Rating: 
Summary: A quirky, risque dark comedy
Review: "Your Friends and Neighbors" is a dark, risque comedy about five people who are so self-centered that their ability to have a meaningful relationship is limited, at best. The movie doesn't always work, but when it does, it's brilliant. It also suffers by comparison to writer-director Neil LaBute's much admired first effort, In the Company of Men. LaBute contends that egocentric people are, in many ways, very much alike. In fact, he named his characters Mary, Barry, Terri, Cherri, Gary and Jerry. Such people, he says, are not only obsessed with getting their own way, but also tend to want the same things over and over again. Since no one can give them these things, they are never satisfied. Jerry [Ben Stiller] is a drama teacher who has an affair with his best friend's wife, Mary [Amy Brenneman]. While the affair ends practically before it begins, it causes Jerry's girlfriend, Terri [Catherine Keener], to have an affair with Cherri [Natassja Kinski]. Mary's husband, Barry [Aaron Eckhart], does a lot of soul searching, which always ends in his asking, "Is it me?" Meanwhile, the totally vain doctor, Gary [Jason Patric], stirs up this brew as much as he can, because other people's flaws keep him from dealing with his own, which are major. Their stories are both funny and sad. LaBute directs in the style of realism, which means his performers act very much as people in real life would. There are a lot of conversational pauses and blank looks to show that no one is really comprehending what others are saying. Many viewers will find this irritating. We have been brainwashed by Hollywood's glossy, perfect characters who bond with one another by tossing off witless one-lines and cliches. Or they make a short, noble speech, and everything is cozy again. Life, of course, ain't that simple. If it were, we could get through it in two hours. Your Friends and Neighbors is low budget. It sometimes seems like a filmed play. The actors are an ensemble, and several have worked with LaBute before. They are all very good. Especially interesting are Jason Patric and Ben Stiller, who, despite their commercial successes, remain true actors. Patric was spellbinding last year in Incognito, as was Stiller in Zero Effect. [These were two of 1998's very best independent films and worth adding tou your DVD collection.] This movie is recommended for people who take movies seriously, at least from time to time. It is the type of film which can not be called an entertainment, but which stays with the viewer long after the big but trite pictures have faded from memory.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring!
Review: About six, neurotic,self-absorbed people, totally boring, I couldn't stay awake.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Classic From Neil LaBute
Review: After "In The Company Of Men," I had incredibly high expectations for LaBute's second film and unlike so many others he delivers. Showing growth as a director, LaBute has crafted another film that examines the hatred and bile at the heart of American's souls. The characters' inability to connect to other human beings is tragic, but instead of becoming another let's-sit-around -depressed angst film, here is a film with wit and perverse charm. While the script isn't as plot-driven as "In The Company Of Men" it is just as engrossing. The performances are flawless. Ben Stller seems to be able to do no wrong and he is more then ably accompanied by Jason Patric (who gets most of great lines, and the single creepiest moment on film this year) and Aaron Eckhart, showing range as an 180 degree turn from the last film. The women, particularly Catherine Keener, are just as good. This is a film of incredible quality, not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Not even worth the video tape...
Review: Although this film features several very good actors and a promising premise, their talents are wasted with atrocious writing and terrible directing. Don't even bother with this one.
Rating:
Summary: annoying cast, annoying characters
Review: Annoying cast, annoying characters, and especially an annoying movie that never goes anywhere. Depressing, desolate, and dark "comedy" starring Ben Stiller and Jason Patric. We learn all their dirty little secrets... but why would we care? Ben Stiller holds the sole satisfactory role (limited!) in the film, a film that could have definately worked if it had Janeane Garofalo co-starring. p.s. to the director, screenwriters, and casting people- WHAT DID YOU DO????
Rating:
Summary: Woah
Review: Arguably the best film of 1998, certainly the most underrated. After the equally eerie IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, Neil Lubute wrote and directed this raw, brutal, hysterical, disturbing comedy about 3 men and 3 women's relationships. Not for the easily-offended, but Lubute's characterisation and wordplay is brilliant. Great acting too.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely not entertaining..
