MOVIE REVIEW - NEIGHBORS | The Movie Guys

FRAT CITY

Movie Review – Neighbors

Review by Charlie Tarabour

“Neighbors”, the newest Seth Rogen vehicle starring Seth Rogen as Seth Rogen, is a crude college(ish) comedy with enough dick jokes to make “The Wolf of Wall Street” look like “Bears”. There is even one shot of a women getting playfully choked by McLovin’s absurdly long penis. After this, and Jonah Hill whipping his out in “Wolf”, I expect Micheal Cera to severely disturb us all in the next year or so.

“Neighbors” is very hilarious and I don’t mind Seth Rogen playing what’s essentially himself once again. Both his performance and this movie are smarter and funnier than any studio comedy in a while.

In case you were wondering, “Neighbors” is equal-opportunity in many ways. It does not slouch away from bodily jokes regarding women with a hard-to-watch but hilarious sequence of Seth Rogen milking Rose Byrne after he breaks her breast pumps. I have to give a round of applause to Rose Byrne in this movie, who pulls her weight with the big boys, delivering a much-needed feminine touch, but, as you can gather, without refusing to get down and dirty herself. A great, genuinely funny and complex female character in a studio comedy…wow.

This film also gives wonder-boy Zac Efron a chance to unhinge his past personas and show the movie-going public some of that raw talent he’s been hiding behind his song-and-dance routine for too long.

Seriously, Zac’s got some acting chops. Yes, “That Awkward Moment” was a major mis-step and it was more the idea of him doing “The Paperboy” that I respected more than his actual performance in it. But this movie has Zac playing a megalomaniacal man-boy/frat bro to shining comedic effect and surprising depth. His character plays obviously to his pretty-boy good looks and physical prowess, while allowing him to be wild and subversive.

Also, “Neighbors” substantiates a series of honest emotional cues, cut skillfully from outrageous comedic situations. The oft-gay panic that ensues around the frat house as inner and outer tensions escalate is mirrored by a kind of “cool” panic that Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne have been engaging in since before the movie’s story begins, likely soon after the birth of their first child. This unrelenting anxiety and neuroses is present in the movie’s entire world. One even finds it in Lisa Kudrow’s headline-obsessed Dean’s office.

I found “Neighbors” surprisingly refreshing. That’s how I would act and react in neighborhood conflict, more like Seth Rogen than James Bond, all riled up but unsure about even the most mundane of issues. Zac Efron’s frat bro easily has his own confidence knocked out from under him, with his own stupidity, vanity and other shortcomings getting in his way. It’s the panic that comes with andrenaline-fuelled characters, and it appeared all too real for me.

I love this movie from all angles. But it’s not perfect. Zac Efron and Dave Franco try to riff in the same mode as Rogen and Paul Rudd and it’s just not the same. Efron and Franco are great in their outlandish satire of frat bros, but they just can’t pull off that dry delivery of a Apatow leading man(child). But maybe someday, Zac. I have faith in you.