Review: ‘Friendship’ (2025), starring Tim Robinson, Kate Mara, Jack Dylan Grazer and Paul Rudd

May 9, 2025

by Carla Hay

Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in “Friendship” (Photo courtesy of A24)

“Friendship” (2025)

Directed by Andrew DeYoung

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional U.S. city of Clovis, the comedy/drama film “Friendship” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A married marketing executive becomes fixated on having a close friendship with his married weatherman neighbor, resulting in discomfort and some things that spiral out of control. 

Culture Audience: “Friendship” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and dark comedies about obsessive people.

Kate Mara and Jack Dylan Grazer in “Friendship” (Photo courtesy of A24)

“Friendship” is intentionally dark “cringe comedy” that won’t appeal to everyone. This memorable story (about a man who becomes obsessed with having a close friendship with his neighbor) blurs lines between what is socially awkward and mentally ill. It’s a compelling satire, but at times it comes dangerously close to being a cruel mockery of people with mental health struggles.

Written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, “Friendship” is his feature-film directorial debut, after directing several TV episodes (for shows such as “PEN15” and “Shrill”) and short films. “Friendship” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. This is a movie that can be described as “an acquired taste.” You’ll know within the first 15 minutes if it’s going to be interesting enough for you to keep watching.

“Friendship” begins by showing a support group for cancer survivors and their loved ones. In the meeting are spouses Craig Waterman (played by Tim Robinson) and Tami Waterman (played by Kate Mara), who have very different personalities. Tami is calm and laid-back. Craig is fidgety and high-strung. Tami mentions that she’s been cancer-free for 12 months. (It’s never revealed in the movie what type of cancer she had.)

Tami also gets candid and says that because of the toll that the cancer recovery has taken on her, she wonders if she’ll ever have an orgasm again. Crag pipes in and says that he’s pretty sure that he’ll have an orgasm. It sets the tone of what’s to come as the movie shows how rude, narcissistic and lacking in self-awareness that Craig can be. He doesn’t see himself that way. He sees himself as a good guy who is misunderstood.

Craig (who is a marketing executive at a company called Universal Digital Innovation) and Tami (who has her own home-based florist business) live in a middle-class house in the fictional U.S. city of Clovis. (The state were Clovis is located is never mentioned in the movie, but Clovis is in a state that has snow during the winter. “Friendship” was actually filmed in Yonkers, New York.) Near the beginning of the movie, it’s revealed that Craig and Tami’s house is for sale because Tami wants a bigger house for her floral business.

Tami and Craig have a teenage son named Steven (played by Jack Dylan Grazer), who has his 17th birthday about halfway through the movie. Steven and Tami are very close, but Steven has a very distant and tension-filled relationship with Craig. It goes beyond teenage rebellion against a parent. Craig is just downright embarrassing to be around because of his very strange and off-putting way of interacting with people. Craig acts like a man-child, with an emotionally immature outlook on life.

One day, a package is mistakenly delivered to the Waterman household. The package is meant for Austin Carmichael (played by Paul Rudd), who leaves near the Watermans on the same street. Craig brings the package over to Austin’s house and is greeted in a friendly manner by Austin, who thanks Craig for giving him the package. Austin, who is a meteorologist for a local TV station, lives with his wife Bianca (played by Meredith Garretson), who is barely in the movie. Austin and Bianca have no children.

At first, Craig doesn’t think too much about this interaction with Austin. Shortly after Craig and Austin have met, Tami says she’s going out to have drinks that evening with an ex-boyfriend named Devon, who is never seen in the movie. Tami tells Craig that Austin invited Craig over to Austin’s house as a thank you for Craig making sure that Austin received the package. Craig whines that instead of going to Austin’s place, he’d rather go see the latest Marvel movie playing in a theater. Craig asks Steven if he wants to go see the movie with him, but Steven isn’t interested.

Craig reluctantly goes over to Austin’s house to hang out for a while. This experience will change both of their lives—and not necessarily in a good way. But during this first time they hang out together, things go fairly well. Austin shows Craig an unusual stone that Austin says was used as a carving tool used by humans in the prehistoric era. Craig warms up to Austin because he can see that Austin has eccentric tendencies, just like Craig.

Austin confides in Craig that he feels underappreciated at work. Austin works the night/evening shift, but what he really wants is to get the more prestigious morning shift so that he doesn’t have work at night. Craig also relates to Austin in this way because Craig also feels disrespected at his job. Craig is treated like a weirdo by his co-workers, who exclude him from a lot of their clique activities outside of the office.

