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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 film's star is LaBute, a genuine modern movie auteur who ventures behind the tantalizing blurbs on the covers of those trendy men's and women's magazines to find miserable, unhappy people.
LaBute writes conversations as though eavesdropping were his full-time occupation.
It's refreshing to see a movie like this -- something that's edgy and entertaining, and doesn't try to appeal to 'the masses.'
LaBute is very good at kicking over rocks, and even better at examining what crawls out from under them.
The uneasiness and ambivalence the men and women in this drama experience with each other reflects the continuing sexual wars in society at large.
The perfect antidote for anyone considering cheating on his or her partner.
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.
A scathing, brutally funny, and ultimately disturbing satire of sexual and social mores.
LaBute's Your Friends and Neighbors is to In the Company of Men as Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction was to Reservoir Dogs.
It's both a daring composition and a repelling look at gender warfare.
The actors are fine across the board, but the stand-out is Catherine Keener.
A fascinatingly mean-spirited erotic comedy set in a realm of self-absorbed fantasy and overdetermined intergender misunderstanding.
The film has no shape or narrative force. It merely chronicles events.
Your Friends and Neighbors is often bleak and occasionally nightmarish, but also extremely funny!
LaBute is taking a decisive step forward, moving from an attention-getting debut to a witty and observant exploration of sexual mores, acted by a well-chosen ensemble.
Without the potential for decency to counterbalance and give context to the cruelty, "Your Friends & Neighbors" becomes a simple study in human depravity.
The web of lies, failures and brutal revelations here is strong stuff, and it's the work of an original filmmaker who takes no prisoners.
Latest News for Your Friends & Neighbors
August 31, 2006:
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August 30, 2006:
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