Your Friends and Neighbors (1998)

Your Friends & Neighbors is a film about six middle class people plagued by dysfunction and unhappiness. These people do and say things that are awkward, immoral, and nearly always familiar enough to make you cringe. They cheat, lie, and hurt each other--not so much with callousness, but with sad disregard.

It's not escapist entertainment, but the film manages to evoke some thought and ambiguous feelings without feeling emotionally labored or difficult. In fact, the normalcy of the characters make it something like an easy to watch soap opera featuring distillations of all those things in real life you'd prefer to forget.

Your Friends & Neighbors is also wonderfully cast. Patric's pathological character is a stand out (bearing strong similarity to Eckhart's character in "In the Company of Men"), but with the exception of Kinski, all of the actors manage to captivate us in varying ways--from Brenneman's introverted reactions to Keener's profoundly cold mannerisms.

This is an excellent film that might not always be well received but can and should be watched by anyone open to a cynical view of humanity.

Fmovies: Neil LaBute is one of my favorite filmmakers of recent years, and this film is one of his best. He creates distinctive characters, some selfish, some self-loathing, and lets them develop in sometimes unexpected ways. The writing is satirical at times, but that's fine - it's never forced. The directions in which these characters go ultimately feel like natural progressions. Sometimes you can't believe what you're seeing and hearing, but it all fits. The cast is up to the challenges of the material - especially Jason Patric, who gives his best performance in years.

"Your Friends and Neighbors" is a movie about relationships, sex and the effects of both. This is pointed out clearly in the beginning when Jerry (Ben Stiller) uses direct address as an introduction. By having Jerry (Stiller) speak directly to the movie audience, LaBute communicates the significance and meaning of his movie. This movie is a fine example of a character-based movie done the right way. LaBute manages to have six very round (if not dynamic) characters whose interactions serve to show the frustration of relationships quite eloquently. One of the best aspects of this movie is the dialogue; the characters' feelings always come through through their conversations. Even Mary (Amy Brenneman) is able to portray her feelings effectively with her concise statements. For example, her response to Jerry (Stiller) when he is trying to become involved with her again is "people are weird, and you couldn't keep your erection." There are countless dialogues like this one, quick-witted and bitterly realistic. If you aren't the kind of person who enjoys a true character-based movie, maybe you should skip this one. All the characters have very real flaws that abrogate any growth, for those of you who crave action and a happy ending; this movie will most likely bore you.

Your Friends and Neighbors fmovies. Good movies do not have to be about pleasant subjects, many excellent films are about depressing subjects or have sad endings. Neil Labute's first two movies are definitely not happy, and delve deeply into the dark side of modern human existence. They both address the same issue, human dysfunction and evil amidst the bounty of white collar America. In "Your Friends and Neighbors", Labute has us eavesdrop on two Yuppie couples and their friends. For various reasons (mostly of a sexual nature), the couplings are disintegrating, and we're treated to listening in on the action; in bedrooms, in restaurants, and in steam rooms. Labute writes excellent dialogue and the movie is well acted. Unfortunately, "Your Friends and Neighbors" lacks the dramatic punch of his first film. We just watch as the characters screw up their lives, and the lives of their supposed friends and loved-ones. Afterwards you just want to take a shower. A toss-up to grade; if it sounds interesting rent it.

"Your Friends and Neighbors" (1998) is the second film by director/writer Neil LaBute and it tells the story of three couples and their complicated friendships and relationships. I've seen it more than once during the last couple of days - and I found it incredibly clever written, well acted (especially by Jason Patric and Catherine Keener - their only scene together was the second best in the movie - so dynamic and tight) and skillfully directed. LaBute certainly has a very unique sense of humor and he knows well the history of cinema. To give all characters the names that rhyme - Mary, Barry, Terri, Cheri, Cary and Jerry - was a clever idea - the characters are interchangeable in their relationships and it does not matter really, who is with whom - Mary with Barry or with Cary or Jerry or Barry with Barry, and Cheri with Terri or Jerry? The important thing is that they are selfish and often unpleasant and despicable people who are not happy with themselves and can't make happy their spouses or partners. Another interesting trick - the repeating scene in the Art gallery that starts with exactly the same words for each character but leads to different developments. I mentioned that LaBute knows his movies. Have you noticed the poster from Goddard's Le Mépris, (1963) aka "Contempt" with Brigitte Bardot? "Contempt" features one of the most fascinating and longest scenes of a breakup ever filmed. The breakup scene between Terri (Catherine Keener) and Jerry (Ben Stiller) started like in "Contempt" but it only lasted a few minutes and it was a good scene. Actually, I loved all scenes with Catherine Keener and if I have to choose one character that I liked, it would be Terry. Seems that Charlie Kaufman might have seen LaBute's movie because Terry and Maxine from "Being John Malkovich" have a lot in common. I was actually waiting for Terry to say to Jerry, "The thing is if you ever get me, you would not know what to do with me".

