FRIENDSHIP

Imagine if Cable Guy was updated with a heavy dose of subtle adult swim-style humor but told from the perspective of Jim Carey’s Chip Douglas. I know that sounds like a cheap description but it’s pretty accurate. To be clear - Friendship has everything that appeals to me specifically. Surreality, dark humor, ominous music and random scenes of randomness. Tim Robinson is also someone who can do wrong in my book for the most part. But when you put everything together you get an uneven movie that sometimes comes off as random and surreal for the sake of being random and surreal. Most of us like pizza, hamburgers and tacos but they don’t all need to be served at the same time or mixed together in the same dish. It’s like - I enjoyed this movie but I was also very disappointed. Are we making a slightly awkward yet genuine film about late period male friendship or a series of adult swim-style sketches strung together in the form of a feature film. I’m not saying both things can’t coexist but in the case of Friendship it doesn’t completely work.

This actually exposes why something like Cable Guy works and other films don’t. From start to finish, Cable Guy commits to the tone. And as silly as it gets sometimes, there’s nothing cynical about it. Friendship can’t seem to commit to a tone. The whole movie feels like it was made with a mean-spirited smirk instead of an honest smile.


I keep bringing up Cable Guy because there are a lot of the same beats in both films. Tim Robinson’s obsessiveness in the movie mirrors Jim Carrey. There are also a lot of similar moments.

A friendship breakup scene

The Cable Guy / 

Friendship

A scene where our characters end up in jail

The Cable Guy / Friendship

And similar endings involving the police

The Cable Guy / Friendship

Friendship certainly delves in to some of the topics I was hoping for. I’ve never had this problem myself, but making friends in your late 30s/early 40s can be difficult. Regardless of gender. As an only child, friendship has always been a fascinating concept to me. Despite the stereotypes, only children take their friendships very seriously. Our friends are the closest thing we have to siblings outside of cousins.

In the film Tim Robinson plays “Craig” - a socially awkward middle aged dad coasting through life with no friends. He’s befriended by Paul Rudd’s “Austin” but they soon learn they aren’t a good fit. Craig has a hard time accepting this and it sets off a series of toxic events. If Friendship had been just that, it would have worked. The problem is the movie injects too many moments of random surreal humor. Now…maybe this works for others but it kept taking me out of the movie. Had the type of humor shown in the movie been spaced out a lot more it would have been successful. But it’s too up and down. We get a genuine moment that’s quickly ruined by some Tim & Eric-type gag. I feel really bad saying this because I love Tim Robinson, I Think You Should Leave, Tim & Eric, Connor O’Malley, etc. But there’s a time and a place for everything and that wasn’t taken in to consideration here.

Another thing that bothered me about this movie is that it straddles the line between the A24 aesthetic (which is very much a thing) and a Safdie brothers movie. Ominous music, weird edits, long tense zoom-ins, etc. which is essentially a double negative considering the Safdie brothers are closely associated with A24.
This is just the opinion of one man. Perhaps this is me being selfish and self-centered because I didn’t get the movie I was expecting. I’ll certainly revisit this because as forced as the humor can be - this movie is layered and worthy of a fair critique.

