Fraternity comedies have always been a hit or miss idea. There are great ones (Old School, National Lampoon's Animal House), there are unbearable ones (Sorority Boys) and then there are ones that are thrown out multiple times every few months for good reason after being bought at the local Dollar Tree and then being endured (Seniors, Fraternity Vacation.) The newest fraternity comedy, Neighbors falls into that first list. This is a comedy that is low brow humor at its finest and knows it. It gets to the point where even if you don't find anything inherently funny, you feel obliged to start laughing because of how self consciously raunchy and crude it all is. However, this is the type of film that has a surprising amount of character development and smart moments as well. It's not all farts, piss and sex. There is real heart here.
The film stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as Mac and Kelly...a seemingly happy couple who are still getting used to having a newborn baby in the house and enjoy the fact that they moved into a quiet, peaceful neighborhood. However, that all changes when a fraternity led by Teddy and Pete (Zac Efron and Dave Franco)show up and start partying all night. At first, Mac and Kelly are cool about it and Teddy and Pete seem nice enough. However, all hell breaks loose when the fraternity's partying becomes incessant and make Mac and Kelly fear having to be the old people who complain.
As directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek and I hate to say...The Five Year Engagement,) this is the most visually arresting comedy in quite some time. There are an endless amount of very clever and meaningful touches that add a lot to the film. Take the fraternity parties, scenes that in a film with lesser hands at its helm, would have been really bland. The multiple color patterns and borderline epileptic lights add so much to these scenes, giving them an advantage of hilarity right off the bat by being so accurate and thus so easy to relate to. As well, take the scenes inside Mac and Kelly's house. There are a lot of nice little touches that they are in fact getting old but there are also things in the house that show their desire to stay young. This is done subtly and never screams for the audience to see it.
The acting is also really good in this film, which surprises me to say. Although these are talented people at work here, this is not the type of film I go to for excellent acting. Dammit, though, I got it and I have to give credit where credit is due. Rogen is hilarious as the guy with the desire to stay hip and young who also happens to be a lot older in ways both cognitively and physically. Byrne continues to show her range by playing both a sympathetic mother and a wacky woman who's delightfully young at heart in one fell swoop. Efron and Franco both get some surprisingly dramatic scenes that are played out well but also get to be at the top of their comedy game. Also, Ike Barinholtz shows up and steals a lot of scenes as Mac's buddy, Jimmy who is in on getting revenge. Other cast members such as Craig Roberts as fraternity recruit Assjuice and comedian Jerrod Carmichael as fraternity member Garf also get some hysterical moments of their own.
On top of the acting, directing and overall comedic talent in this film, the screenplay delivers incredibly well. Written by first timers Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien, this screenplay is surprisingly mature and deep for a comedy about a fraternity war. For example, Mac and Kelly's relationship is surprisingly fleshed out as the couple who love each other but seem to have trouble finding a spark anymore. As well, Teddy and Pete's relationship is well played to the point where it actually becomes really touching. I especially like how these aren't two fraternity idiots like they might be in another film. The audience feels for Teddy because he's at that point in life we have all been at where we're scared of the future and what is to become of us. Pete is a smart, promising young man who joins the fraternity and has stuck around because he genuinely cares about everyone in it. This is a screenplay that shows these two men are extremely intelligent and have a future in writing feature length films .
There are many raunchy laughs in Neighbors, most of which are surprisingly cleverly executed (there is a Shakespearean-like trick Mac and Kelly pull on Teddy involving his girlfriend and in the same sequence, a clever dance sequence between Mac and Teddy.) However, there is also a lot of character development and heart to the film. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprisingly extremely touched by this film. There's no getting past the fact that this is a very touching and sweet film even with its lowbrow comedy aspects. Neighbors will appeal to all generations of people because its humor goes beyond raunchy fraternity goings-on and it explores all the age groups imaginable. If not one of the top five best films I've seen this year, it's by far the best comedy this year.
(5 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for pervasive language, strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity and drug use throughout)
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