Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as 'In the Company of Men'
Review: In the Company of Men was, of course, Neil Labute's first film. Your Friends & Neighbors is his sophomore effort. "Controversial," ensemble-cast, "bunch-of-stories-interwoven together-style" style independent films seem like quite the trend lately. Think Happiness. Think Magnolia. Think ... well, I know there are a few others I've run across in the last few years. Your Friends & Neighbors is one of the better of its kind. I liked it. But, with the exception of Jason Patric's mesmerizing, 4+ minute monologue in the sauna, there is nothing here that's quite at the level of In the Company of Men. It is not as concise, not as coherent, and the performances aren't quite as good, although I wouldn't say they were necessarily bad. It was a treat to see Aaron Eckhart in a role so radically diametric to his part as Chad in In the Company of Men. Jason Patric takes over the role of the evil, yet commanding and charismatic misogynist in this one. Unfortunately, although he's admittedly one of the most enjoyable characters in the cast, he makes less sense than Chad did, and I'm not entirely sure what purpose he serves in the film overall. My impression this time around was more just that, well, Neil likes including this kind of character for his own sake. I prefer such decisions to be a little more integrated with the overall project, however. Although Your Friends & Neighbors is a relatively entertaining collection of stark, sometimes amusing, sometimes arrestingly uncomfortable intertwined vignettes, peopled by once-removed characters who house some very, almost upsettingly common human qualities, it just doesn't quite have the overall punch of Labute's first movie. The mood is similar, and the themes are similar (although broader) -- but everything is a bit scattered and seems to have little point. Which I suppose is, in its way, the movie's intention -- but I admire the clean, deadly swordstroke of In the Company of Men to this decidedly meandering, uncertain hodgepodge. Whereas In the Company of Men was an artful and challenging piece of writing and cinema, Your Friends & Neighbors is merely an illustrative look at a handful of dopey commonfolk. And another self-confident bad guy for good measure. Still, Your Friends & Neighbors doesn't come without Bob's recommendation. It's just a recommendation littered with a few reservations. While not as admirable on the whole as In the Company of Men, Your Friends & Neighbors does, admittedly, have a bit more replay value, as there's a little more going on overall. It's an interesting movie, just not a great one.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as 'In the Company of Men'
Review: In the Company of Men was, of course, Neil Labute's first film. Your Friends & Neighbors is his sophomore effort. "Controversial," ensemble-cast, "bunch-of-stories-interwoven together-style" style independent films seem like quite the trend lately. Think Happiness. Think Magnolia. Think ... well, I know there are a few others I've run across in the last few years. Your Friends & Neighbors is one of the better of its kind. I liked it. But, with the exception of Jason Patric's mesmerizing, 4+ minute monologue in the sauna, there is nothing here that's quite at the level of In the Company of Men. It is not as concise, not as coherent, and the performances aren't quite as good, although I wouldn't say they were necessarily bad. It was a treat to see Aaron Eckhart in a role so radically diametric to his part as Chad in In the Company of Men. Jason Patric takes over the role of the evil, yet commanding and charismatic misogynist in this one. Unfortunately, although he's admittedly one of the most enjoyable characters in the cast, he makes less sense than Chad did, and I'm not entirely sure what purpose he serves in the film overall. My impression this time around was more just that, well, Neil likes including this kind of character for his own sake. I prefer such decisions to be a little more integrated with the overall project, however. Although Your Friends & Neighbors is a relatively entertaining collection of stark, sometimes amusing, sometimes arrestingly uncomfortable intertwined vignettes, peopled by once-removed characters who house some very, almost upsettingly common human qualities, it just doesn't quite have the overall punch of Labute's first movie. The mood is similar, and the themes are similar (although broader) -- but everything is a bit scattered and seems to have little point. Which I suppose is, in its way, the movie's intention -- but I admire the clean, deadly swordstroke of In the Company of Men to this decidedly meandering, uncertain hodgepodge. Whereas In the Company of Men was an artful and challenging piece of writing and cinema, Your Friends & Neighbors is merely an illustrative look at a handful of dopey commonfolk. And another self-confident bad guy for good measure. Still, Your Friends & Neighbors doesn't come without Bob's recommendation. It's just a recommendation littered with a few reservations. While not as admirable on the whole as In the Company of Men, Your Friends & Neighbors does, admittedly, have a bit more replay value, as there's a little more going on overall. It's an interesting movie, just not a great one.
