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Your Friends & Neighbors (1998)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:55
Fresh:42
Rotten:13
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: This dark comedy is hilarious and provocative.
Synopsis: Neil LaBute's second film, YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS, is a dark comedy of manners that follows two unhappy couples and their single friends through a series of emotional and physical entanglements.... Neil LaBute's second film, YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS, is a dark comedy of manners that follows two unhappy couples and their single friends through a series of emotional and physical entanglements. Barry (Aaron Eckhart) and Mary (Amy Brenneman) are a married couple plagued by sexual frustration. Their friend Jerry (Ben Stiller), a theater professor, lives with his girlfriend, Terri (Catherine Keener), who's sick of his endless bedroom banter. Added to the fold are Cary (Jason Patric), a narcissistic, womanizing doctor, and Cheri (Nastassja Kinski), a free-spirited gallery assistant. While Jerry hopes to have an affair with Mary, Terri strikes up a relationship with Cheri, leading to a host of humorously painful conflicts. Cleverly framed by scenes in which each character examines the same painting in Cheri's gallery, the film presents an unflinchingly harsh look at relationships. More than anything else, it pinpoints--with hilarious effect--the human inability to communicate. Perfectly cast and expertly acted, YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS furthers LaBute's reputation as a challengingly original filmmaker. [More]
Starring: Ben Stiller, Amy Brenneman, Jason Patric, Catherine Keener
Starring: Ben Stiller, Amy Brenneman, Jason Patric, Catherine Keener, Nastassja Kinski, Aaron Eckhart
Director: Neil LaBute
Director: Neil LaBute
Reviews for Your Friends & Neighbors
The actors are fine across the board, but the stand-out is Catherine Keener.
It's both a daring composition and a repelling look at gender warfare.
It is superbly executed and, for all its pitilessness, it's an intelligent dramatization of the impact that consumerist values have had on the psyche of the North American middle class at the end of the 20th century.
You will not like Your Friends and Neighbors; it's intense, unflinching and uncomfortable. You won't look away from it, though, and you won't forget the people it showed you for a long time.
If you can stand to watch Your Friends & Neighbors, you won't forget it.
The uneasiness and ambivalence the men and women in this drama experience with each other reflects the continuing sexual wars in society at large.
YFAN is graphic without showing anything, incredible yet credible, engaging and morbidly fascinating.
With LaBute, you get a filmmaker who cuts to the timeless heart of sexual warfare.
Without the potential for decency to counterbalance and give context to the cruelty, "Your Friends & Neighbors" becomes a simple study in human depravity.
LaBute's characters are just cold, pretty figures striking art film poses while spouting corrosive but predictably theatrical dialogues.
Latest News for Your Friends & Neighbors
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