On the night that Austin and Craig first hang out with each other, Austin convinces Craig to go on a spontaneous “adventure” with Austin. They go to a fenced-in area that has a “Restricted Access” sign and sneak through the fence. At first, Craig is very nervous, but he lets Austin lead the way. Austin shows Craig that this fenced-in area has a discontinued underground aquaduct tunnel that leads to Clovis’ city hall. Austin has been secretly using this tunnel, just for fun.

Craig feels flattered that Austin has been sharing secrets with him. And he starts to feel like Austin is now his best friend. Austin can see that Craig is emotionally needy and maybe a little off-balance mentally. But Austin likes feeling that someone is looking up to him in admiration, so he is manipulates Craig a little bit.

It doesn’t help that Austin does some unusual things that give the impression that he’s offbeat like Craig. A major example is when Austin calls Craig at work while Craig is in the middle of an important meeting. Austin doesn’t care and tells Craig to meet him in a wooded area right away.

When Craig meets Austin in the woods, he finds out that Austin just wants to show him where non-poisonous, non-psychedelic mushrooms are in the woods. Craig and Austin then pick several mushrooms, some of which Craig takes home and fries for a meal. This mushroom-picking excursion in the woods is the beginning of Craig’s obsession with Austin.

Several times in the movie, Craig has vivid fantasies. For example, Austin moonlights as the lead singer/guitarist of a punk rock band called Mayor Nichols Sucks. Austin invites Craig and Tami to watch the band play at a local bar. While the band is playing on stage, Craig has a fantasy that he’s the drummer in the band. A few days later, Craig shows up at Austin’s front door with a full drum kit and says, “Let’s jam.” (Austin’s reaction is exactly what you would expect it to be.)

Craig’s bizarre outbursts and antics won’t be described in full detail here. But it’s enough to say that Austin begins to distance himself from Craig after a social gathering that turns into a very uncomfortable disaster. Austin also gets the job promotion that he wants, which also affects his attitude toward Craig, as Austin becomes more image-conscious about things that will affect his career.

There are many scenes in “Friendship” where the story starts to wander and doesn’t really go anywhere. Certain scenes look like mini-comedy sketches that aren’t essential to the plot but are just more examples of how awkward and strange Craig can be. For example, there are multiple scenes of Craig trying to befriend an 18-year-old sales clerk named Tony (played by Billy Bryk) at an electronics store, but if these scenes weren’t in the movie, it would make no difference to the plot.

The movie also seems to have things to say about how Austin and Craig, in their own ways, have disdain for bureaucratic authority, but “Friendship” doesn’t go beyond surface level with these ideas. For example, Austin despises Clovis’ mayor Seth Nichols (played by Alex Webb) so much, the name of Austin’s band is Mayor Nichols Sucks, but there are no real details about why Austin has this hatred for Mayor Nichols. Meanwhile, Craig’s department gets hired to do the marketing for the mayor’s re-election campaign, which leads to yet another meltdown from Craig.

The movie under-develops the situation of Craig and Tami selling their house. The house sale is briefly talked about in a few scenes in the beginning of the movie and is then never mentioned again. A real-estate agent and potential buyers are seen quickly leaving the house in one scene, but the movie could’ve had more comedic situations for the house sale. It’s a missed opportunity to show how Craig’s obsession with Austin would be affected if Craig knew he had a limited period of time before he had to move away from the same street where Austin lives. You never get the sense of who in Craig and Tami’s marriage is really dealing with decisions about selling the house.

“Friendship” has cast members who are very talented in comedy, so their performances are what keeps this movie afloat. Robinson and Rudd play their roles well, even when their characters occasionally veer into caricatures. The tag line for the movie is “Men Shouldn’t Have Friends.” Although “Friendship” seems to be a message about masculinity in friendships, to say that this movie is about mostly masculinity would be missing the bigger picture. “Friendship” is much more about mental health than masculinity.

The movie depicts uncomfortable situations where people are faced with dilemmas about how to deal with Craig—someone who is clearly becoming mentally unhinged. Are there some laugh-out-loud moments in “Friendship”? Yes—mostly having to do with harmless slapstick comedy. But there are also plenty of moments that aren’t as funny as intended. The movie has a tone of laughing at Craig during his mental unraveling. He obviously needs therapy or some type of counseling, but no one steps in to help.

