Your Friends & Neighbors

Plot synopsis:
Set in an unnamed American city, two urban, middle-class couples deal with their unhappy relationships by shamelessly lying and cheating in their quest for happiness. Jerry (Stiller), is a theater instructor who is married to Terri (Keener), a writer who is alienated and unfulfilled with his love-making skills. Jerry and Terri have dinner with Mary (Brenneman), a writer friend of Terri's, and Mary's husband Barry (Eckhart) a business executive who is oblivious to his wife's unhappiness. During dinner, Mary talks about writing for a local newspaper column about bickering couples and their troubles, while Barry does not think that other couple problems are anyone else's concern. After dinner, Jerry discreetly asks Mary out on a date. Mary, out of frustration, accepts.
The next day, Terri, visiting a local art gallery, meets and begins a secret romance with Cheri (Kinski), a lesbian art gallery worker. Terri feels satisfied with their lovemaking and enjoys the quiet of it compared with Jerry's performance.
Meanwhile, Cary (Patric), a doctor friend of Barry's, is a devious and narcissistic sexual predator who picks up and seduces naïve and emotionally vulnerable young women, and quickly dumps them for his cruel pleasure of watching them cry. Aware of the distance between Barry and Mary, Cary tries to persuade Barry to leave his wife for the swinging, non-monogamous lifestyle that Cary has built for himself. Barry thinks that his marriage can be saved.
During Jerry and Mary's rendezvous at a local hotel, Jerry fails to get aroused during foreplay. As a result, he takes out his frustrations on Mary, believing that she has made him impotent. Angry and offended by Jerry's misogynist outburst, Mary abruptly ends their "affair." She feels more miserable a few days later when Barry unwittingly takes her to the very same hotel room to rekindle their romance. Mary realizes that Jerry had told Barry about being in the room. Barry fails to understand Mary's unhappy attitude and thinks he might somehow be responsible for it.
Jerry, Barry, and Cary get together to work out at the local gym and, in the steam room, Barry tries to get them to reveal their best sexual experiences. Barry tells them that he only feels satisfied with himself. Cary then tells a disturbing story about his best sexual experience: partaking in a gang rape where he and a group of friends forcibly sodomized a male high school classmate on the floor in the locker room at his boarding school when he was a teenager. Both Barry and Jerry are stunned but fascinated by Cary's sordid and evil story. When Barry tries to persuade Jerry to reveal his best sexual experience, Jerry refuses. After being goaded in the locker room, Jerry angrily responds that his best sexual experience was with Barry's wife. He then leaves, with Barry too stunned to respond. Cary, also caught off-guard, says: "that beats my story."
After returning home from the gym, Barry confronts Mary over dinner about her affair with Jerry just as Terri accidentally finds out about Jerry's indiscretion and eventually confronts him too while they are shopping at a local bookstore. Mary and Jerry are both unapologetic for their unfaithfulness and express dissatisfaction to both of their spouses. Terri accidentally reveals her own lesbian romance with Cheri, but does not display any guilt for her infidelity. Jerry soon confronts Cheri at the art gallery over his wife's affair with her. Cheri also shows no remorse or regret for her relationship with Terri, or with interfering with Jerry and Terri's troubled marriage. Cheri tells Jerry that Terri can do much better than being with him.
As the film comes to an end, both of the married couples split up. Terri moves in with Cheri, although she quickly finds her emotional neediness irritating. Jerry continues his philandering lifestyle with his female theater students. Barry becomes miserable all by himself because he is no longer able to give himself an erection during masturbation. Mary is revealed to have moved in with Cary, who treats her as coldly as all the other women in his life even though she is pregnant with his child. The film closes on Mary and Cary in bed, as Mary realizes that she is even more unhappy in her new relationship with the catty and heartless Cary than she had been with her clueless husband Barry.

