Known for his series “I Think You Should Leave…”, Tim Robinson specialises in a strain of comedy that has viewers recoiling in a “permanent, convulsive squirm”, said Jonathan Romney in the Financial Times.
Now, he has brought that quality to the big screen in this film by first-time writer-director Andrew DeYoung. Robinson takes the role of Craig, a dorky marketing executive living in a “drab” American suburb. Friendless and socially hopeless, Craig is despised at work and ignored even by his wife (Kate Mara). But then, thanks to a misaddressed parcel, he meets his neighbour Austin (Paul Rudd), a “friendly, laid-back” TV weatherman, who – in Craig’s eyes – seems the very embodiment of cool. To his astonishment, Austin likes him, and the pair spark up a bromance-style friendship.
Austin represents everything Craig secretly aspires to, said Alissa Wilkinson in The New York Times. He has a manly moustache, he plays in a band, he collects antique weaponry, and he “knows just which rules to break to have a good time”.
Of course, it isn’t long before things go wrong, said Saffron Maeve in Sight and Sound. Owing to a bizarre faux pas, Craig is “exiled” from Austin’s circle, and what had been a slightly creepy fixation with his neighbour turns into something far worse: “stalking, thieving, imitation and tantrums”. Robinson is superb in the role, which was written specifically for him; and DeYoung skilfully navigates a genre-bending path between comedy, drama, thriller and even fantasy. “At once lampooning and embracing” middle-aged male loneliness, the film is enjoyable and funny. But it might have worked better, in terms of things like character development, as a TV series, and its various sadistic twists ultimately become a bit wearying.
‘Lampooning and embracing’ middle-aged male loneliness, this film is ‘enjoyable and funny’