Paul Rudd took over this year’s South by Southwest Film & TV Festival (SXSW), shown from 7-15 March in Austin, Texas, starring in not one but two of the festival’s buzziest films.
Friendship and Death of a Unicorn, both starring Rudd,were the two most discussed films shown at the festival, as both these genre-hopping comedies allow the star of the Antman and Anchorman movies to give his familiar wit a dark twist.
With both films expected to be released imminently, JustWatch sat down with each of the directors of both films Andrew DeYoung (Friendship) and Alex Scharfman (Death of a Unicorn) to discuss why their films are must-watches and what makes them stand out amongst Paul Rudd’s roster of charming comic roles.
JustWatch spoke with filmmaker Alex Scharfman about his highly anticipated horror-comedy
Rudd’s breaking-type process begins with Death of a Unicorn, a mesh of comedy and horror that stands out in Rudd’s resume.
It sees a father and daughter (Rudd and rising star Jenna Ortega) accidentally hit a unicorn whilst en route to a crisis management summit with the father’s eccentric boss (Richard E Grant) and his family. In a stellar blend of suspense, humor, and social commentary, the unicorn’s parents go on a killing spree against the cast of unfortunates.
This fresh and thrilling creature feature reinvents unicorn mythology in unexpected ways, with innovative artistic direction from Alex Scharfman and a stellar cast led by Rudd and Ortega.
JustWatch spoke with filmmaker Alex Scharfman about his highly anticipated horror comedy. He said, “Ultimately, it’s [Death of a Unicorn] a love letter to so many of the movies that made me want to make movies”.
Alex Scharfman is an innovative filmmaker known for pushing creative boundaries. Before Death of a Unicorn, he wrote and produced the acclaimed films Blow the Man Down (2019) and Resurrection (2022), starring Rebecca Hall. His ability to blend genre storytelling with deeper themes has made him a standout voice in the industry.
Scharfman touched on the father-daughter relationship between Rudd and Ortega in Death of a Unicorn, serving as the movie’s most relatable ingredient beyond the fantastical horror. “I hope audiences enjoy the generational element of the story, with Jenna Ortega, our Gen Z protagonist, trying to reconcile the world she’s inherited from the generations above her who have profited greatly off of the planet.”
This plot thread comes from Rudd’s performance as Ortega’s father. Rudd basically plays the straight man against the group’s t larger personalities, but he’s strong in selling the immediacy of the chaos around him consistently.
The film also stars Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, and Richard E. Grant, and will be released in UK cinemas nationwide on 4th April 2025.
Friendship Director Reveals The ‘Pathetic’ Inspiration Behind Paul Rudd & Tim Robinson’s New Comedy
Friendship is a comedy that takes a fresh and awkwardly hilarious look at adult male friendships.
It sees protagonist Craig (Tim Robinson) have his unremarkable life as a suburban husband and father upended by the infectious charisma of his new neighbour, Austin (Rudd). The seemingly straightforward buddy-buddy premise takes a sharp and sour turn as their relationship is stopped in its tracks due to Austin finding Craig’s behaviour troublingly obsessive. However, Austin soon finds out it’s not so easy to put the cork back into the bottle, inevitably setting the stage for an unpleasant showdown between the two.
JustWatch spoke with filmmaker Andrew DeYoung about his feature film directorial debut. He revealed Friendship to be inspired by a personal experience which DeYoung describes as “pretty pathetic but also pretty funny.”
“This film is inspired by someone I wanted to hang out with who burned me pretty bad,” DeYoung explained. “I thought to myself, this is pretty pathetic but also pretty funny, and then I thought, what would a breakup story between two middle-aged men look like?”
The movie has already gained attention from its trailer on both YouTube and X (formerly known as Twitter) from its chameleon tone. It seems to walk a tonal tightrope of situational humour and visceral awkwardness, with a spice of hair-raising thrills.
Rudd himself is no stranger to bromantic comedies, having starred in 2009’s I Love You, Man, which plays like innocent fluff in comparison to what DeYoung has laid out for him.
DeYoung stated, “We filmed the movie like a drama because that helps the humor hit harder […] Friendship has a lot of laughs, but it also feels super real and relatable.”
He described Yorgos Lanthimos’psychological horror thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer as a huge inspiration: “it blended tension with humor, giving audiences the chance to laugh off the suspense.” The film stars Colin Ferral and Nicole Kidman in a completely bonkers story, one that the manic mind of Lewis Carrol would devise.
Rudd seems to have taken notes from Lanthimos’ absurdist thriller in order to give his customary humour a dark twist, almost playing a fictionalized counterpart of himself. Although sneaking in the odd Paul Rudd mannerisms, such as Austin’s odd speech “I don’t wish to accept this friendship at the moment”, he also terrifyingly shadows his character with uncanniness as his charisma seems too good to be true.
Friendship is set to have a limited release in the UK on 9th May 2025.
Get the full scoop on these must-watch films here:
Death of a Unicorn: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/death-of-a-unicorn
Friendship: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/friendship-2024