“Friendship” is a fictional comedy/drama and not a public-service announcement. However, by making Craig the “buffoon villain” of the story, the movie tends to perpetuate the worst stereotypes that cause mentally ill people to be hated. If the movie succeeds in one area of how it depicts mental illness, it’s to point out the sad reality that when people who are close to a mentally ill person do nothing to help, then they are part of the problem too.

A24 released “Friendship” in select U.S. cinemas on May 9, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on May 23, 2025.

Review: ‘Hell of a Summer,’ starring Fred Hechinger, Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk, Abby Quinn, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Krista Nazaire and Matthew Finlan

April 2, 2025

by Carla Hay

Abby Quinn, Finn Wolfhard, Krista Nazaire and Fred Hechinger in “Hell of a Summer” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“Hell of a Summer”

Directed by Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Hell of a Summer” features a predominantly white group of people (with one African American and one Indigenous person) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Counselors at a summer camp experience a deadly rampage by masked serial killer.

Culture Audience: “Hell of a Summer” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching slasher films that rip off all of their ideas from better slasher films.

Cast members of “Hell of a Summer.” Pictured in front row: Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard and Krista Nazaire. Pictured in back row: Abby Quinn, Julia Lalonde and Fred Hechinger. (Photo courtesy of Neon)

The derivative and dull horror movie “Hell of a Summer” wants be like 1996’s original “Scream” movie and 1980’s summer-camp horror flick “Friday the 13th.” “Hell of a Summer” is woefully inferior to both films and has comedy and scares that are unimpressive. “Hell of a Summer” has a talented cast but ultimately falls short of being an entertaining horror movie because of the weak screenplay that doesn’t have enough originality or wit.

Written and directed by Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard, “Hell of a Summer” is their feature-film directorial debut. Bryk and Wolfhard, who are better known as actors, also co-star in “Hell of a Summer,” which had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. “Hell of a Summer” takes place in an unnamed U.S. city, but the movie was actually filmed in the Canadian province of Ontario.

It would be an understatement to say that “Hell of a Summer” is riddled with horror movie clichés. All of the movie’s plot aspects have been copied from other movies. The location (a remote area in the woods) and many of the characters are also just lazy collections of stereotypes.

“Hell of Summer” borrows so heavily from “Scream” (masked killer slays young people who talk in self-referencing quips, with a surprise reveal toward the end) and “Friday the 13th” (masked killer slays counselors at an isolated summer camp), it’s like a mashup of both movies but very watered down, without anything to make any ideas in “Hell of a Summer” truly creative and unique. It’s like if someone tried to mix chocolate syrup and milk together and sold it as chocolate milk, but it ends up tasting like stale water.

“Hell of a Summer” is a checklist of body counts until it’s revealed who’s responsible for the murderous mayhem. What makes the original “Scream” a classic horror film is that the characters were memorable, and much of the dialogue was genuinely entertaining. “Friday the 13th” was not a great horror movie, but it had a great villain, which is the reason why “Friday the 13th” (just like “Scream”) became a long-running successful horror franchise. “Hell of a Summer” doesn’t go beyond having hollow characters and a lot of boring dialogue.

“Hell of a Summer” begins by showing the murders of John (played by Adam Pally) and Kathy (played by Rosebud Baker), the spouses who own Camp Pineway, which is getting ready to host its annual summer camp. John and Kathy are sitting around a campfire. Kathy asks John to perform the song “Pineway,” which he sings while playing an acoustic guitar

Kathy temporarily leaves the campfire area to get some beer nearby. She comes back to the campfire to find John impaled with the guitar neck. A terrified Kathy runs away to her car, but a killer wearing a devil’s mask is hiding in the back seat and murders Kathy from behind with a knife.

And so begins the body counts in “Hell of a Summer,” which assembles a group of mostly annoying people in their 20s to be the next potential victims. All of these other characters are the camp counselors. They have arrived early for orientation sessions before the summer camp attendees are expected to be there.

The movie’s protagonist is a cheerful dork named Jason Hochberg (played by Fred Hechinger), a 24-year-old who has been a Camp Pineway counselor for the past six years. Near the beginning of the film, after Kathy and John have been murdered, Jason is shown getting a car ride to the camp, with his mother Maggie Hochberg (played by Susan Coyne) driving the car. Maggie wants Jason to become a lawyer, and she expresses disappointment that Jason has chosen to spend his summer being a Camp Pineway counselor again instead of doing an internship that he rejected.