Tags: comedy, cruelty, satire

Review:
"Your Friends and Neighbors" (1998) is the second film by director/writer Neil LaBute and it tells the story of three couples and their complicated friendships and relationships.
I've seen it more than once during the last couple of days - and I found it incredibly clever written, well acted (especially by Jason Patric and Catherine Keener - their only scene together was the second best in the movie - so dynamic and tight) and skillfully directed.
Actually, I loved all scenes with Catherine Keener and if I have to choose one character that I liked, it would be Terry.
"Your Friends & Neighbors" is not really a film about sex, although every single scene, in some form or another, depicts its characters' obsessions with sexuality.
The sexual content and strong language will turn many audiences off, but this movie does have a solid understanding of itself, and I honor its art.Neil Lebute is clearly more interested in the characters' sex lives than in a clear, concise story.
It's a movie about behavior.The characters talk about sex constantly-whether it's in the supermarket, the basketball court, in bed, an art gallery, public restaurants, gym showers, their homes, business places, steam rooms, and more.
With a better cast and an even more disturbing group of characters, Neil LaBute failed to disappoint in his sophomore effort.
Laced with dark dialogue and realistic reactions conducive to the actions of the characters, this film actually surpasses In The Company of Men in regards to the evil that is known as the human condition.
With some great performances by the likes of Jason Patric, Catherine Keener, Ben Stiller, Amy Brenneman and Aaron Eckhart, this film really sucks you into this unsatisfied world of betrayal and sex.
These are the kind of people you would not want to live next door to, but these are the people who usually seem to win in our society, sad as that is to ponder.Jason Patric plays the single most evil person in movie history.
Meanwhile Cheri works at an art gallery and picks up people there and Jerry and Barry's friend Cary lives his sex life devoid of any care or consideration for anyone else.I have previously seen In the Company Of Men so I was prepared for the sort of view point the director seems to take regarding the nature of men and women but even then, this is still a pretty depressing look at relationships.
Eckhart shows how good an actor he is by playing a character so the opposite of his character in LaBute's previous film and playing it well.
He is the funny one and is like Eckhart's character in `In the Company Of Men' in that he is selfish and cruel to women.
However his character seems to be LaBute's ideal in this piece as he is the only one who seems to get what he wants  is this the moral of the film?
Good movies do not have to be about pleasant subjects, many excellent films are about depressing subjects or have sad endings.
"Your Friends and Neighbors" is a movie about relationships, sex and the effects of both.
One of the best aspects of this movie is the dialogue; the characters' feelings always come through through their conversations.
All the characters have very real flaws that abrogate any growth, for those of you who crave action and a happy ending; this movie will most likely bore you..
Your Friends & Neighbors is a film about six middle class people plagued by dysfunction and unhappiness.
In fact, the normalcy of the characters make it something like an easy to watch soap opera featuring distillations of all those things in real life you'd prefer to forget.Your Friends & Neighbors is also wonderfully cast.
Patric's pathological character is a stand out (bearing strong similarity to Eckhart's character in "In the Company of Men"), but with the exception of Kinski, all of the actors manage to captivate us in varying ways--from Brenneman's introverted reactions to Keener's profoundly cold mannerisms.This is an excellent film that might not always be well received but can and should be watched by anyone open to a cynical view of humanity..
We were very much looking forward to this film.No surprise, then, that Your Friends and Neighbors (sic) has horrible people, sexual violence, nihilism and a fine, well-chosen cast.
In that regard, it reminds me of Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago / About Last Night - except I really didn't like that film whereas Your Friends and Neighbors kept our attention throughout and got us talking at length afterwards.We thought it was well worth seeing..
Eckhart has proven himself to be a marvelous chameleon-like actor, easily filling out the pathetic and needy sap LaBute has written for him here.Jason Patric gets the toxic role this time, playing a misogynistic obstetrician (he's prone to playing football with a model of a fetus).
