Review: Your Friends & Neighbors (1998) Review By: Ryan Davis
Your Friends And Neighbors is a rather bizarre film about 6 people, who hop in and out of bed with each other. Written and directed by Neil LaBute, who's first film, "In The Company Of Men" was simply marvelous, disappoints a bit here with this one.
The story involves two couples(Ben Stiller & Catherine Keener and Aaron Eckhart & Amy Brenneman), an artist assistant(Nastassja Kinski), and an egotistical women abuser(Jason Patric). The character's names are not apparent and are not mentioned in the entire movie.
Each of the characters has their own sexual style and they don't seem to "merge" together well. So the group experiments behind their respective partners back. There are some hysterical scenes, one involves Jason Patric, Aaron Eckhart, and Ben Stiller's characters. They are all in a sauna, talking about their best "lay", when Jason Patric's character makes a surprising confession. The whole scene is hilarious and exceptionally well written and acted.
The enjoyed this movie, although it seemed a tad lengthy(even though it only runs 99 min.). The film's cast is exceptional with Oscar caliber performances by Catherine Keener, Aaron Eckhart, and Jason Patric. I would not recommend this film, to people who are offended by conversations that are very sexually explicit. It did seem to offend people, more than half of the people in the theater left during the film. Although Your Friends And Neighbors doesn't have the power of LaBute's earlier film it still manages to be somewhat entertaining and funny, while maintaining a melancholy philosophy on human relationships.
Grade: B+
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