Rating: 
Summary: A real turkey, but the main ingredient is ham
Review: Interested in one-dimensional characters? Endlessly fascinated by human denial? Do you like stock phrases of dialogue repeated again and again and again. Then by all means, shell out your hard-won dinero so that Mr. Labute can turn out more banal, callow films. Shocked? Thankfully, some of us aren't that naive. Bored silly is more like it. All in all, though, this is a good example of how tired and self-contained the "independent" film world has become, and the acting isn't half bad.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Waste Two Hours of Your Precious Life on This
Review: It seems that some filmmakers these days do not hold the female viewer in mind at all when they create their "art." What is troublesome about "Your Friends and Neighbors" and other supposedly "cutting edge" independent films (Kevin Smith's come to mind), is that virulent misogyny is presented and not challenged by other characters in the film. It is almost as if these writer-directors want to make people numb to it. In "Your Friends...," none of the subjects comes off as having great moral character. But is it pretty unfathomable that the two conflicted, but basically average guys ("Barry" and "Jerry," played by Aaron Eckhart and Ben Stiller, respectively) would be friends with the creepy sociopath, "Cary" (Jason Patric.) Watching Cary's hot rage against women is really not a revelation. Does director, Neil Labute, think that it is a brave act to put this kind of thing on screen? Women already know this rage, and putting it in a film without punishing it in any way gives a kind of legitimacy. I am wondering, those of you who liked this film so much and gave it 5 stars, would you feel the same if it presented virulent racism as merely a personality quirk? I doubt it. Also, there are parts of the film that do not make sense, even given that Cary has his hostile perspective. He levels a threatening, misogynist diatribe at Jerry's bisexual girlfriend, "Terri," (played by Catherine Keener) in a bookstore where they meet by chance. Yet there is really no explanation for this. He barely knows her. And he certainly does not seem to have much affection for or loyalty to Jerry. So why bother threatening this woman in Jerry's defense? I guess that Labute just wanted to drive a point home: if you are a woman, do not dare transgress. (Though the character, Terri, is not really that transgressive or unfeminine. Labute's criticism is very weird and out of place in the late 90's.) If you want to hear nasty, woman-degrading epithets, like the "b" word and "c" word, used over and over again, then watch this. I felt like I needed a bath after watching this, to wipe the crud off. This film is a good example of artistic narcissism. It's not provocative, more like a regression.
Rating: 
Summary: nicely done comedy/whatever you wanna call it
Review: Jason Patric is the standout in this movie, no doubt. He delivers another outstanding performance as the doc. Then comes Nastassja Kinski..man, can it get better then this..yes..Ben Stiller as the teacher and then Aaron Eckhart as well..the other ladies do their part as well but its Patric's constrcuted part that makes this a winner. highlights are everyscene Patric is in with Kinski. almost on the bullseye.
Rating: 
Summary: Midnight In The Garden Of Pure Evil
Review: Neil LaBute's "Your Friends And Neighbors" is to our time what Choderlos Laclos'novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" was to 18th century France: an unsparing, jet-black look straight into the bottomless abyss that results when an era's worst social aspects intersect with its sexual appetites. In the France of 1782, the social trigger was the unearned, unrestricted privileged position of the aristocracy, which bred the kind of steel-hard arrogance that makes the manipulation of innocent people through heartless sex not only possible, but a source of diversion to the two main characters. In LaBute's masterpiece (which makes earlier "candid" American films about sex such as "Carnal Knowledge" and "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" look like kindergarten primers by comparison),we are faced with that most familiar of modern creatures, the Professional Man (and Woman) Without Qualities. That is to say, people who have plenty of money, decent material prospects, and absolutely no beliefs or convictions about any principle whatever, whether it is the sanctity of marriage vows or the loyalty due to friendship. The essence of this spiritually arid life is captured to perfection when the Eckhart and Patric characters meet in the diner, and Eckhart wonders offhandedly whether they will ever be made to own up to the consequences of the things they do. Perhaps in some hypothetical afterlife, says Patric -- but "the interim belongs to me".The scene in which he (Patric)terrorizes the Catherine Kenner character in the bookstore is one which any of the great playwrights who have dealt with sexual material (Williams, Wedekind,Strindberg, etc.)would have been pleased to write. Just as it is said of some con men that they regard any other person's having money in their pocket as a personal affront,Patric cannot endure the thought that there is any woman, anywhere, who would not want him, if given the chance. In addition, he displays the age-old view of (some) men that women are essentially intruders into the realm of male bonding and camaraderie, and should be slapped down.(His comment to her that he "cares about" the Stiller character, with whom she lives,and whom she is allegedly making unhappy, is patent nonsense; what he means is that he can use his "friendship" with Stiller as an alibi for cutting loose on her.)It is this same ravenous egoism that makes it possible for him to do what should, on the surface, be the last thing that a renowned straight stud would ever do: not only admit to his two closest male associates to having engaged in a homosexual rape,but to having derived PLEASURE from it. He takes it for granted that whatever reservations they may have about the homosexual aspect will be drowned in their unspoken agreement that power over a helpless victim is the ultimate aphrodisiac -- and he is quickly proven right.LaBute's characters do not(the gods be praised!)represent the whole truth about modern life; but,like the heartlessly mocking quartet on "Seinfeld", they do account for an uncomfortably large portion of it. This blackest of black comedies is more than just a splendid film; it is a barometer of its time.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie that's not for everyone
Review: Probably my favorite movie of last year, which doesn't say a lot for me. LaBute is a great writer/director, but his perspective is not one for the mass audience. LaBute prefers to focus on the darkest side of human nature and it's relationships with others. The results are "In the Company of Men" and "Your Friends and Neighbors," two of the most shocking films of the last five years. But most shocking of all is how he achieves our reactions through pure dialogue. LaBute was definitely trying to convey a message with this film: these characters are people in our everyday lives. We never learn their names until the credits, we never go outside, they are the only ones to speak, and we never learn where they live. What we do know is that they are six of the most dysfunctional people we've ever seen on screen, with Jason Patric delivering the most underappreciated performance of 1998. If further evidence is needed, take a listen to the odd soundtrack comprised of Metallica songs interpreted by strings. In LaBute's film, the angry and mean-spirited certainly is hiding behind the guise of the prim and proper.
