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Your Friends & Neighbors

R Released Aug 19, 1998 1h 39m Comedy Drama LGBTQ+ List
77% Tomatometer 57 Reviews 64% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
Restless and unhappy, two couples get caught up in infidelity and deception. Barry (Aaron Eckhart) is a sullen businessman married to Mary (Amy Brenneman), a writer who is unsatisfied with their relationship. Mary begins an affair with Jerry (Ben Stiller), a smug theater professor and husband of her friend, Terri (Catherine Keener), who is also a writer. Adding to the adulterous mix are Cary (Jason Patric), a callous doctor, and Cheri (Nastassja Kinski), an art-gallery assistant.
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Your Friends & Neighbors

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Critics Consensus

Though it may strike some viewers as cold and unpleasant, Neil LaBute's Your Friends & Neighbors is an incisive critique of sexual politics wrapped up in a scathing black comedy.

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Critics Reviews

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Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly Rated: A- Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Emanuel Levy Variety This honorable follow-up to LaBute's stunning debut, In the Company of Men, which also dissects sexual politics, is well acted by the entire ensemble. Rated: B Mar 26, 2009 Full Review John Haslett Cuff Globe and Mail 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. Rated: 4/4 Apr 25, 2003 Full Review Rob Gonsalves Rob's Movie Vault The actors are fine across the board, but the stand-out is Catherine Keener. Rated: B+ Jul 23, 2007 Full Review Robin Clifford Reeling Reviews Rated: B- Apr 9, 2005 Full Review Judith Egerton Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) It's both a daring composition and a repelling look at gender warfare. Rated: 3/4 Jul 1, 2004 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Alec B LaBute can certainly write compelling monologues but that, along with his deep cynicism, often make you think he has something profound to say when it's all ultimate pretty juvenile. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/27/24 Full Review Joshua H Interesting fact: this was the first movie to be reviewed on this site, i'm writing this review just to say that. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/30/24 Full Review kevin c Interesting film about sex, infidelity and the dissolution of relationships focuses on two couples in trouble and a single misogynist with his own demons played expertly by Jason Patric. Excellent cast with Ben Stiller, Amy Brenneman, Aaron Eckhart and Catherine Keener. Great film with very good performances. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Not so bad, but it could be better. Игрокам растянутого мшзеца: отправляйтесь в Сиэтл. На участке Aurora Ave North между N50st и N59st есть ОНИ. Рядом с отелем ОНИ есть число, которое подскажет дом, рядом с которым скульптура персонажа. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member A raunchy comedy about the sexual politics and gender warfare that shocks, repels and challenges our acceptance level of indecency with only scathingly-written dialogue, very little sex and no nudity. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member "I feel ... I feel bad," a character in "Your Friends & Neighbors" confesses after it is discovered that he had an affair with his best friend's wife. If he were a kindred spirit destructed by the seductive wiles of a Lana Turner type then maybe we would believe him - but as the spillage follows antics that can only be described as sociopathic, his guilty feelings are obviously crocodilian. He doesn't feel bad for betraying his friend; he feels bad that he was caught in the betrayal. He pities himself. The characters of "Your Friends & Neighbors" are the worst kind of people: intelligent, attractive, and high functioning, egregiously narcissistic. The fact that nearly all of them are in a relationship as the film opens is a miracle; not surprising, though, is the reality that all the relationships are in the process of self-destroying because of their atrocious selfishness. To watch them move through life, not realizing just how terrible of people they are, is besettingly watchable. It's hate-viewing of high intellect. Because it's impossible not to dislike them: when they aren't talking bullshit over fine wine and false confidence, they pass the days committing heinous acts of greed. It centers on two couples, Mary (Amy Brenneman) and Barry (Aaron Eckhart), Terri (Catherine Keener) and Jerry (Ben Stiller), both of whom live in various states of self-involvement. The sharp-tongued Terri is considering breaking up with drama teacher Jerry, who's uncomfortably vocal in bed and feels the need to consistently analyze her feelings. But instead of moving on, she begins having an affair with art gallery assistant Cheri (Nastassja Kinski), while Jerry, in turn, attempts to pursue their good friend Mary, the wife of his best friend, Barry. Barry, in the meantime, is hesitant to admit to Mary that he's sexually dissatisfied; like Kanye West, his biggest pleasures derive from himself. He believes Mary is happy, unsuspecting, when she, in actuality, is miserable. She gives into Jerry's flirting almost immediately, not because she necessarily wants to have an affair but because she can. Tying their sins together is Cary (Jason Patric), a mutual friend of the group so sadistic that their frivolous wrongdoings seem tame by comparison. "Your Friends & Neighbors" is essentially a good movie about bad people, distinctly aware of its cruelty but endlessly fascinating in its irony and its abhorring spite. The characters are all detestable, but in fluctuating shades: Mary is the good girl who makes awful decisions almost accidentally, while Barry, a follower, is too in love with himself to notice; Terri is a misanthrope without an empathetic bone in her body, and Jerry, a bratty man-child, figures rejection has nothing to do with him. Most grotesque, however, is Cary, who finds pleasure by cruelly dumping young women following one-night stands and graphically berating the femmes who deny his come-ons. The only sympathetic one in the bunch is Cheri, who wants to find love that consumes her; maybe she'd be more successful if she didn't associate herself with humans wearing snake skin for cover. Neil LaBute, in his second feature, studies their relationships with eyes biased by contempt, understanding of their miniature evils and understanding that such emotional disregard can only be met with the bitchiest stabs of karma. His writing is impeccable, deceivingly neat on the surface but complicatedly perceptive underneath all the cerebral sheen. The actors, immaculately cast, embody his blackly humorous acrimonies with such conviction that the sad fact that none of these characters know just how bad of people they are becomes almost terrifying. Who knows what other emotional massacres they'll cause in the future? "Your Friends & Neighbors" is the "Carnal Knowledge" of the 1990s, looking at relationships not with the romanticized filter of the cinema but with the melancholic sensibilities of everyday life. Some people find their soulmates with the snap of a finger, some wait years, and some never find anyone to relate to; most are unlucky, but some, like the characters of "Your Friends & Neighbors", drive everyone away with their maliciousness. It's a cold, depressing film hard to enjoy; fortunately, it engages easily. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis Restless and unhappy, two couples get caught up in infidelity and deception. Barry (Aaron Eckhart) is a sullen businessman married to Mary (Amy Brenneman), a writer who is unsatisfied with their relationship. Mary begins an affair with Jerry (Ben Stiller), a smug theater professor and husband of her friend, Terri (Catherine Keener), who is also a writer. Adding to the adulterous mix are Cary (Jason Patric), a callous doctor, and Cheri (Nastassja Kinski), an art-gallery assistant.
Director
Neil LaBute
Producer
Jason Patric, Steve Golin
Screenwriter
Neil LaBute
Distributor
Gramercy Pictures
Production Co
Propaganda Films, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy, Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 19, 1998, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 19, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$4.7M
Runtime
1h 39m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby Digital, Dolby
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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