Some sorely needed narrative structure and character pathos. Hoping more practiced writers like Sarah Schneider can save this show from itself.

He needs to not be given the rope to hang himself with and instead have his talents laser-focused on a specific goal.

The absurdism in “The Chair Company” should be more selectively employed. Most of us like sugar in our coffee, but Robinson has added so much sugar (randomness) to this coffee (each scene), that it no longer tastes like coffee anymore.

There is absurdism abound in that movie, and it’s delightful, but it’s not the main driver of what’s funny; the crux of the comedy is in the relatability, and the relief that these extremely cringey moments aren’t (currently) happening to us.

…something that is especially pronounced with older age, amongst straight men, and in today’s rather distant society.

What was great about “Friendship” was that, while both Rudd and Robinson were ridiculous in their own rights, they shared an awkward tension that is familiar: an attempted platonic connection that falls apart despite our best efforts,

Robinson is great when it comes to playing it straight while behaving in totally irrational or cringey ways, but he seems to be bad at mining the comedy that naturally occurs amongst two characters acting like normal people from Planet Earth.

Robinson has a fantastic sensibility for portraying (mostly) lovable loser characters, but his penchant for maximizing weirdness at all times tramples all over the possibility of narrative cohesion or of organic comedic moments.

So I went into this with high hopes. I figured the Robinson + DeYoung pairing was sure to deliver again, but it just isn’t hitting the same way at all. I think the key difference is that DeYoung wrote “Friendship”, whereas “The Chair Company” is Robinson and Kanin’s baby.

In fact I’m more than a little disappointed by this show as a huge “Friendship” fan—I stood in line for 2hrs in the hopes of getting into the SXSW premiere; once in I could not stop laughing from the moment it started till the moment it ended. Easily one of the best films of 2025

“The Chair Company” suffers from the same faults; it overindexes on abrupt bouts of shouting and “lol random” humor. And I say this as somebody who LIVES FOR absurdist comedies.

It’s a movie examining the possibility of love in spite of total familial/societal dysfunction. I think the media landscape is so starved of leftist representation that critics and audiences are eager to latch onto even the revolutionary window dressing of a film to satiate themselves.

and then have a huge slate of independent films that are expected to see limited returns to make up revenues for the rest of the year. This would require everyone adjusting profit expectations downward though and that will never fly. (5/5)

At this point the Hollywood system should probably just do some tentpole thing a couple times a year (one summer, one holidays) to satisfy the ComicCon population and board members, … (4/5)

“Back in my day” can come off out-of-touch but that doesn’t mean we have to wholesale accept every societal change and pretend everything’s fine. (3/5)

Tech has ruined movies both with streaming eating theatrical’s lunch, & by screwing up attention spans in general because of phones, such that when you do go to the movies everyone around you is talking/scrolling. And if u dare speak up to these folks they’ll verbally or physically attack you (2/5)