Movies: Neighbors

Score:  **** out of ***** (B+)

Long Story Short:  Neighbors, the latest vehicle of star Seth Rogen, is positioned as one of the comedies of the summer.  While many recent such films have disappointed, this one lives up to its billing.  The cast fits into their roles quite well - even more from a dramatic than comedic stance.  But while the story offers much more than its contemporaries', it's also pretty darn funny and entertaining.  Well recommended, particularly for groups of friends.


Well, it's two movie reviews in consecutive weekends!  Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up, now that we're fully in summer movie season.  The NBA playoffs are also in full swing and the French Open is coming up soon, so there will likely be one or more sports posts, too.  Having seen my second superhero film of the year last weekend, I was pleased to switch genres to comedy this time.  Although I'm a fan of Seth Rogen, his recent movies have disappointed me.  Still, Neighbors got good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and the premise looked fun.  Neighbors was directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and stars Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne and Dave Franco.

The plot of Neighbors, as you might imagine, is not tremendously complicated.  And since I don't want to give too much away, here is just a brief summary.  Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Byrne) are a young couple with a new baby daughter.  Although they long for the fun of earlier times, family life has put those days seemingly out of reach.  To compound their frustrations, the couple gets a new next-door neighbor:  a fraternity from a local university.  As Mac and Kelly try to provide a safe, quiet place to grow up for their daughter, they go to war with Delta Psi and their leaders, Teddy (Efron) and Pete (Franco).

Neighbors has an interesting cast, one that does the "serious" parts as well or better than the comedic.  Seth Rogen as Mac is the film's co-lead, the exasperated, former-partier father.  Rogen has a unique style that, while sometimes off-putting, works well enough here.  You can see him as a young father who pines for his party days yet genuinely wants to develop his family life.  As in other films, he's typically funniest as the object of jokes rather than the producer, and his trademark long-winded, overly "realistic" back-and-forths are starting to get stale.  Rose Byrne is quite good as Mac's wife, Kelly.  She pulls off the strange, commendable feat of being a secondary character yet very distinct and valuable to both story and humor.  Rather than just being the stereotypical mother representing only the "responsible adult" view, she also has a realistic desire for fun and freedom.  Her humor flows naturally, as expected from an actress more familiar in dramatic roles.

I'm not too familiar with Zac Efron, of High School Musical fame, who plays co-lead, fraternity top dog Teddy.  So, coming in with only popular opinions in mind, I was pretty impressed.  The role fit him to a "T".  He is by no means a great comedic actor, but he provides a very fun, charismatic presence.  He mixes the asshole and the brotherly love components well, and displays genuine vulnerability alongside his arrogant fraternity personality.  Dave Franco as Pete does pretty well, too. I've seen him in few roles, but have to say that he's a repellant presence on screen for me, whether or not that's fair.  But again, he's ideally suited to the role he plays, a stereotype like Efron's yet one that is also equally nuanced.  Franco has even less comedic sense than Efron, but that didn't surprise me.

Two things have really dragged down a lot of recent comedies, in my opinion:  pathetic and/or overly large dramatic components, and lack of true belly laughs.  Neighbors manages to turn the first of those problems into an actual strength, and makes progress on the second.  The setup was ripe for boring stereotypes:  a young family that wants to be serious yet gets dragged into old hooliganism, and the hidden social drama behind a hard-partying frat.  But both of these elements are handled quite well in this film.  They are played out with very smartly written dialogue and scenes, some with humor and some without.  And it pulls off a fine balancing act in not overwhelming nor being overwhelmed by the parallel comedic craziness.  Neighbors is also quite funny, which is obviously the most important thing.  The main thrust of the humor is an old-standby with a new twist:  frats behaving badly/hazing, with ordinary family life in close proximity.  Strangely, none of the actors are stand-outs here, but the situations and scenes are often brilliantly composed (especially the final showdown).  Rogen naturally pulls in a good bit of his usual shtick, which is becoming less and less funny (to me at least), but it's kept to a reasonable minimum and is not the primary style, fortunately.

***

Neighbors gives me hope for the short-term future of comedy films, in addition to being enjoyable itself.  Too many recent comedies have been severe letdowns, from last year's wildly overrated This Is the End to the Anchorman 2 bellyflop.  I often find comedies the hardest to grade, and this one was a little tricky, too.  I think "B+" is about right.  It's entertaining and pretty well-paced throughout, with above average humor and way above average dramatic backdrop.  Still, it couldn't quite punch through to the hilarity of, say, last year's The Heat, and none of the cast comes close to the presence of a Ferrell, Wiig, or similar comic.  That said, while it may not reach the "A" range for comedies, Neighbors is a very good time at the theater, especially with friends.  Keep in mind, of course, the type of humor you'll find here.  If vulgar humor, particularly sexual in nature, offends you, stay away (though I've seen far worse). But you could probably figure that out.  Enjoy!