Maggie also disapproves of the low salary that Jason gets as a Camp Pineway counselor: “One hundred dollars a week is not employment,” she says. Jason comments to Maggie about Camp Pinaway: “I have my whole life to be a lawyer, but how many summers do I get to spend here?” Maggie replies, “A lot, apparently.” This is the type of mundane dialogue that the movie wants to pass off as comedy-worthy.

The other counselors at the camp are:

  • Claire (played by Abby Quinn), who is smart, sarcastic and the obvious potential love interest for Jason.
  • Christian, nicknamed Chris (played by Wolfhard) is a nerdy goofball.
  • Bobby (played by Bryk) is Chris’ easygoing best friend who might or might not be secretly in love with Chris.
  • Shannon (played by Krista Nazair) is a self-absorbed diva who rejects the advances of any of the men who show a romantic interest in her.
  • Demi (played by Pardis Saremi) is an even more self-absorbed diva, and she wants to document her camp activities on social media.
  • Mike (played by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) is a vain and arrogant self-described ladies’ man.
  • Ezra (played by Matthew Finlan) is a flamboyant “drama queen” who wants to stage a “political re-imagining” play of “Pinocchio” at the camp.
  • Ari (played by Daniel Gravelle) is an aspiring screenwriter.
  • Miley (played by Julia Doyle) is a generic young adult with a forgettable personality, which means she won’t last long in this slasher flick.
  • Noelle (played by Julia Lalonde) is a moody loner who has a fascination with mysticism and the occult.

When the counselors arrive, some are concerned that they don’t see John and Kathy. However, Jason finds a note from John and Kathy saying that John and Kathy had to temporarily leave to take care of a minor emergency. Jason doesn’t know it at the time, but that note was not written by John and Kathy.

One by one, certain people in this group of camp counselors get murdered by someone wearing a devil’s mask. After the first murdered body is discovered, the remaining counselors panic and try to leave, but they find out that they can’t use their cars, which have all been disabled. The camp counselors also find out that all of their phones were stolen, which is the least believable part of the movie, because most people in real life keep their phones nearby so that the phones are close enough to reach.

“Hell of a Summer” tries to pad out its very thin and flimsy plot with tedious storylines about potential hookups and unrequited crushes. Jason has a crush on Demi. Ari and Chris have a crush on Shannon. Claire has an obvious crush on Jason, even though she says she has a boyfriend. And then the inevitable happens when the people in the group start to suspect each other of being the killer. One person in particular is repeatedly accused of being the prime suspect.

All of the technical aspects of “Hell of a Summer” (directing editing, cinematography, etc.) are very mediocre. And although the cast members, particularly Hechinger, try to do their best to convince viewers that “Hell of a Summer” is a clever horror comedy, they can’t overcome the inane dialogue and unrealistic scenarios that pollute this dreadful dud. “Hell of a Summer” has a few quirky moments, but this horror comedy ripoff is more likely to elicit yawns instead of laughs.

Neon will release “Hell of a Summer” in U.S. cinemas on April 4, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on April 22, 2025. “Hell of a Summer” will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on July 8, 2025.

Review: ‘When You Finish Saving the World,’ starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard

February 17, 2023

by Carla Hay

Finn Wolfhard and Julianne Moore in “When You Finish Saving the World” (Photo by Karen Kuehn/A24)

“When You Finish Saving the World”

Directed by Jesse Eisenberg

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the comedy/drama film “When You Finish Saving the World” (based on the Audible podcast of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A married mother, who works at a domestic violence shelter, tries to emotionally connect with her self-absorbed teenage son, who is an aspiring rock star, while mother and son try to make an impression on separate people whom they both admire. 

Culture Audience: “When You Finish Saving the World” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard; writer/director Jesse Eisenberg; the Audible podcast on which the movie is based; and rambling movies about people who think their trivial personal problems are bigger than these problems really are.

Finn Wolfhard and Alisha Boe in “When You Finish Saving the World” (Photo by Karen Kuehn/A24)

How much viewers might like “When You Finish Saving the World” will depend how much they want to watch repetitive and emotionally hollow scenes of a mother and her teenage son who are desperate to impress people who live outside their home while ignoring the problems inside their home. This mother and son feel unsatisfied with their home lives because they really don’t want to pay much attention to each other. It’s a very staged-looking and dull dramedy about privileged and entitled people trying to make themselves look socially conscious. The movie’s tone starts off as cynical and ends in a sentimental way that looks phony and unearned.

