The Friend

2025 1h 59m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 130

ComedyDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

New York City writer Iris finds her comfortable, solitary life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor bequeaths her a Great Dane named Apollo. The huge dog immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with Apollo, she begins to come to terms with her past, and her own creative inner life.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Naomi Watts
Iris
Bill Murray
Walter
Ann Dowd
Marjorie
Constance Wu
Tuesday
Sarah Pidgeon
Val
Carla Gugino
Elaine
Noma Dumezweni
Barbara
Felix Solis
Hektor

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: David Siegel
Writers: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 6

ERA

Did you know

Released last year.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by David Siegel, shot by Giles Nuttgens. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Trevor Gureckis. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Isaac Hagy shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 6

CAST

Did you know

Naomi Watts and Bill Murray and Ann Dowd carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 6

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt18108824 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

Cinephile deep dive

The take

David Siegel directs. Giles Nuttgens behind the camera. Trevor Gureckis scores. Isaac Hagy cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released last year.
2Directed by David Siegel, shot by Giles Nuttgens. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Trevor Gureckis. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Isaac Hagy shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Naomi Watts and Bill Murray and Ann Dowd carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt18108824 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Classified under 8 themes, including "new york city", "suicide", "based on novel or book", "mentor".

The technical file

Cinematography: Giles Nuttgens
Original score: Trevor Gureckis
Editing: Isaac Hagy
Production design: Kelly McGehee
Costume design: Stacey Battat
Makeup / hair: Maya Hardinge
Runtime: 119 min · 1h 59m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $4,139,459
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Friend (2025)

Also by

David Siegel

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-05-04
★ 7/10
“Walter” (Bill Murray) is a cranky old author who decides that he’s had enough of life and so leaves his wife “Barbara” (Noma Dumezweni) with a four-foot, four-legged, slobbering problem. She decides that the best place for “Apollo” is with his longtime friend “Iris” (Naomi Watts). Bluntly, she would rather stick pins in her eyes, but she’s a bit of a sucker for a sob story and so soon she he has a new roomie in her tiny, rent-controlled, apartment where she is swiftly relegated from her bed to the floor. The mutt is clearly pining for his master, so she is going to have to learn how to get it to eat, sleep, do as it’s told and get off her mattress! Meantime, her friendly building supervisor has reminded her that pets are prohibited, and so she’d better come up with a plan B or else she might not even have the carpet to sleep on. What now ensues is an amiable bonding exercise that is entirely predictable, but that allows Watts and her canine companion to gently entertain us with some silly antics whilst addressing issues of friendship, trust and even a little betrayal. I thought it might have worked better on a stage, as the dialogue is rather more important here than the imagery, but with Murray featuring only sparingly there might be too much risk of the real star of the film - the dog - causing a bit of mayhem with an audience a few feet away! You’ll never remember this, even if you are the world’s greatest dog-lover, and it takes far too long to get going, but once the thing is up and running it’s a pleasant enough watch.
Harry_Gill2026-07-02
Naomi Watts inherits a 180-pound Great Dane after her mentor's suicide, and the film's whole trick is refusing to turn that into a cute rescue story. Apollo will not ride the elevator, takes over her bed, eats almost nothing for days, and Iris, a committed cat person with zero patience for dogs this size, has to learn to live around him instead of training him into something easier. What makes it work is how literally the film treats Apollo as a griever. He is not comic relief and he is not a metaphor with fur on it, he is a huge, physically demanding animal whose refusal to function normally mirrors exactly what Iris is going through and cannot say out loud. The dog playing him, a Great Dane named Bing trained by Bill Berloni, does more with stillness than most actors do with a full monologue, and the camera knows it, holding on him in doorways and low angles until his presence feels like weight in the room. Watts plays grief as a string of small, specific behaviors rather than a breakdown, reading her dead friend's old emails out loud to a dog who cannot understand a word and clearly needs to hear them anyway. It is slow on purpose. Nothing here resolves cleanly, which is the most honest thing about it, since neither does actual mourning. Closest comparison on this beat is Truman, another film that hands its grief to a dog instead of a person and trusts the animal to carry it. Full review here: https://dogwithblog.in/the-friend-movie-review/

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