Sometimes, as the iron is hot, it is best to strike it, whether you are ready or not, lest the opportunity pass you by. Tim Robinson is on the upswing. His sketch comedy show “I Think You Should Leave” is one of the best shows of the last five years. Given his success, now is the time for him to move onto bigger things, like a full scale movie. And given that he specializes in portraying a type of socially catastrophic middle aged man, someone had the bright idea to conceive of a movie in which he strikes up a friendship with the “I Love You, Man” middle aged man himself, Paul Rudd, whose comedic reputation is of the exact opposite nature. At the very least it should make for a great marketing campaign.
There is so much potential here that I kind of wish that someone had done just another rewrite of the script before they had jumped into it. This movie should be very good. Instead it is mediocre and the laughs are sparse. There are plenty of good moments, but too many of them are throwaway. The main problem is that an integral part of the storyline doesn’t quite make sense and so the movie is never truly grounded in reality. If the story does not have a base level of reality, it is hard to build jokes on top of it.
For those unacquainted with “I Think You Should Leave”, it may as well be the present vanguard of comedy. There is something special and new about what is going on in that show. If I were to pick one particular sketch to illustrate what is ground-breaking about it would be the “Haunted House Tour” in which the Tim Robinson character, after being informed that this was the “adult” tour that takes place after 10pm, decides to ask a bunch vulgar questions because, and this is important, he thinks that cursing is the socially acceptable thing to do in an “adult” tour. It is hard to describe and I think you should just watch it. But the main development comedically is the context. As a millennial, I grew up in a place and time where vulgarity was met with shock, and that shock value was funny. For the longest time, comedians seemed to be on an unending and ever more predictable quest to top themselves in vulgarity, a comedic strategy which sometime between There’s Something About Mary and Stepbrothers experienced diminishing returns. In the “Haunted House Tour” sketch, the vulgar questions aren’t met with shock. No-one is scandalized. It just feels weird and inappropriate. After all, it is 2022 and all the adults have seen StepBrothers, which came out in 2008. The incredible thing about the Tim Robinson character is that he wants to be socially acceptable, he is just utterly clueless as to how to do it and is making and committing to blindingly wrong choices to that end. In the “Haunted House Tour” the character is so well developed, and so well acted, that I experienced not only hilarity but a dramatic catharsis.
It is a very good idea to take this Tim Robinson character and insert him into a movie wherein Paul Rudd, that very cool and easy going guy, moves in across the street, and the chrance develops for them to develop a friendship, that is before Paul Rudd realizes just how strange and off putting the Tim Robinson character is. This is basically the plot of “Friendship”. It is a little like “The Cable Guy” but told from the point of view of Jim Carrey.
The main problem here is that the Tim Robinson character (named Craig Waterman) is inexplicably married to a successful business woman played by the beautiful Kate Mara. They have been married for so long that they have a teenage son. Craig Waterman also has a good, if not reputable, job as an advertising executive for addictive phone applications. Make no mistake, this is the Tim Robinson character, who is prone to giant social gaffes and inexplicable moments of wrath. So, what is he doing gainfully employed and happily married for more than a decade? That doesn’t really make sense. And you can’t blame his behavior on the added presence of Paul Rudd. Paul Rudd is playing the stereotypical Paul Rudd character. He’s just a cool guy. It’s not like he is driving Craig Waterman crazy.
What would make more sense is if Craig Waterman had an obscure dirty job and lived at home with his mother, and maybe one or both of them were hoarders. (That’s the backstory of the “Haunted House Tour” after all). I think this would make Craig Waterman more endearing, and Paul Rudd’s cute circle of friends more snobbish/elistish when they (understandably) reject him.
Still, besides the missed opportunity, there are several good moments in this movie. One of my favorites included the quick scene with an obscure actor named Connor O’Malley along with his character’s viewpoint about the forever war in Afghanistan. I also really like the toad-acid trip scene in which Craig Waterman orders a sandwich. Man, I just wished the move was better because the concept is such a good idea. And these opportunities, they don’t come around all that often.
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