Neighbors

Movie Name: Neighbors
Year of Release: 2014
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Starring: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Effron, Dave Franco, Lisa Kudrow, Ike Barinholtz, Brian Huskey, Carla Gallo, Halston Sage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Roberts, Jerrod Carmichael, Ali Cobrin
Genre: Comedy
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
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Synopsis and Review

Following the well received "The Five Year Engagement", director Nicholas Stoller tackled what became his first collaboration with actor/producer Seth Rogen. The film focuses its narrative on Mac Radner and his wife Kelly, who have recently become new parents with the arrival of their daughter Stella. Much to their surprise the house next to theirs sells to a fraternity by the name of Delta Psi Beta, who is well known for their outrageous parties. The leaders of that fraternity, Teddy Sanders and Pete Regazolli, aspire to join the hallmark of the most infamous parties the fraternity has previously organized. Fearing the worst, Mac and Kelly try to build a relationship with the fraternity, particularly their leaders, who figure out it's best if they invite them for a party. Teddy asks the couple that in case they feel troubled by any of their parties, to simply call him first instead of resorting to the police. That soon turns out to be the case, as one of the parties taking place keeps Stella awake, and Mac after attempting to reach out multiple times eventually resorts to calling the police. This opens up the hostilities between the neighbors, something that quickly starts escalating.

"Neighbors" is an interesting film in the sense that has two very distinct layers coming across as the narrative is unfolding. On one hand there's the slightly risqué tone, almost a node to Bob Clark's "Porky's", where the somewhat archetype of college parties as a means to have sex comes across very heavily, while on the other hand, there's the slightly more interesting part of the narrative with the couple who is in their 30s, has a child and is fearing that their youth is gone, including their ability to be spontaneous and even be sexy towards each other. While Mac and Kelly's relationship is effectively rendered, even if the characters themselves are somewhat stunted in their outlines, the fraternity residents are given very little dimension at all, functioning mostly as clichéd antagonists, as opposed to fully rounded characters who have some depth or even motivation beyond just having parties. Part of the problem with this narrative is also the fact that whatever humor there is, comes primarily from Mac and Kelly's reaction to this disruption in their habitat. Nothing that the fraternity and their residents do or for that matter are, is in reality funny at all. Whereas Fred Wolf's "The House Bunny" had the concept of bringing someone oblivious to reality to a sorority and generating the humor from that inadequacy, in this particular case the fraternity itself comes across as reckless, privileged and cruel (and once again, not funny). The film is salvaged due to Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne's (who is phenomenal in everything she does) performances: they have an undeniable chemistry, and they both manage to bring silliness, complicity and warmth to their characters, in their interactions, but also in how they relate to others. They have good support from the somewhat underrated Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz and Lisa Kudrow. The production team is effective but not particularly memorable. It's a somewhat unbalanced film, worth watching for Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen's undeniable charisma.