“When You Finish Saving the World” is the first feature film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who is known to most movie audiences as an actor who usually plays neurotic characters. (Eisenberg was nominated for a Oscar for his starring role as Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2010’s “The Social Network.”) “When You Finish Saving the World” is based on Eisenberg’s Audible podcast of the same name. It’s also the first movie from Fruit Tree, a production company co-founded by spouses Emma Stone and Dave McCary with their producing partner Ali Herting. (Stone and Eisenberg co-starred in 2009’s “Zombieland” and 2019’s “Zombieland: Double Tap.”) “When You Finish Saving the World” had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Even though the movie has respected and talented creatives who used their clout to get this project made, “When You Finish Saving the World” still looks and feels lightweight and inconsequential. It’s a film that could have had a lot more to say and a better way to say it. What viewers will get are many scenes where the two central characters snipe at each other and whine a lot (especially when they’re at home), but they put their best selves forward when they become fixated on someone whom they want to impress. They try to come across as enlightened and virtuous to those people.

In “When You Finish Saving the World” (which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city but was filmed in New Mexico), the two main characters are Evelyn Katz (played by Julianne Moore) and her teenage son Ziggy Katz (played by Finn Wolfhard), who are frequently at odds with each other. Evelyn is a politically liberal, longtime activist who currently works as a manager at a domestic violence shelter called Spruce Haven. Ziggy, who’s about 16 or 17 years old, is a wannabe rock star, who plays (according to his description) “classic folk rock with alternative influences.”

Ziggy is the old child of Evelyn and her mild-mannered husband Roger Katz (played by Jay O. Sanders), who stays out of the squabbles that frequently happen between Evelyn and Ziggy. When this family of three have meals together, Roger often has to listen to Ziggy and Evelyn complain about whatever little things that are bothering Ziggy and Evelyn at the moment. When Roger tells Ziggy it’s “cultural appropriation” for white people to play blues music, Ziggy (rude as ever) yells at Roger, “Dad, just shut the fuck up!”

The Roger character had a much bigger role in the podcast, where Roger was a central character. In the “When You Finish Saving the World” production notes, Eisenberg explains why he made Roger a small supporting role this movie version: “Now he is almost a forgotten presence who can’t get anyone to pay attention to him.” Roger’s role in the movie is so small, it has almost no impact on the story. His most memorable line in the movie is when he truthfully says about his household: “Everyone around me is a narcissist.”

Evelyn is disappointed that Ziggy has turned into a self-centered brat who only seems to care about how many more followers he can get on social media. Ziggy currently has 20,000 followers on HiHat, a social media platform that was fabricated for this movie but is obviously supposed to be a lot like YouTube. The irony of Ziggy’s growing popularity on HiHat (where he can reach people virtually around the world) is that Ziggy is a social outcast at his high school where people can interact with him in person. Ziggy is upbeat and cheerful to his followers online, but in real life, he’s often moody and unfriendly.

Evelyn has a personality that can best be described as a combination of being bland and uptight. She had hoped that her only child would want to follow in her footsteps of pursuing a career that involves helping underprivileged and disadvantaged people. She’s asked Ziggy to volunteer at the shelter, but he refuses. Instead, Ziggy does things such as berate Evelyn when she goes in his room and inadvertently interrupts one of his livestream performances, where many of his followers pay to see Ziggy perform his original songs and cover tunes. Ziggy also does video chats directly with his followers.

As an example of how clueless Evelyn is about the Internet and how disconnected she is from Ziggy’s interests, she has no idea what a livestream is. To prevent any more interruptions during his livestreams, Ziggy angrily installs a red studio light outside the top of his bedroom door. He tells his parents that if the light is on, that means he’s doing a livestream—and under no circumstances can anyone go inside the room when the red light is on.

Evelyn thinks Ziggy’s music is a hobby. When Ziggy says that he’s going to be a professional musician, Evelyn asks him: “Have you thought about your end game?” This is Ziggy’s insolent response: “I’m going to be rich, and you’re going to be poor.”

Considering all the real problems in the world, this type of bickering in “When You Finish Saving the World” looks very petty and very much like “privileged people’s problems.” But this is the type of “family turmoil” that the movie is trying to pass off as heavy, when it’s just so trivial. Evelyn should consider herself lucky that she doesn’t have to listen to Ziggy’s off-key singing and tone-deaf guitar playing. (Emile Mosseri composed the music for the movie, including the two forgettable original songs that Wolfhard co-wrote under the alias Ziggy Katz.)

