Paddleton Review

February 28, 2019 at 3:15am
By Jason Stettner

Paddleton is a Netflix Original film that is focused on male friendship. It presents this strong platonic bond in a sorrowing way, as you watch one of the two friends die the entire time. It's an interesting and rather depressing viewing as you watch things decline over the run time. There's Andy (Ray Romano), and his close friend Michael (Mark Duplass). The latter is dying due to cancer, and you get to watch the journey the two take in dealing with it.

It's not about struggling for too long, but taking an easy route and then sailing through it. It's a slower film, it won't be for everyone. It takes its time and that adds some emotional context as you're actively seeing one wither away as the time goes by. Most of this is impacted further by the repetition in locations, the decline in life and spirit.

It's not a comedy, I wouldn't even say it's very dramatic just being a sorrowing time. There are some fairly strong moments, and the acting helped deliver these in a meaningful way. There's an interesting trip, and it just comes down to being something about the relationship of two long term friends that don't have much else going on.

There are some bright moments here, and it's about handling this certain situation the best that anyone could. It was presented decently well with a calming atmosphere. It doesn't go too wild, there aren't any weird moments. It was simply two guys, hanging out and just waiting until it got too bad to handle.

It really hammered the friendship in, and you could see a sense of realism. Most men have a calmer style to their emotions and you could see the strain that this event was having on them. It worked well if you could sit through it as this is very slow, the final moments did actually have a sting to them. I suppose the pacing could have been better, but that would have detracted from the message.

The Conclusion

Paddleton is a realistic look at male friendship, and the situation of dealing witha close friend's death. It's slow, very slow. It certainly won't be for everyone and while I found it boring generally, it was certainly impactful. I thought the acting was solid, showcasing a building sorrow as the two tried to deal with this loss in their own ways.

It didn't have any stronger underlining miracle, it was just watching a guy die. Just one person slowly wither away while their best friend stood by them the entire time. There's a need for different types of film, and this one was worthwhile for perhaps distinct situations in one's life. I was surprised by Romano's performance, a real surprising stand out in this movie.

Paddleton Review at Home with Streamed Viewing

Rating Overall: 6.5