Review: Neighbors is a
funny R-rated comedy, but fails to aspire to anything more ambitious, interesting,
or compelling. The film is about Mac and Kelly Radner, a young couple who has
recently purchased their first home and had their first child. Life seems good.
Everything changes, however, when a fraternity purchases the house next-door, constantly
having wild parties and otherwise making life almost unbearable for Mac and
Kelly. They have no choice but to engage in an escalating war of pranks in the
hopes of getting the frat kicked out of school.
At
face value, Neighbors is basically a film about warring generations: young
college kids just looking to party and have a good time versus adults in their
early to mid thirties (who still think they are young enough to lead the same
lifestyle as the college kids, but old enough to have responsibilities and
horrible hangovers to know that they are really just adults now and need to
grow up). Director Nicholas
Stoller tries his hand at a few broad jokes about the generational gap, but
really the film does not quite capitalize on all the humor potential apparent in
the narrative setup. More so, the film goes out of its way to undertake jokes
that reference pop-culture, aim to shock, and of course pratfalls (because who
does not like physical comedy – I wish I had not already seen the airbag jokes
in the trailer though; they would have played so much better without the
trailer spoiling them). Overall, the film is very funny – more or less checking
all the boxes for modern R-rated comedy.
That
said, the film never really tries to be anything more, which is fine, but the
audience never really cares about any of the characters. What works really well
about the best comedies is that not only do they make us laugh but we also feel
absorbed in the story. Here, the story is an afterthought, merely existing as a
way to allow the filmmakers to move from one joke to the next. The plot serves
the jokes instead of the jokes supporting the overall narrative. Mac and Kelly
are likable characters, and the supporting cast is made up of funny and
enjoyable characters, but the narrative is very weak, and Stoller never gives
the audiences moments to invest in Mac and Kelly – everything is just a joke,
while the plot and characters (for the most part) are very thin. There is no
real drama or emotion, which ultimately leaves the film feeling unsatisfying
overall, even with the laughs.
The
narrative structure too is very weak. The first two acts are actually fairly
well done, but what brings down the narrative overall is its third act. Stoller
wraps up the film seemingly very suddenly without a sense of real resolution.
The film asks the audience to also care about the main frat characters and then
leaves them out of the ending. Teddy, the frat president and nemesis of Mac and
Kelly, is given a very vague and wholly unsatisfying conclusion as well. The
film feels like it just ends in the middle of the third act, the audience left
feeling like there is something missing.
The
main narrative arc for Mac and Kelly is rather unsubstantial as well. They
start out as new parents, not ready to accept their new life as responsible
caregivers to their child and give up the fun life they knew before of hanging
out with friends and going out at night. After the ordeal with the frat, they
have come to terms with their situation and feel satisfied with their new life
as parents – basically, before they wanted to go out and party with their
friends, but now they do not. This is far from a transformative revelation,
likely one that will be see them revert back to the urge to get out and go out
in a couple weeks (or even days), as it is only natural. And if not, is it not
a little sad to suggest that once we have kids we should be satisfied with a
life in which we go to work, come home, never go out, and never interact with
other people in social situations? But really none of this matters; the plot is
just a jumping-off point. The point of this film is to laugh at jokes, nothing
else.
Neighbors
is really about Mac and Kelly. It is their narrative, but the film also sort of
tries to be a college frat comedy as well, utilizing many of the classic
troupes of the genre (hazing pledges, wild parties, students who seem to only
care about their fraternity and never go to actual school, kooky members of the
frat, and a struggles against a Dean that wants to quick them off campus – it
pretty much just tries to throw everything in). Thus, in trying to make his
comedy more than it is, Stoller loses his ability to devote time to his
characters (which in the end makes this a throwaway comedy); instead, he is
just trying to create a comedy genre mash-up to garner laughs for the sake of
laughs.
Stoller
wants to film to be a frat comedy, a generational war comedy, and an adult
coming-of-age comedy, but just sort of scatters elements of all these narrative
types without committing to a fully cohesive and engaging story. Neighbors is
funny and thus achieves its goal, but the laughs are hollow as the narrative
never fully feels compelling or interesting and there are not enough character
moments to create characters the audience can invest in or care about.
Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements:
Nicholas Stoller has a very good comedy track record with the very good
comedies Forgetting
Sarah Marshall, Get
Him to the Greek, and The
Five-Year Engagement, but Neighbors is his weakest film to date. Jason
Segel provided Stoller with good material for his best films, but here the script
and characters are just too thin. Hopefully, Stoller and Segel will work
together again in the future, as they collaborate very well together.
Michael Andrews
provides a serviceable score, but the film’s use of its soundtrack completely
overshadows it. Brandon
Trost’s cinematography is fairly straightforward, but there are a few
instances that allow him to light in a more interesting manner (mostly
involving the party scenes). Julie Berghoff
seems to have some fun with her production design, especially in her design for
the fraternity.
The
cast works fairly well overall. There are a few very funny small roles. Notably
Lisa Kudrow,
Craig Roberts,
Jerrod
Carmichael, Christopher
Mintz-Plasse, Dave Franco, Carla Gallo,
and Ike
Barinholtz are all good in small supporting roles. Zac Efron is
okay as Teddy, but there does not seem to be much to the character. Most of the
time, Efron just feels like an excuse to have someone who looks good shirtless.
Rose Byrne
is very funny as Kelly and is the best part of the film. She feels believable
as her character, while bringing enough energy and timing to also bring the
biggest laughs. Seth
Rogen is funny as well, but he somewhat lazily seems to just be playing
himself.
Summary & score: Neighbors is funny, with a few
big laughs, but there is not much more to it than that. 6/10