Evelyn and Ziggy clearly aren’t very happy in their lives or with each other. They will each meet someone who becomes a reason for Evelyn and Ziggy to try to project a more socially conscious and caring image in public. Observant viewers will notice that it’s just Evelyn’s and Ziggy’s way of distracting themselves from their problems at home. Evelyn and Ziggy are a lot more similar to each other than they would like to admit.

Evelyn’s “distraction” is a 17-year-old named Kyle (played by Billy Bryk), who arrives at the shelter with his feisty mother Angie (played by Eleonore Hendricks), after leaving their home because Angie’s husband/Kyle’s father has battered Angie. (This abusive man is never seen in the movie.) Kyle is in his last year of high school. Evelyn can’t help but notice that Kyle is everything that she wishes Ziggy could be: kind, respectful to his mother, and compassionate about other people’s problems.

Meanwhile, Ziggy develops a big crush on a classmate named Lila (played by Alisha Boe), who is a full-on stereotype of a progressive social justice warrior who is constantly preaching to other people about the politically correct way to live. The movie downplays the reality that Ziggy is most likely attracted to Lila because of her physical looks, not because he’s attracted to her emotionally or intellectually. At any rate, Ziggy suddenly wants to transform into being willfully ignorant about sociopolitical issues to being the type of sociopolitical activist that he thinks will impress Lila, who correctly suspects that Ziggy isn’t being genuine.

Evelyn’s interest in Kyle becomes an obsession that borders on being very creepy. She wants to treat him almost like a down-and-out family member, even though she barely knows him. One night, Evelyn goes to the shelter, just to give Kyle some leftovers from her family dinner. It’s a thoughtful gesture but also very condescending. Kyle looks uncomfortable with this offer, and he politely tells Evelyn that he’s already eaten dinner.

Evelyn also becomes determined to convince Kyle to go to Oberlin College, a liberal arts school in Oberlin, Ohio. She even goes as far as saying that she will recommend Kyle to someone she knows who is an Oberlin College admissions officer. But does Kyle really want to go to college?

The situation is complicated by the fact that Kyle worked in the auto body shop of his abusive father, who is apologetic about the domestic violence attack on Angie, and he wants Kyle to come back to work for him at the auto body shop. Angie, like many domestic violence victims, is conflicted about whether or not she should go back to her attacker. Evelyn thinks it’s a bad idea for Angie and Kyle to go back to live with their abuser.

However, the shelter only has limited time and space for those it helps. Evelyn isn’t exactly coming up with any real solutions for the issue of where Angie and Kyle can live after their time at the shelter expires. It’s a common problem for temporary residents of domestic violence shelters, but “When You Finish Saving the World” essentially ignores this problem.

One of the biggest issues that viewers will have with the way the movie portrays Evelyn is how she treats very serious and complicated issues with surface-level platitudes. The movie goes overboard in making Evelyn look out-of-touch and borderline incompetent in her job where she’s supposed to help victims and survivors of domestic violence. Sending Kyle to a college that Evelyn wants him to go to doesn’t directly address problems this teenager might have from being emotionally scarred or influenced by the domestic violence experienced in the home. Evelyn is the type of “activist” who is more about “talking” than “doing,” when it comes to real solutions for the people she wants to help.

The biggest problem with “When You Finish Saving the World” is that most viewers just won’t care much about any of the characters in this monotonous film. There’s nothing wrong with the acting in the movie, but all of the principal cast members have been better in other films. “When You Finish Saving the World” is the equivalent of forcing people to watch car wheels spin in the same place until the car starts moving too late. This 88-minute movie only starts to pick up steam in the last 15 minutes. But by then, viewer interest might have waned or disappeared altogether.

A24 released “When You Finish Saving the World” in select U.S. cinemas on January 20, 2023.

Review: ‘Crisis’ (2021), starring Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer and Evangeline Lilly

March 7, 2021

by Carla Hay

Greg Kinnear and Gary Oldman in “Crisis” (Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution)

“Crisis” (2021)

Directed by Nicholas Jarecki

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Detroit and Montreal, the dramatic film “Crisis” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: The lives of three different Americans—a scientist, a Drug Enforcement Agency undercover officer and a recovering opioid addictall collide when a new “non-addictive” opioid prescription drug called Klaralon is being rushed to market.

Culture Audience: “Crisis” will appeal primarily to people who like to watch formulaic dramas about the “war on drugs” that have some ridiculous plot developments.