Rating:
Summary: sophisticated and cutting edge dialog. a masterpiece.
Review: simply put, this movie is HOT. nasty dialogues, ugly emotions and nothing is sacred. truly one of the most satisfying films i've ever seen. the scene in the bookstore where jason patric confronts catherine keener just makes the movie for me. (men will enjoy this scene; women will likely not). neil labute is a true master of human conversation and interaction. his first movie, 'in the company of men' is equally brilliant. both movies are the furthest things from the typical hollywood garbage for the masses that infiltrates the movie theaters these days.
Rating:
Summary: Ben And Catherine, Where Have You Gone?
Review: Take a story about two couples, one married, one living together, an obnoxious, egotistical misogynist, and a nondescript lesbian, then get six actors with varying degrees of charismatic screen presence to play them, and you have "Your Friends & Neighbors," written and directed by Neil LaBute. The story centers around six malcontents who interact, mainly, it would seem, for nothing more than to fuel their own desolate existences. The scenes are actually a series of conversations between various combinations of the six people involved here: Barry (Aaron Eckhart) is married to Mary (Amy Brenneman); their marriage is neither happy nor unhappy, apparently, but sexually unsatisfying to both. Jerry (Ben Stiller) lives with Terri (Catherine Keener), but the relationship seems to be in limbo somewhere, and sexually dysfunctional. Cary (Jason Patrick) is a friend of Barry and Jerry, holds women, in general, in low esteem, is probably a latent homosexual (he confides that the "best he's ever had" was a locker room incident with a guy named Tim), and has an abusive nature (he tells of appropriating some hospital stationary and sending a letter to a woman who had dumped him, informing her that her name appears on the list of former partners of a patient who has tested HIV positive). Cheri (Nastassja Kinski) is a lesbian who works in an art gallery, who eventually forms an intimate relationship with Terri. The conversations, apparently meant to be "frank" and "meaningful" discussions of dysfunctional relationships, sexual inadequacy, impotence, preferences and "best of" revelations, comes across as just so much vapid, infantile prattle. There's not a sympathetic character in the bunch, which makes it hard to identify with any of them, or with anything they have to say. A more self-centered bunch you'll never meet; they should all have IT'S ALL ABOUT ME! tattooed on their foreheads. It plays like a version of the television show "Seinfeld." without the key ingredient that made that show so great, the humor. LaBute just takes himself, and his material, too seriously; his point of view is subjective, and the presentation is totally devoid of humor and nothing less than unimaginative. And what he's done with his actors is inexcusable; he's managed to strip them of their personalities and the qualities that make them distinct, which is to say that he's taken away from them the tools with which they ply their craft. Despite what LaBute has done, there are still some decent performances here (hence the two-star rating), Jason Patrick's being the most notable; that he can come across so thoroughly repugnant is a credit to his ability as an artist. Keener, as well, does a good job, making Terri, and her concerns, believable. Amy Brenneman plays Mary with a subtle introspection that works well for the character, and Ben Stiller is solid, albeit unlikable, as Jerry. The problem with "Your Friends & Neighbors" is that, in the end, it all seems so meaningless; it's like spending time with dull, witless, uninteresting people (and how cute, their names all rhyme). There's not a memorable scene (or anything you'd want to remember) in the entire movie, and when it's over, you'll most likely find yourself asking, What am I doing here? And that's one, I'm afraid, I can't answer for you.
Rating:
Summary: "But...I...uh...is it me?..."
Review: That sums up most of the "dialogue" in this unentertaining movie. Don't be fooled by the presence of stars Ben Stiller and Jason Patric. They don't add any energy to the movie. I hope my friends and neighbors aren't this awkward and depressing behind closed doors, but if they are, it doesn't justify making a movie about them. The characters act "bad" but in a ho-hum, listless way. It's the type of movie that humanities professors assign you and make you answer probing questions like, "Each of the characters has a conversation with the artist's assistant. Compare/contrast."
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