Jason Patric was a revelation - I don't know him very well but I remember that he gave a very good performance in "Narc". As for the scene in a steam room, it is not just the best of the film; it is one of the best scenes - monologues ever. I know not many would agree with me but the scene is as powerful, unforgettable and strangely erotic as the monologue in Bergman's "Persona". LaBute's writing, his camera, and mesmerizing performance by Patric made this scene an instant classic.

The film is not perfect and sometimes it drags but overall I found it interesting and enjoyable. You don't have to like the characters in order to like and appreciate the film. Sadly, the beautiful, sensual and talented Nastassja Kinski (Cherri) does not have much to play while Ben Stiller does and I am not his fan - even in this film.

LaBute's usage of "Metallica"s "Enter Sandman" (performed by Apocalyptica) during the opening and the closing credits instantly pulled me in and Bryony Atkinson's song "My Hollow" is terrific.

Jerry lives with Terri but Terri is irritated by everything he does especially the way he talks during sex and needs to analyse everything. They are friends with Barry and Mary who have sexual problems as Mary is rarely roused for sex. Jerry makes a move to meet up with Mary to have sex behind Barry's back. Meanwhile Cheri works at an art gallery and picks up people there and Jerry and Barry's friend Cary lives his sex life devoid of any care or consideration for anyone else.

I have previously seen In the Company Of Men so I was prepared for the sort of view point the director seems to take regarding the nature of men and women but even then, this is still a pretty depressing look at relationships. Our characters are barely even given names, certainly no last names, and they are rarely used when you listen. More than that the names are pretty typical – the sort of names you might make up if you were put on the spot, like John Smith. The point being that these characters are not supposed to be fictional but more `everyman' characters. However is this what everyone is like? – does everyone have major relationship issues and try to have affairs with their best friends etc? Do people really have stories of male rape as their best sexual experience? I doubt it – this is a real condensing of the whole human experience into a handful of characters.

It works quite well because it is very frank and this kept my interest. Not shocking but I did want to keep watching because the dialogue was good. Sadly I could have cared less about the actual lives before me. As a plot I didn't get involved partly because it was so fake feeling – it was obvious from day 1 that LaBute was not going to give us the luxury of even one mildly messed up relationship, no – it was obvious that everything that could fail would. The dialogue does save the film as it is well written and darkly funny, however it just wasn't enough of a story – instead it was rather smugly self aware.

The cast do well with the dialogue and the film is staged more like a play than a roaming film, with mostly static interior shots used. Stiller is good but doesn't excel himself. Eckhart shows how good an actor he is by playing a character so the opposite of his character in LaBute's previous film and playing it well. Patric steals the show but his character is the least developed. He is the funny one and is like Eckhart's character in `In the Company Of Men' in that he is selfish and cruel to women. However his character seems to be LaBute's ideal in this piece as he is the only one who seems to get what he wants – is this the moral of the film? The female characters are weaker as you'd expect. Brenneman cuts a pathetic character and simply mops around a lot. Kinski is given little to do although Keener has a stronger part to play.

Overall I enjoyed this because it was full of good dialogue that keeps you listening because of how very frank it is. However that doesn't mean that the story or film is involving and it does feel a little distant and not based in any life I've ever lived. A bit too cruel, harsh and dark but it just about gets by on those credentials – but the music of Metallica played on violin is worth watching the credits for!