Running is a very vulnerable act. Excluding people who run consistently or the freaks who make it their entire personality, I’m talking about your everyday person who probably doesn’t run very often. How do your arms move? What’s your posture like? Is your gait wide? Are you slower than you thought? How much shame do you feel?

Tim Robinson runs in “Friendship” like someone who has never ran before in their life. He slouches as his elbows shoot to his sides,  his hands creeping out in front of him. His eyes dart around as he fears anyone witnessing what he is doing. He is shockingly fast, breezing past people and dramatically jumping over anything in his way. Even when he’s going towards something, it’s like he’s always fleeing the scene. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Robinson’s energy, contrasted with the straight-man performance of a lifetime from Paul Rudd, makes Andrew DeYoung’s “Friendship” a total blast. Infused with the chaos of Robinson’s breakout sketch show “I Think You Should Leave” and supported by slew of comedy veterans from projects like “The Other Two” and “Rap World,” DeYoung’s script hits the pinnacle of the recent ‘cringe comedy’ trend by pushing the social contracts which hold polite society together.

Craig (Robinson) is a husband to recent cancer survivor Tami (Kate Mara) and a father to skater boy Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer). He is oblivious to the fact that he has no friends and that his family hates him because he is a loser with no interests. That is until Austin (Rudd), a suave weatherman, moves in down the street and takes an interest in Craig. He quickly develops an intense platonic man-crush on Austin, invited into the seductive world of having a social life of any kind as a man in middle age. But when Craig’s complete lack of awareness of the world around him leads Austin to ditch him out of embarrassment, he launches into a self-destructive spiral which forces him to reckon with his own insecurities.

Nathan Fielder fans delight, because “Friendship” is not afraid to make you uncomfortable. There are moments here in which I could not physically look at the screen anymore. Every interaction becomes charged with the knowledge that Robinson’s character is so self-centered yet pathetic that while his lack of respect for boundaries is physically unpleasant, it always teeters on the edge of respectability. You want to punch him, so bad, so frequently, but in essence he’s just really annoying, not evil.

Yet as the film continues, it becomes a question of how much of his whininess and pestering is due to something deeply wrong with him. Underneath the expertly timed comedy and pinpoint editing from Sophie Corra is a story about contemporary masculinity in suburbia. Think “American Beauty,” but if the main character’s ultimate fantasy wasn’t a teenage girl on a bed of roses but being able to eat lunch in a cubicle without anyone watching.

Craig, as an archetype of a hapless father, is banal to the point of being inhuman. The audience may understand his need for connection, but the ways in which he goes about it are nonsensical to the point that it causes physical pain. It’s almost a relief when things do go off the rails to the point of absurdity.  “Thank God he pulled out the gun,” I thought. “I don’t have to watch him get really defensive about Marvel movies anymore.”

A film full of inventive editing, insane performances and with someone to say about our current world while also being distressingly funny is a rarity. Usually, a film with aspirations such as this splits at a certain point between either mindless stupidity or solemn contemplation. “Friendship” feels no need. “Friendship” contains multitudes. “Friendship” is important. “Friendship” is necessary for a satisfying life.

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