Armie Hammer and Evangeline Lilly in “Crisis” (Philippe Bosse/Quiver Distribution)

It seems as if the dramatic thriller “Crisis” (written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki) was made to be a “cautionary tale” about how big pharmaceutical companies are just greedy, corporate drug dealers in the so-called “war on drugs.” However, the movie becomes so enamored with showing enmeshed storylines of the three main characters that it all just becomes a tangled mess that tries to tie up loose ends neatly in a very unrealistic way, in order to have a cliché movie ending. The acting performances are solid, but the movie’s writing and direction are bloated and messy.

The story goes back and forth between the perspectives of three Detroit people, who all end up being connected to each other in some way in the opioid crisis. It’s a crisis that has fueled demand for opioids, whether they’re sold as legal prescriptions or through the illegal drug trade. Much of the story revolves around a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) sting to take down a cartel of Armenian gangsters in Montreal who traffic drugs to and from the U.S. and Canadian border. You can tell already that this movie is more convoluted than it needs to be.

Dr. Tyrone Brower (played by Gary Oldman) is a scientist (presumably in biochemistry, because the movie never says), who teaches at an unnamed university in the Detroit area. This university has had a long-term business relationship with a corporate pharmaceutical company called Northlight, which has hired the university to do research on drugs that Northlight wants approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Tyrone is in charge of these research studies, and he prides himself on having high ethical standards.

Tyrone’s latest research study for Northlight is for a painkiller called Klaralon, which is supposed to be the world’s first “non-addictive” painkiller. Of course, there are caveats to using Klaralon. It’s only “non-addictive” if taken in the correct doses. And there’s some cockamamie explanation later in the story that Klaralon won’t become addictive if patients stop taking Klaralon after 30 days.

It’s an example of a poorly thought-out screenplay, because it doesn’t factor in the reality that most patients who are prescribed painkillers need to take the drugs for longer than a month. And no legitimately greedy pharmaceutical company would want to market a drug with such short-term usage. The goal would be to keep people on these drugs as long as possible to make the maximum amount of money from selling these drugs. And there are plenty of plot holes and other illogical missteps in this movie, which ruin any credibility that “Crisis” might have intended to look like a gritty drama that’s supposed to be taken seriously.

The second person in this trio of main characters is Jake Kelly (played by Armie Hammer), a hardened DEA officer who’s undercover in the Canadian city of Montreal. He’s invested a lot of time in a DEA sting to bust an Armenian gang that has been cornering the market with illegal OxyContin sales and is trying to do the same for Fentanyl. The leader of this drug cartel is named (try not to laugh) Mother (played by Guy Nadon), and his right-hand goon is named Guy Broussard (played by Éric Bruneau). “Crisis” writer/director Jarecki portrays Stanley “Stan” Foster, who is Jake’s closest and most-trusted DEA colleague in the sting.

Jake has a personal reason for wanting to bust this drug-dealing cartel: His younger sister Emmie (played by Lily-Rose Depp) is a needle-using opioid addict. During the course of the story, Emmie starts off in rehab but then ends up leaving rehab early to go back to her junkie lifestyle. You can easily predict the scene in the movie where Emmie goes missing, Jake finds her strung-out in a drug house, and he forces her to leave while she has a temper tantrum.

And speaking of drug addicts, the third person whose perspective is shown in “Crisis” is that of single mother Claire Reimann (played by Evangeline Lilly), a recovering opioid addict who’s still struggling with staying clean and sober. Claire is shown in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, where she confesses to the attendees about her urge to use opioids and how it affects how she raises her 16-year-old son David (played by Billy Bryk).

Claire says, “I can’t even sit through a hockey game without even thinking about it. I would like to be a better person for him. And I’m working on that.” David’s father is not seen or mentioned in the movie, so it’s implied that he’s an absentee father who has no contact with Claire and David.

The university that Tyrone works for relies heavily on funding from Northlight to keep the school financially afloat. Therefore, Tyrone is under pressure to deliver lab results that will be pleasing to Northlight. However, there’s a problem with the trial studies for Klaralon. The mice that were tested in the experiments died after 10 days of being administered the drug. The trial period was extended to 30 days, and led to the same results. There’s also evidence that Klaralon is more addictive than Fentanyl.

Tyrone finds out this bad news at the worst time, because Northlight is soon going to present the university’s research on Klaralon to the FDA for approval to sell the drug. In good conscience, Tyrone refuses to lie and pretend that Klaralon is safe to sell to the general public. He meets with Northlight executives Dr. Bill Simons (played by Luke Evans) and Dr. Meg Holmes (played by Veronica Ferres), who are portrayed as soulless and money-hungry. Tyrone tells them that the drug is dangerous and not ready for FDA approval, and asks them for more time to do more lab tests.