SLACK BAY

“Eat the rich” or some variation of poor people uprising against or just straight up murdering or burning down “the establishment” has been a plot-point in film since damn near day one. And if it isn’t eating the rich - it’s an outside force disturbing the peace of a seemingly happy privileged family (Teorema/Sitcom, Funny Games, etc aren’t “eat the rich”, but their definitely adjacent). In my personal opinion, Bruno Dumont’s Slack Bay is one of the few examples of how absurd and sometimes fake that can sound. To be clear - I’m not caping for rich people or the establishment, but at the end of the day most people aren’t about that revolutionary life (myself included). It certainly sounds hot but at the end of the day “Eat the rich” is something fashionable for Twitter leftists to say when in reality, if given the chance, they would gladly switch places with the rich people they’re advocating for to be eaten (and the funny thing is - some of them are in fact rich and/or privileged). Parasite is the perfect example of this. I don’t love that movie like the general public seems to. It’s very well made and I understand the hype behind it. I also understand why folks clung to it so hard. The inconsiderate privileged people get their wake up call by getting hustled and eventually murdered. It’s also understandable how “the message” was a little lost on the viewers. The director gives mixed messages. It’s fine to give a mixed message or not have a clear stance on something that’s complicated but Bong Joon Ho sort of plays both sides. During the promotion of the film he cited Karl Marx in interviews and painted his protagonists out to be these desperate people with their backs against the wall and no other option but to hustle a rich family.
But at the end of the day, the poor family just wanted the same money and privileges of the rich family they took advantage of. There wasn’t anything noble. We’re not even going to get in to how they screwed over another poor couple in order to get access to the rich folks. I understand that’s part of the issue with the haves and have-nots. The have-nots are manipulated in to adopting a crab in the barrel mentality. My problem is Parasite nor the director do a good job at emphasizing that. It’s like every shitty decision or evil tactic exhibited by the underprivileged is never their fault. If you think I have it wrong that’s fine. But you can understand how one could interpret Parasite in the way I laid it out.
This isn’t about Parasite. It’s just the recent New York Times list of the best movie of the 21st century gave the film relevancy again because it took the #1 spot. Everyone’s praising it again like when it first came out and it got me to thinking about Bruno Dumont’s Slack Bay which is sort of like the “anti-Parasite”.

Bruno Dumont understands the absurdity of the idea behind “eat the rich” in these modern times so he went and made a truly absurd film. In Slack Bay, two investigators are looking in to the disappearances of rich tourists on a small French island. All clues lead the detectives to a local poor (and possibly inbreed) family of cannibals that are clearly behind it all.
In Slack Bay, the poor family that literally eats the rich doesn’t want their victim’s money, homes or resources. They’re just evil and mentally ill. It should be mentioned that this movie is not only absurd but a slapstick dark comedy. Instead of taking the subject matter super seriously like other “eat the rich films”, Dumont gets very surreal.

This is definitely another film that belongs in the same conversation as not just Parasite but Martyrs, Funny Games, The Maids, The Housemaid and La Ceremonie (a far superior film than all the movies listed). It’s also in that group of absurd films where an outside force ruins the lives of a seemingly well-off family like Pasolini’s Teorema or Francois Ozon’s remake; Sitcom.

Dumont also borrows heavily from his regular sources of inspiration like Jean Epstein and Fellini…

I am simply doing the same thing that Pharaon de Winter did by including in my film people from northeast France, as [Jean] Epstein also did - Bruno Dumont, Cineaction Issue 51, Feb. 2000

Finis Terrae / Slack Bay

Finis Terrae / Slack Bay

Le Tempestaire / Slack Bay

Le Tempestaire / Slack Bay

The Three Sided Mirror / Slack Bay

Finis Terrae / Slack Bay

Finis Terrae / Slack Bay

Finis Terrae / Slack Bay

L'Or Des Mers/ Slack Bay

Finis Terrae / Slack Bay

Finis Terrae / Slack Bay

Finis Terrae / Slack Bay

L'Or Des Mers/ Slack Bay

You start doing things by learning and you learn from people who have done it before you. They become your masters. Cinema is an art that comes with big history. I have learned and been influenced by Fellini - Bruno Dumont, film companion

8-1/2 / Slack Bay

Dumont steps outside of his usual Epstein/Fellini comfort zone and also takes from silent comedies…

I did watch a lot of Max Linder films, and the character in many of his films is this very bourgeois character who is made fun of - Bruno Dumont

Max In a Taxi / Slack Bay

I know Dumont hates the Bresson comparisons but between certain isolated scenes and the basic plot, which sort of takes from L’Argent, and its source material and certain isolated moments - there is some Bresson in the film…

He [Bresson] uses close-ups in a way that's very strong and that leads us, as viewers, to reflect on what we see - Bruno Dumont

L'Argent / Slack Bay

I feel like this with every Bruno Dumont film I write about but I cannot stress how much this movie is not for everyone. But at this point it’s become semi-obscure. You don’t really hear people bring this up that much even though it isn’t that old and has legitimate movie stars like Juliette Binoche (Dumont is known for working with non-professional actors but I find that his movies work best when there’s a combination of professional and non-professional actors working together like in Slack Bay). You’d have to be familiar with Dumont’s work or make some kind of an effort to seek it out. If you have somewhat of an open mind and looking for a potential alternative to something Parasite - this might be a good substitute.

