Funniest movie of the year

Two men hilariously navigate an awkward dynamic in the breathtakingly mortifying buddy comedy ‘Friendship’, writes Clarisse Loughrey. But ‘Smurfs’ is obnoxious and confusing

- By Clarisse Loughrey

Of course the funniest film of the year is about how hard it is now to make a friend. We're living in the age of social decay. Either you're parasocially attached to ChatGPT or starting fist fights at the cinema because half a row's been temporarily blinded by the glow of someone checking their likes on Instagram. No one knows how to socialise anymore and everyone’s angry at each other for it.

Writer-director Andrew DeYoung’s debut feature, Friendship, files all those anxieties into a lethally absurd point, summarised by its exasperated lead Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) when he cries out: “I did one strange thing and I’m toast!” An erroneously delivered package has led him to the front door of his new neighbour, the moustachioed, twinkly eyed glory that is Paul Rudd’s Austin Carmichael. Austin collects Palaeolithic artefacts, plays in a band, does weather for the local news station, and doesn’t even own a phone. He might very well be the ultimate man.

Craig’s wife, Tami (Kate Mara), is 12 months cancer free. It’s created an urgency in Craig that feels like watching a wheel spinning in mud - some ghost of the post-lockdown frustration of wanting to finally embrace life with no means or knowledge to do it. “You’re healthy and we’re here now,” he urges her. That could have been a beautiful sentiment if he hadn’t been begging her to explore a sewer system with him. Nothing makes sense: why he can never fill his coffee cup to the right level, why his wife and teenage son (Jack Dylan Grazer) kiss on the lips, why he’s the only one to take the free biscuits at the counselling meeting.