I Loved Cringing My Way Through Friendship, But I Can't Tell If I Completely Misunderstood Craig's Story Or Not

The movie’s been out for a while now, but let’s go ahead and start with a SPOILER WARNING for anyone who still hasn’t watched Friendship, now available to stream via HBO Max subscription.

No small feat for any 2025 movie release, Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship pulls off the rare move of utilizing a main star’s genre-specific talents in a completely different capacity. I speak of course of cringe-comedy mastermind Tim Robinson going from I Think You Should Leave’s shortform chaos to a full-length Fatal Attraction-esque feature without ever pivoting away from what he does best. His bizarro performance is so convincing, however, that I can’t tell if I truly understood the hard-to-watch movie or not.

Not that Friendship hinges on a hyper-dense puzzlebox of a plotline, and it actually follows a pretty classic set-up of “Guy Meets Other Guy, Guy Quickly Blows Up Potential Friendship With Other Guy, Guy Ruins Own Life In Process.” But while I don’t necessarily question all of the key story beats, I do wonder how many others viewers shared my initial takeaway. So grab your tastiest bar of soap and let’s get into it.

My Take: Most Of What We See In Friendship Is From Craig's Unreliable Perspective

Though Friendship doesn't feature any narration voiceover from Craig, it's safe to say the entire movie centers around him. In the sense that viewers don't partake in any extended sequences focusing solely on other characters when Craig isn't in the immediate vicinity. For instance, we never see what happens to Kate Mara's Tami in the sewers. We don't see Paul Rudd's Austin hanging only with his "real" friends. We don't spend time with the son and his gal pal at school. Et cetera.

Early on when Craig just comes across as a kindly oddball, it's not hard to buy into the innate realism of those scenes. However, after his fast-forming fascination with Austin takes hold, Craig's life and behavior skew wildly erratic in hilariously awkward ways that push the bounds of believability, even within such a blatantly fictional capacity. As such, I started thinking around the midway point of the movie that all of the ups and downs we're seeing in Craig's life are being filtered through his exaggerated psyche, and that the events would be completely different from Austin or Tami's perspective.

I'm fully aware that Rudd, Mara and other cast members intentionally performed scenes as if they were in more a straightforward drama, which obviously plays a big part in creating the tonal imbalance. But I don't think that speaks entirely to why I question Friendship's reality.

Certain Scenes (And Austin's Final Wink) Only Make Sense To Me If Friendship Isn't 100% Objective

While I can allow that not every detail in this movie has to be explained from end to end and make perfect sense, the fact that so many surreal things happened keeps me from buying into just how real it all is. Details and moments like the ones below are inexplicable to me without a P.O.V. twist.

• Austin's Phone

After Craig's first phone disaster while out picking mushrooms, Austin tells him that he doesn't have a phone. Yet later, when Craig shows up out of the blue at the news station, Austin pulls out a phone and is incredulous when Craig questions why he has it, and then that's never talked about again.

It's possible Austin was just lying to sound cool by saying he didn't have one. But I think Craig just heard what he wanted to in that moment to reflect his own phone-related opinions.

• The Aftermath Of Craig Breaking In And Stealing Austin's Gun

I don't question the legitimacy of Craig walking blissfully around his neighbors' house without a clue. However, the only consequence came when the police and Austin showed up at his door and...did essentially nothing but yell and ask questions, all while Craig successfully talked himself out of trouble. Which is, I'd argue, the most suspicious thing that happens in this movie. Considering how wrong things go for Craig at every given turn, it's hard for me to think this would be his big win.

As well, despite Austin being so hot under the collar in that moment, he's right back to being passively uncomfortable with Craig soon afterward, without ever accusing him again or ever bringing up the golden gun that was stolen. I don't even think Austin addressed it being his gun whenever Craig brandished it during the final act.

• Tami And Devon

Josh Segarra rules at playing kind-hearted characters, and this movie is no exception. But I'm not entirely clear on whether or not his character Devon was as uncomfortably close with Tami as the movie made it seem. While not stated directly, I think we're meant to believe that Craig and Tami are selling their house when the movie starts off as part of an eventual split, and that Robinson isn't being as honest with himself as he should be about it.

With that in mind, it's perhaps not so unbelievable that Devon showed up at her post-disappearance party and said all the right things, and that Tami eventually moved into his poolhouse. But I still think that was one of the Tami-related details skewed by Craig's heightened reality.

I'm also fairly positive that Tami said way more about being missing in the sewers, but that all Craig came with from it was that she finally had an orgasm. I don't think that Tami is that shallow.

• Austin's Final Wink

At no point after realizing how uncentered Craig is should Austin have done anything to prolong his neighbor's destructive fascination. Especially after he was the one who actually tried to stop Craig during the living room fiasco, and almost got himself shot with his own stolen gun. Keeping the others from seeing Austin's bald head wouldn't be enough to make that happen, either.

Because I also think Austin would have noticed his hairpiece falling off, and that it wouldn't have required Craig's input for him to realize it. So I don't even know if I believe that actually happened.

After being cuffed and put into the cop car, Craig immediately imagines that first hangout night going way better than it actually did, which is immediately followed by Austin turning around and giving a wink that injects Craig with surprised happiness. In my mind, showing audiences that fantasy was a nod to Craig's idealized visions, and having it coincide with the "reality" of Austin's wink was a sign that nothing was 100% certifiably real.

Yet I'm Still Not Entirely Sure If Understood Or Misread Craig's Story

After watching Friendship, I did what many othes do and talked to others who'd watched, and poked around online for Andrew DeYoung interviews and others' views on the movie. I wasn't comprehensive in that search, so I freely admit to not seeing everything there was to see. Still, in all the commentary I did sift through, I didn't see many thought-out opinions that matched up with my own, and only saw a smaller amount of social media comments that posited Craig as being an unreliable narrator.

So I may have just missed the holy grail of an article/interview where it's confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Friendship's plotline veered hyperbolic due to being from Craig's perspective. But until I see that with my eyeballs, I'm just going to keep wondering whether I actually got this movie or not.

Let me know whether or not you agree with me in the poll below.