantana. There's no dodgy cologne this time, but his easy-going nature and free spirit make it easy to see why Craig would become so drawn to him. Considering that the Ant-Man star could be making any number of vanity projects with himself as the main attraction, it's a testament to his talent that he turns up in a smaller, but nonetheless impactful role. By contrast, Robinson is the epitome of chaos. It's a delight to see him make snap decisions that turn things from bad to worse in a second. His reaction during a sequence where Craig goes on an uneventful drug trip, or finally snaps at his corporate job, are worth the price of admission alone. There's always a concern that someone known for shorter content can expand their comedy to a feature length without exhausting the audience – happily Robinson has no such trouble, slotting his off-kilter persona into a character that feels like a nightmarish satire of the male loneliness epidemic. If you've ever cracked a bad joke at a party, or persevered with a friendship that just wasn't going anywhere, then this off-the-wall comedy with strike a chord as it makes you squirm in your seat. A fine showcase for a growing comedy great. •
Otago Daily Times
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Comedian takes centre stage
Friendship gets an uncomfortably funny examination in director Andrew DeYoung's new movie. Filmmaker Andrew DeYoung didn't initially set out to make a Tim Robinson film, but that's what ended up happening. The writer and director, who has helmed episodes of TV's Pen15 and Our Flag Means Death , makes his feature film debut with Friendship , starring Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson as two men whose bromance sours quickly. While the movie plays out like an extended I Think You Should Leave sketch, DeYoung is not a member of the show's creative team and had never worked with Robinson before Friendship . DeYoung talks about how the movie came to be and how it came to be so Tim Robinson-esque in style and execution. Q I'm interested in the nature of the movie, because it seems like it's such a Tim Robinson project. Was it written as such, with Tim Robinson in mind? A It started off as just a regular movie idea. As I started to write it, I of course started to imagine who could possibly play these roles and Tim popped in my head probably halfway through the process. I loved the idea so much and it felt so right, that I started to kind of write it toward his strengths, never knowing if he would do it or not. But it just helped me picture the character, as if he was doing it and thankfully it worked out. Q Once he came on board, did you work with him to mould the character, or was it your words on the page and then his performance? Because it screams Tim Robinson and his very specific style of humour. What was your collaboration like? A Tim is Tim and I think people would say that no matter what he does, just because he's so unique in his performances and his performance choices. But he, of course, would have ideas to pitch and I love collaboration. On shooting days, if things weren't working, we'd do alts on certain lines and things like that. But the structure and how the team moved and played, that was on the page. Q How is Tim as a collaboratorand how was he to work with throughout the process of making the movie? A I've never worked with anyone who cares as much as he does. He really cares about quality and I think that's why people are so rabid for his work. And if something doesn't feel right, he'll let you know and if it goes right, he'll let you know, too. And he's really good at expressing if something's not feeling right and then we'd pause and kind of figure out how to make it feel organic and honest and as real as possible, because everything he does comes from such a real, honest place. Q Paul Rudd is such a big deal and he has his own gravitational pull as an actor, but he really kind of bends to the universe of Tim in this movie. How was he in terms of shaping his performance to fit into this world and reacting to Tim's utter strangeness? A Rudd is an absolute professional and also just the best, most lovely dude in the world. He had a tonne of ideas coming into it and I love when actors have ideas and I try to incorporate them as much as possible. When we started shooting, he kind of did a bunch of levels and we figured it out. From the jump, we knew we were gonna shoot this and perform this as if we're in a drama. Of course there's a lot of silly stuff happening and goofy situations, but we play it as if it's high stakes for these characters. And he was really good about committing to the drama and the emotion underneath it, while also knowing, like, what behaviours would get a laugh. He's really good about knowing when to go to the line of something that feels joke-y and not crossing it. I think why he's so brilliant and so loved, because he really has such a precise gauge on his performance and what's funny and how to make things grounded or do what the scene needs. He's in all kinds of stuffand he can go so many places, but for this, he really knew from the jump that this needed to be a certain kind of underplayed performance. And it's ultimately Tim's movie and he's there to support Tim in the best way possible. Q In the real world, if you came across someone like Tim Robinson's character in the movie, how could you control that situation and not let it get out of hand, the way it does in the movie? A We can't control everyone, that's for sure. (Laughs.) I wrote the (Rudd) character in hopes that he would display, at least in the first act, healthy masculinity. And to be someone who's so OK in themselves that they can let other people have hard feelings by saying, "This friendship is no longer going to continue". Which is, I felt, so rare, not only in male relationships but in relationships in general. We're so under-socialised now to let people have hard feelings. And I was hoping to exemplify in some way that this character has the ability to express themselves and put boundaries in place that are healthy for themselves. The fun of the movie, quote-unquote, is watching (Robinson's character) not listen to those boundaries in such an adolescent way. Hopefully by the end, he has a seed of how to handle it. — TCA