MAGAZINE DREAMS

It should come as no surprise that Magazine Dreams is being compared to Taxi Driver. Both films are about lonely obsessive unstable men that are prone to violent outbursts. At this point, what movie about lonely men isn’t inspired by Taxi Driver in some way? It’s almost lazy to make that comparison in 2025 but there are so many similar beats, moments, and shots between both films that it has to be mentioned.

 

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

Taxi Driver / Magazine Dreams

These are just the visual similarities. Both Travis Bickle and Jonathan Majors’ Killian Maddux have an unhealthy desensitized obsession with pornography (Travis frequents porn theaters and Killian casually watches online porn at home). A major difference between Magazine Dreams and Taxi Driver is the presence of the internet. Killian Maddux spends a good amount of time on online forums which is the film’s attempt at touching on incel culture and it’s negative effect on young men (casting real life bodybuilder Mike O’Hearn was a nice touch considering he’s such a meme-fied figure in online incel/sigma culture). It’s almost like Magazine Dreams is yet another movie showing you what Travis Bickle would be doing with his spare time if he existed in the age of the internet (Manodrome, The Beast, Fight Club, Paul Dano’s Riddler in The Batman, Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, etc etc). The difference between Magazine Dreams and most of the aforementioned movies is that Killian Maddux is a bit more rooted in reality compared to The Riddler or The Joker. I say Magazine Dreams is a bit more rooted in reality and not completely rooted because at a certain point it starts to feel like a 2 hour snuff film. The basic story follows a mentally unstable young man obsessed with being a champion body builder. Being a young man comes with challenges. Being a young Black man comes with a few more potential challenges. Life throws you curveballs even when you coast through it on default mode. But as the movies goes on you start to ask yourself; “what else could possibly go wrong with this young man’s life” …and then it gets worse. I don’t want to spoil anything but if you list everything that happens to Killian in the movie, you sort of say to yourself; “Jesus christ. Is this guy gonna catch a break?” At a certain point it stops feeling like a movie and more like Black male struggle/torture porn. I’m starting to understand why the director of the Iron Claw chose to exclude Chris Von Erich from the tragic Von Erich story. Would anyone, especially non-wrestling fans, want to sit through a movie where five brothers all die in a short span of time? It really happened but it just seems so unbelievable that it could be seen as distracting. Killian Maddux is the insect slowly having his limbs torn apart or burned under a magnifying glass by a sadistic little kid. To be clear - that’s not necessarily a negative criticism. Perhaps that was the director’s goal. This isn’t the type of movie you watch to “enjoy” and not everything needs to be easily digested.

The Substance /
Love Lies Bleeding /
Magazine Dreams

This would pair well Love Lies Bleeding, The Substance, and other recent films that show the dark side of obsession. Love Lies Bleeding and Magazine are first cousins in that both movies use bodybuilding and steroids as a backdrop. But like I said before – Magazine Dreams is rooted in reality whereas the other films straddle the line between reality and total fantasy.

Love Lies Bleeding / Magazine Dreams

Love Lies Bleeding / Magazine Dreams

It also makes sense that Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy produced this. At times, Magazine Dreams feels like Nightcrawler if Lou didn’t win in the end.

I feel obligated to share my thoughts on Magazine Dreams. I have an immense sense of hometown pride and the director is from my hometown (read my thoughts on Annie Baker’s Janet Planet while you’re here). I love seeing anyone from Amherst, Massachusetts doing great things. Due to Jonathan Major’s legal issues this movie almost got shelved which would have been unfortunate for all the other people involved in the making of it (they didn’t do anything wrong, so why should their work have to be “cancelled”?)

I don’t mind folks using this movie as a jump-off to talk about the Venn Diagram between mental health, gender and race as long as folks are aware this story is not in any way a representation of the average Black male experience. If anything, one could draw a parallel between the events in the movie and the issues surrounding Jonathan Majors' real life.

THE REHEARSAL + EDVARD MUNCH (1974)

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

I think Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal is one of the best television shows to come out in a very long time. It’s funny, weird, interesting and a genuine attempt at trying to do something unique (especially for HBO). Everything that’s good that needs to be said about it has already been said over these last few years. We don’t need another review gushing over how great Nathan Fielder is. This isn’t a review or a critique of the show. This is just a random observation/coincidental connection I noticed after rewatching the last two seasons.