Review: by any stretch of the viewers' imagination! Director Neil LaBute does not seek to entertain, but to expose, in this morality play, I think. There are six players in the film version of social-sexual arrogance. Initially, you view them with varying degrees of interest, but by the end of the film, you dislike all of them, some more than most. LaBute, with slightly more budget than he had for his breakthrough debut, "In the Company of Men" (ICM), uses it wisely to attract excellent role-players, then films it well, in all indoor, and slightly claustrophobic settings. He continues his theme of the cruelty of the alpha male, to both the other sex, and his own male friends. Although each of the actors plays well (I particularly liked Aaron Eckhart, playing against type and doing a "180" from his role in ICM, as a poorly groomed, chubby and needy husband and friend) there is no question that the film is sought out by film afficianados to observe the performance of Jason Patric.
From the opening scene, Patric makes your skin crawl at the depths of his ability to hate the fairer sex. His hold over Stiller & Eckhart's characters is resonant in the fascinating steam room scene. Patric, deliberately cruel, is self-assured enough to fall into reverie about his infliction of power in a past homosexual rape. His intensity and believability make you wonder why Colin Farrell is getting all the good roles when Patric is a far more powerful actor. In this film, LaBute does not exceed his earlier work (ICM) but puts us on warning that he is a force to be reckoned with in filmmaking. A caution; most filmgoers will abhor this film. My recommendation is to see it for the experience, not the entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely not entertaining..
Review: by any stretch of the viewers' imagination! Director Neil LaBute does not seek to entertain, but to expose, in this morality play, I think. There are six players in the film version of social-sexual arrogance. Initially, you view them with varying degrees of interest, but by the end of the film, you dislike all of them, some more than most. LaBute, with slightly more budget than he had for his breakthrough debut, "In the Company of Men" (ICM), uses it wisely to attract excellent role-players, then films it well, in all indoor, and slightly claustrophobic settings. He continues his theme of the cruelty of the alpha male, to both the other sex, and his own male friends. Although each of the actors plays well (I particularly liked Aaron Eckhart, playing against type and doing a "180" from his role in ICM, as a poorly groomed, chubby and needy husband and friend) there is no question that the film is sought out by film afficianados to observe the performance of Jason Patric.
From the opening scene, Patric makes your skin crawl at the depths of his ability to hate the fairer sex. His hold over Stiller & Eckhart's characters is resonant in the fascinating steam room scene. Patric, deliberately cruel, is self-assured enough to fall into reverie about his infliction of power in a past homosexual rape. His intensity and believability make you wonder why Colin Farrell is getting all the good roles when Patric is a far more powerful actor. In this film, LaBute does not exceed his earlier work (ICM) but puts us on warning that he is a force to be reckoned with in filmmaking. A caution; most filmgoers will abhor this film. My recommendation is to see it for the experience, not the entertainment.
Rating: 
Summary: From the totally sick and deranged mind of Neil Labute
Review: comes a movie with not much of a plot, but plenty of selfish people who only care about sex. While there is much talk about it there aren't many sex scenes. The discussions here are more frank and graphic than the act itself. I caught this on Independant Film Channel, and actually had my hand on the remote control and ready to change it at several scenes, but kept it on. The entire film centers around six people that are all connected in some way, and they are all extremely self absorped people who will stop at nothing for their tiny chance of any happiness.
Except one, Nastassja Kinski, she plays this artist assistant who develops a sexual relationship with Catherine Keener's character. The dialogue and direction are all the same in the "introduction" of every character to Kinski's, and well, it was good for a chuckle. Which you needed in this film, due to the general direction it took -- which was Narcissism at its worst. Jason Patric, who now is forever embedded on my brain as this woman hating but sex loving jerk, was mind blowing in this movie. There is one particular scene where he monologues and the nature of the talk is very difficult to stomach. It was like listening to a psychopath justify his crimes.
I am a very open minded person, and i think that is what you need to be to watch this movie. It reminded me of the movie "Happiness" in that respect. There is a film that is just utterly sick, but what's sicker is that some of it is actually funny. So, if you liked "Happiness", chances are you will like this as well.
Ben Stiller and Amy Brenneman(of the show, Judging Amy) are the only other actors I recognized. The other actor Aaron Eckhart appeared in the first movie of director Neil Labute's 'In the Company of Men', which I haven't seen. The acting is very well done, but the subject matter itself just isn't for everyone. It certainly isn't something one(at least anyone I know) has to be in the mood for to watch.
It is a disturbing piece of work that I don't recommend. There is nothing redeeming about the characters and it leaves us all hanging.
Rating:
Summary: Dull & stupid
Review: Definitely fodder for the self-loathing get-a-life crowd. Shallow, boring & poorly acted. Seems to have been written & directed by an angry adolescent eunuch.
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