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    Movie Review

    The Croods: A New Age pushes crude family into funny new territory

    Alex Bentley
    Nov 25, 2020 | 12:00 pm
    The Croods: A New Age pushes crude family into funny new territory
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    Since Shrek took the then-fledgling Dreamworks Animation into the big time in 2001, it’s been in the sequel-making business. Shrek got three more films and one spin-off, Madagascar got two sequels and a spin-off, and the Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon series each have three films. In each case, every subsequent film came out within a few years of the previous one, yet it took seven years for a sequel to be made for the massively successful The Croods.

    The Croods: A New Age was worth the wait, as the filmmakers obviously took their time to get all the details just right. The Crood family — Grug (Nicolas Cage), Ugga (Catherine Keener), Eep (Emma Stone), Thunk (Clark Duke), Gran (Cloris Leachman), and Sandy (Kailey Crawford) — is still a tight-knit bunch, but the growing relationship between Eep and newcomer Guy (Ryan Reynolds) threatens to break apart their unit.

    Things change when they find a glorious new world with abundant food populated by the Betterman family — Hope (Leslie Mann), Phil (Peter Dinklage), and Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran). At once intrigued and repulsed by the Neanderthal family, the Bettermans allow the Croods to stay, leading to conflicts, but also bonds, between various members of both groups.

    Written by the team of Kevin Hageman, Dan Hageman, Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan, and directed by Joel Crawford, the film seems to strike the right tone at every turn. Nothing about the Crood family is sophisticated, but somehow the filmmakers keep their brutishness as a lovable and funny trait no matter what crazy thing they do next. That’s no small feat, as the temptation to just fall back on what worked in the first film is something many filmmakers can’t help but do.

    The surreal nature of their world, with things like giant fruit and combination animals such as land sharks, pig gators, chicken seals, and wolf spiders, helps to sell the craziness that takes place throughout the film. While animation permits filmmakers to get as imaginative as possible, there’s a fine line between not enough and too much, and this film is almost perfectly balanced.

    The introduction of the Bettermans is a joke that pays dividends throughout the film. Hope and Phil are imagined as a type of snobby hipsters, and their “fancy” lifestyle contrasts with the basic ways of the Croods in many funny ways. Whether it’s Phil giving Guy a man bun or showing Grug his man cave, or the family impressing with something as simple as a shower, the filmmakers show their cleverness without trying to make things too smart.

    The members of big name cast each play their parts well, even Cage, whose career has been filled with a slew of low-budget and little-seen films since the original Croods came out. But it’s the 94-year-old Cloris Leachman who steals the show. Gran is given a decent amount to do in this film, and Leachman’s vocal performance makes her come alive in a way that doesn’t usually happen in animation.

    The only downside to The Croods: A New Age being so good is that it’s only being released in theaters in a year where seeing a movie in a theater is a scary proposition for many. If you’d rather wait, hopefully it won’t be long — certainly not seven years — before it comes to a streaming service near you.

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    The Croods: A New Age will open in theaters on November 25.

    Phil and Hope Betterman in The Croods: A New Age.

    Phil and Hope Betterman in The Croods: A New Age
      
    Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Animation LLC
    Phil and Hope Betterman in The Croods: A New Age.
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    Movie Review

    New movie Friendship pairs Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in a bizarre bromance

    Alex Bentley
    May 16, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship
    Photo courtesy of A24
    Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship.

    Comedian Tim Robinson has gained a cult following thanks to series like Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, in which his brand of cringe comedy is on full display. The former Saturday Night Live writer/performer has had a few small movie roles over the years, but he’s now getting his first starring role in the off-kilter Friendship.

    Robinson plays Craig, a mild-mannered suburbanite with a wife, Tami (Kate Mara), and son, Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer). Craig has a boring life that involves little more than going to his middle manager job while wearing the same clothes day after day, anticipating the next Marvel movie, and helping Tami out with her at-home floral business.

    He gets a jolt of energy when Austin (Paul Rudd) moves into the neighborhood. The two men seem to hit it off, with Austin — a weatherman at a local TV channel — even taking Craig on a couple of impromptu adventures. But when Craig commits a couple of faux pas at a group gathering at Austin’s house, their bond starts to fracture.

    Even though the film is written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, it’s clear that Robinson had a big influence on the style of comedy it features. There are no big set pieces with a slew of jokes coming one after another. Instead, the film forces the audience to try to vibe with the very particular type of wavelength it’s giving off, one that could almost be called anti-comedy for the way the laughs come out of left field.

    The 100-minute film is full of random comedic moments, like Steven kissing Tami on the lips, Craig being obsessed with his plain brown clothes, a group sing-along, and more. More often than not, it’s the way Craig reacts to both normal and abnormal situations that gets the laughs. The character is needy and oblivious, two traits that combine to make many of his actions cringeworthy.

    Perhaps most importantly for this type of movie, many things in the story go unexplained or don’t make sense. Seemingly crucial elements are brought up only to fade away just as quickly, while other parts that appeared to be throwaway sections get callbacks later in the film. DeYoung and Robinson are determined to keep the audience on their toes the entire time, never knowing what to expect next.

    Robinson has the perfect face for a story like this, one that’s bland enough to blend into the background but memorable enough to sell the jokes. His demeanor is also excellent, never becoming too expressive, even when he gets angry. With long hair, a mustache, and a certain swagger, Rudd is a great complement to Robinson. Only in a film like this would an everyman like Rudd be considered the suave and cool one.

    There will be some that will see Friendship and come away wondering what the hell they just watched. But anyone who goes in knowing that they’re about to witness a comedy that challenges their sensibilities will likely have a great time.

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    Friendship is now playing in select theaters.

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