Much like my Joe Pera/Chantal Akerman post, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Fielder’s work and the films of Peter Watkins. Specifically, his Edvard Munch biopic.

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Peter Watkins is hardly the first director to utilize cinema-verite/mocu-mentary style zoom-ins or shots of characters looking directly in to the camera. But the fact that Edvard Munch and The Rehearsal both fall under that fake documentary style of filmmaking that we’re all so familiar with today (The Office, Parks and Rec etc), makes the coincidental connection slightly more stronger in my eyes.

If you’re a fan of recent stuff like The Rehearsal, How To with John Wilson or even Nathan For You, you might want to delve in to the cinema of Peter Watkins. I haven’t found any evidence that Nathan Fielder is familiar with the work of Watkins. He probably doesn’t even know who he is. I just think it’s kind of cool how similar some of the shots are and how Fielder could be a potential gateway to other lesser-known filmmakers…  

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

Edvard Munch / The Rehearsal

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN

Much like My Winnipeg and Cowards Bend The Knee, Brand Upon The Brain serves as a personal journal for Guy Maddin. On one level we’re watching him work out some unresolved childhood traumas. The basic premise of the film concerns a young man (“Guy”) returning to the orphanage he was raised in to confront his past. On another level, Brand Upon The Brain is another Guy Maddin cinematic collage in the vein of something like Pulp Fiction where he proudly and openly wears his cinematic influences on his sleeve.

As much as I love this movie, there isn’t much to say about it that hasn’t already been said in previous posts (click here & here to my thoughts on My Winnipeg and Cowards Bend The Knee). I’m just using this post as an excuse to share all the cinematic comparisons I’ve made that have been wasted on twitter over the years (I’m permanently shadowbanned so almost no one sees what I tweet anymore). 

It makes sense that Maddin is so heavily influenced by David Lynch (click here to read more). If you watch Lynch’s early short films you can see a lot of premature ideas that would eventually turn in to features like Eraserhead, Lost Highway and Inland Empire. The same applies to Guy Maddin. Maddin will make a short film but will still cut & paste the same shots or lines of dialogue in to his features. Lynch revisits a lot of same territory over and over from a slightly different perspective. Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire are almost the same thing with different actors and slightly different approaches. Lynch has gone back in to the Twin Peaks universe multiple times over the last 30 years and the protagonist in The Grandmother looks quite similar to Robert Blake’s mystery man in Lost Highway. 

The Grandmother / Lost Highway

Maddin is always referencing his childhood (My Winnipeg & Brand Upon The Brain), his loyalty to Canada (Cowards Bend The Knee and Saddest Music In The World), his not-so hidden sexual perversions and his love of David Lynch.

he [David Lynch] is kind of doing what painting has been doing for years, and I’m not saying that his images are painterly, but that he is doing with narrative what painting does - Guy Maddin, ScreenAnarchy.com

The cinematic collage aspect in Brand Upon The Brain extends way beyond Lynch. I don’t want to repeat what I’ve already shared (click here to read my post on the connections between Lynch and Maddin). Maddin pulls from Bunuel, Fellini, Dreyer and Murnau.

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc / Brand Upon The Brain

L'age D'or /
Brand Upon The Brain

my first inclination was to kind of remake Fellini’s I VITELLONI - Guy Maddin, Slant Magazine

I Vitelloni / Brand Upon The Brain

I watch a movie and I pretend Luis Buñuel is sitting beside me - Guy Maddin, TheAVClub.com

The Criminal Life Of Archibald de la Cruz / Brand Upon The Brain

Un Chien Andalou / Brand Upon The Brain

Mexican Bus Ride / Brand Upon The Brain

The Criminal Life Of Archibald de la Cruz / Brand Upon The Brain

I feel kind of Buñuelian - Guy Maddin, Offscreen.com

The Criminal Life Of Archibald de la Cruz /
Brand Upon The Brain

Un Chien Andalou /
Brand Upon The Brain

I love Murnau more than anything - Guy Maddin, The Columbia Journal

The Haunted Castle / Brand Upon The Brain

Brand Upon The Brain is most definitely not an intro or even a mid-level Guy Maddin film. It's jumpy, chaotic, silent and intentionally schizophrenic. If you can make it through stuff like Saddest Music In The World or My Winnipeg, then this should be the next level.