Not surprisingly, the Northlight executives refuse and even come up with a ludicrous idea to sell Klaralon anyway. Despite all the signs that it’s a deadly drug, the Northlight executives justify this rush to market for Klaralon, by saying that the company won’t be responsible for any deaths if they include a warning that the drug cannot be taken for more than 30 days. Tyrone thinks it’s a terrible idea and isn’t afraid to say so.

After this meeting, Bill tries to entice Tyrone to sign a “modified” lab report with a “corporate donation” of $780,000. Of course, it’s really a bribe to sign a falsified report. Tyrone knows he’s being offered a bribe, but he doesn’t want to alienate Northlight, so he asks for a little more time to look over the agreement.

When Tyrone tells his boss Dean Talbot (played by Greg Kinnear) about this ethical problem, Tyrone is surprised and disappointed when the dean sides with Northlight. Dean Talbot essentially tells Tyrone that if he doesn’t sign off on the report and take the money, Northwell will cancel its contract with the university, and it will ruin the university financially.

Dean Talbot also says that just because some mice died in the lab experiments for Klaralon, that doesn’t mean that people will die from taking Klaralon too. Anyone with basic knowledge of science might be yelling at their screen at this dumb part of the movie. And the dean reminds Tyrone that the university isn’t responsible if people become addicted or die from the drugs that the university researches.

Dean Talbot also strongly hints that Tyrone will be fired if he doesn’t do what he’s told. Tyrone can’t afford to lose this job because his much-younger wife Susan (played by Mia Kirshner) is pregnant with their first child together. He’s also at an age (in his 60s) where it would be difficult to find work somewhere else. And Tyrone loves his job and doesn’t want to leave.

“Crisis” tries to do too much during its nearly two-hour running time. The story goes off the rails when tragedy strikes Claire and she turns into a vigilante. With the help of a private investigator, Claire finds out some information to try to solve a mystery. And then, she starts acting as if she’s a one-woman DEA crime-busting team. She goes back and forth between the U.S. and Canadian border. And a lot of nonsense ensues. It’s just all so ridiculously portrayed in the movie.

There are inevitable shootouts that are also badly handled in the movie. And for a powerful drug cartel led by a guy named Mother, they have a lot less people handling their business than they would in in real life. But that’s because this is a low-budget independent film, so apparently the filmmakers probably didn’t want to hire any more actors because they spent a great deal of their budget hiring an Oscar winner such as Oldman.

Oldman’s Tyrone character is supposed to be the “moral center” of the story. He’s the type of professor who tells his students: “Without us crazies, where would the world be?” As far as his big ethical dilemma about Klaralon, he might as well wear a sign that says, “Whistlebower.” Hammer and Lilly are serviceable in their roles, which don’t make much of an impression in this fairly generic movie.

Michelle Rodriguez has a small role as Jake’s DEA supervisor Mia Garrett, who doesn’t do much but scowl when she hears some of the updates that Jake gives her. Scott Mescudi, also known in real life as rapper Kid Cudi, has a much smaller role as Ben Walker, an investigator for the FDA. These two characters don’t have memorable personalities. Even the chief villain Mother is a banal stereotype of the type of elder “mob boss” that’s been seen in dozens of other crime-related dramas.

“Crisis” tries to be somewhat preachy about the far-reaching effects of the opioid crisis and the “war on drugs.” Claire is supposed to represent the “everyday person” who’s affected by this crisis. But by having her do some outlandish and very unrealistic things in this story, it actually makes her character and this movie less relatable to everyday viewers. Claire also crosses paths with Jake in some of the movie’s most preposterous scenes.

“Crisis” would have been a better movie if it focused only on Tyrone’s storyline and was a drama inspired by 1999’s “The Insider,” the Al Pacino/Russell Crowe movie about a whistleblower in the tobacco industry. “Crisis” could have been an intriguing story, because it’s rare for a dramatic movie to give an in-depth look at any corruption that goes on behind-the-scenes when drugs are being tested for FDA approval. Instead, “Crisis” overstuffs the plot with a run-of-the-mill “let’s take down a drug cartel” storyline that so many other movies have done before and done much better.

Quiver Distribution released “Crisis” in select U.S. cinemas on February 26, 2021, and on digital and VOD on March 5, 2021.

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