Can guys be decent enough friends? Can a jock come out of the closet? Can a robot have feelings? And could a getaway driver and a Black female FBI agent take down a crime boss?

Each question, more or less, gets answered in the movie and series we review this week.

“Friendship” >> Nondescript suburban dad Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) clings to a beige, play-it-safe existence. He wears the same line of clothing (Ocean View Dining) daily, toils away in a bland, sterile office where he brainstorms about profitable apps and spends slabs of his off time at his home since he doesn’t have a male, or, for that matter, female friend to hang with. Even his relationships with his cancer survivor wife Tami (Kate Mara) and his son Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer) exist on a flat, same-old, same-old plane.

All that changes because of one delivery person’s blunder. Craig finds color and vitality in life once he hands an errant package to his nearby neighbor, weatherman Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd). Austin is everything Craig isn’t. Gregarious, charming and in possession of a porn-star mustache that works for him. Austin goes on to rock Craig’s drab world. He’s the epitome of cool, heck he even plays in a band. The two strike up a bromance that then keels over to one side because Craig is socially inept and, in the end, envious, qualities that fuel inappropriate interactions that get ever more cringey after a disastrous bro-out session with Austin’s friends. Concurrent to that, Craig’s relationship with Tami implodes after he takes her out on a grand underground adventure that he and Austin shared.

Director/ screenwriter Andrew DeYoung’s effective fingernails-on-the-chalkboard comedy is darker and edgier than standard bromances, including “I Love You, Man,” a 2009 comedy with and Jason Segel.

That shift in tone allows its two leads to play off their own established images, and it pays off for both. Robinson, familiar to fans of the sketch comedy show “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson,” draws out enough humanity from his stuck character to make you appreciate him while Rudd, who pokes fun at his unflappable image, is given the opportunity to show the complexity of Austin, an image-conscious man who craves that others desire to be like him.

By making Austin imperfect and vain, this nuanced “Friendship” steers away from being a one-note navel gazer about the fraught nature of male friendships. It certainly offers its two actors and its filmmaker a chance to prove that they too have more dimension.

Details >> 3 stars out of 4; opens Friday in Bay Area theaters.

“Overcompensating” >> The coming-out process for someone still stuck in the closet often arrives in fits and starts and is just plain messy. Consider the predicament of Benny, a hunky college freshman who knows how to swagger when he’s chugging beers with his bros but who secretly desires the intimate company of a guy. Benny is the poster boy of a straight hometown hero, complete with fawning parents (Connie Britton and Kyle MacLachlan) and a popular, put-upon older sister (Mary Beth Barone) who is attending the same college as he does. He is also his own worst enemy and makes one bad lust-fueled decision after another. Benny’s tug-of-war contest with his emotions and desires make him relatable and likeable and often leads to painfully funny problems. Yet the main reason Benny wins us over is he’s played by the charming and handsome bumbler Benito Skinner, a social media sensation with talent to burn. Inspired by his experiences of being a closeted, hunky football player in Boise, Idaho, Skinner’s eight-part series (episodes are a half-hour) feels like it has come directly from the pit of an anxious, gurgling stomach.

Benny wants to act upon his impulses but retreats like a turtle whenever situations get too hot to handle. He is immediately attracted to a cute film studies student (Rish Shah) who seems kind of interested in him. Rather than wholeheartedly pursuing that connection, Benny does the obvious: engage in some intense make-out sessions with his female soulmate Carmen (Wally Baram) which leads to awkward, unfulfilling sex. The two realize that they are better as friends with Carmen getting the hots for Benny’s sister’s strutting big-man-on-campus boyfriend (Adam DiMarco). As you can tell, no one is entirely virtuous or perfect in this frequently hilarious production that even features Brit pop star Charli xcx. Benny is overcompensating so much that he’s denying who he truly is, and he’s not alone. And that’s the beauty of a series that reminds you of one of Oscar Wilde’s best sayings: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

Details >> 3½ stars; all episodes drop today on Amazon Prime.

“Murderbot” >> Actors face real challenges when portraying a robot that’s showing faint glimmers of sentient insights. Often the most formidable issue is the tendency overplay a ‘bot’s developing humanness. As the titular murderbot in Apple TV+’s irreverent yet surprisingly deep sci-fi series, Alexander Skarsgård handles the dicey acting proposition better than countless others. He’s deadpan hilarious as a mostly unfeeling yet sorta-feeling rogue Security Unit assigned to a survey team of very human, very flawed scientist/researchers. The crew is under the supervision of the capable Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) who is prone to panic attacks as the group visits an irritable planet at the behest of The Corporation — a powerful business conglomerate where profit is indeed king. The Sec Unit is less interested in his duties than he is in zoning out and watching extensive seasons of bad TV. In this case he’s hooked on “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon” (featuring John Cho, DeWanda Wise, Clark Gregg and Jack McBrayer).

As a result, the Sec Unit is constantly annoyed by the interruptions of those he’s supposed to protect — a married couple (Sabrina Wu and Tattiawana) who form a throuple with the adorable and smart but somewhat dense scientist (Akshaye Khanna), a researcher (Tamara Podemski) who tangles with an alien critter — the special effects are sensational — and a wary crew member (David Dastmalchian) who’s mostly human. All in the cast are an utter delight, but this is Skarsgård’s hour and he’s rarely been better. The creative team of Chris and Paul Weitz (“American Pie,” “About a Boy”) adapt Martha Wells’ first novella “All Systems Red” into 10 pithy 30-minute episodes that are an absolute delight and all but beg to be binged. There’s much more in play here than simple entertainment as “Murderbot” explores the value of free will.

Details >> 3½ stars’ first two episodes drop May 16 followed by new episodes every Friday through July 11.