When we meet Craig (Tim Robinson) in Andrew DeYoung’s feature debut Friendship, we watch him bring down the vibe in his wife’s cancer support group, see him make an awkward introduction to his new neighbor Austin (Paul Rudd), and learn that he is clearly the pariah at his tech office.
However, that initial meeting with Austin is profound. Craig clearly doesn’t get out much, so after an invitation to have a drink at Austin’s, gaining his friendship becomes a hellbent obsession. It leads to much embarrassment, some endearing growth, and, delightfully, one of the most surprising musical sequences of the year. (Gen X and millennials: get excited.)
Everything Craig does in his attempts to befriend Austin, both real and imaginary, is hard to watch, as he imagines the heroic ways he’ll impress Austin in his head and then he fumbles in front of him in real life. While Craig is a bundle of nerves and neuroses, Austin is cool and confident—he’s a weatherman, in a band, and has a sick mustache. DeYoung tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed that Friendship was inspired by the ways we look for sparkly people.
“It’s also inspired by the way we seek magical others in our life,” he says. “Where you encounter someone, and you see this online a lot, where you can see how someone presents themselves and they make you feel s—y about your life. They don’t try to, but just how they present themselves. It’s that feeling where like, ‘Someone special chose me, therefore I feel special and I feel alive.’ And then what’s it like to be rejected by a special person? I’m playing with social stuff that we all know and then just cranking it up to the highest degree for effect.”
When Craig is invited over to Austin’s for a boys night to celebrate a new job and meet all of Austin’s friends, his anxiety is palpable: He gives himself a pep talk about how great he is…and then immediately walks into the sliding glass door. While the night continues, the group of guys drink beers to celebrate Austin’s new job, the beats of a classic boys night. DeYoung flips it after an emotional moment with the guys doing an impromptu acapella singalong of the classic 1996 song “My Boo” by Ghost Town DJ’s. It’s a surprisingly touching moment; Craig’s face is in awe as he watches the men around him sing.
Perhaps what’s even more surprising is hearing the nearly 30-year-old party song be such an important needle drop, one that permeates throughout the film.
In the script DeYoung, originally had written Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” to be used in that scene, but it wasn’t in the budget.
“My music supervisors [Rob Lowry and Mia Riggins] pitched [‘My Boo’] and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s perfect’. Just the lyrics and everything, it’s just so beautifully dead on. Also it is an incredible song, so it was just the movie Gods smiling down on us,” he says.
The initial scene comes right after one of the guys is sharing some parenting concerns about his daughter. It’s also a moment that characterizes this group of men to Craig.
“Without spending too much movie time on it, my goal was to be like, ‘How do I show that these guys are guys he’s never met before and wants to be like,’” DeYoung says. “It’s like, let’s show they’re sensitive and where they’re talking about feelings. I thought their singing was a way to align them together, and then they’re masculine when they box [immediately after the song]. Ideally, I want to show a healthy masculinity in the shortest amount of time and those three beats just felt like the best way to do that.”
As Craig spirals after that crucial boys night throughout the rest of the film, it soon becomes apparent to audiences that this won’t be the only moment that “My Boo” gets to shine in the film. Craig attempts to parallel outings he’s had with Austin or things he’s learned from or about him in the latter half of the film, mostly to embarrassment or destruction. So it makes sense for “My Boo” to resurface again at the end of the film.
This time around, instead of something tender, Craig further unravels. It was important for DeYoung to have the song come back full circle, especially to show the loops Craig runs throughout the film. “It goes back to the repetition thing,” he says. “It almost felt like that was the last thing that he hasn’t copied yet, and so it plays back into that this guy can’t help but be lost in his obsessions or his looping.”
Having “My Boo” be the theme song for a film starring Tim Robinson that’s stealthily about masculinity, male friendship, and loneliness wasn’t on any 2025 pop culture bingo card, but DeYoung pulls it off. While Friendship focuses on the all consuming obsession Craig has with Austin, DeYoung sees it also as a larger exploration of our current culture.
“I’m writing towards something that I feel,” he says. “If we write towards our gut, I feel like there’s a collective consciousness thing I’ll hit. I’m making this comedy, but ideally it does speak to or provide some catharsis for our loneliness in general in culture and our separation from ourselves and our deep desire to connect and all the ways that prevent us from connecting.”