Hers is not the showiest role in the film, but it ranks right up there with the most memorable.Nastassja Kinski is used the least of the six main actors (author's note: Come to think of it, there are only six speaking parts in the whole movie, making the theatrical nature of the piece even more profound).
The script was terrible, the characters were terrible, the dialog was terrible, the plot only served to hilight the complete lack of substance to the movie, and I just wanted it to end.
His long speech in which he describes his best sexual experience is worth sitting through the rest of the film for - it is both brilliantly acted and written, and I'm sure will become a regular "party piece" for auditioning actors.
From the cute little trick of never using the character's names (the terms "he" "she" "him" "her" "the wife" are used instead) to the trite and unimaginative repeating art gallery scene, this film bends over backwards to appear "intelligent".
In the first minutes of this film one of the main characters played by Ben Stiller explain to his audience, a class of students: " Its all about f-( censored )".
Catherine Keener, Jason Patric, Amy Brenneman, and many others I have seen in other movies.
Even A Great Cast Can't Save This One. Take a story about two couples, one married, one living together, an obnoxious, egotistical misogynist, and a nondescript lesbian, then get six actors with varying degrees of charismatic screen presence to play them, and you have `Your Friends & Neighbors,' written and directed by Neil LaBute.
The scenes are actually a series of conversations between various combinations of the six people involved here:  Barry (Aaron Eckhart) is married to Mary (Amy Brenneman); their marriage is neither happy nor unhappy, apparently, but sexually unsatisfying to both.
Cary (Jason Patrick) is a friend of Barry and Jerry, holds women, in general, in low esteem, is probably a latent homosexual (he confides that the `best he's ever had' was a locker room incident with a guy named Tim), and has an abusive nature (he tells of appropriating some hospital stationary and sending a letter to a woman who had dumped him, informing her that her name appears on the list of former partners of a patient who has tested HIV positive).
And what he's done with his actors is inexcusable; he's managed to strip them of their personalities and the qualities that make them distinct, which is to say that he's taken away from them the tools with which they ply their craft.Despite what LaBute has done, there are still some decent performances here (hence the two-star rating), Jason Patrick's being the most notable; that he can come across so thoroughly repugnant is a credit to his ability as an artist.
The problem with `Your Friends & Neighbors' is that, in the end, it all seems so meaningless; it's like spending time with dull, witless, uninteresting people (and how cute, their names all rhyme).
The point of the film becomes each character's search for contentment in their sex life.
With his second film Neil LaBute more than makes good on the potential he displayed in his amazing debut film "In The Company of Men." Like "Men" "Your Friends and Neighbors" his an unforgiving, unrepentant, and unflinching looks at relationships.
On the surface, Jason Patric character seems the coldest and most hateful person ever, but if you look closer you may see an uncomplicated man who simply lives by a code and only reacts when it is violated.Think about it.
Those who find this film offensive or who claim to "hate" its cast are likely to be even more self-absorbed then the former, living in a vacuum of denial and refusing to accept the reality of contemporary America's ruthless sexual politics.From the opening chords of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" in a string orchestra rendition, to the concluding "Wherever I May Roam" (the only music in the film), YFAN is as compelling and provocative as today's movies can get..
Adroitly written & directed by Neil LaBute, this film offers up a collage of quasi~satirical snippets regarding seven people's intermingling sexual relationships, focusing on each's cloying little habits, occasionally depraved traits, deceptions and, most importantly, the truths they share with one another [although a few of these occur behind others' backs].As well as, of course, the implications of said truths.
No "Jerry Maguire" happy endings here.Revising a page from Altman's "Images," LaBute's lead characters' names all rhyme: Mary, Barry, Terri, Cheri, Cary and Jerry [in order, Amy Brenneman, Aaron Eckhart, the amazing Catherine Keener, Nastassja Kinski ~ who, incredibly, becomes more beautiful as each year passes, Jason Patric and Ben Stiller in perhaps his best role].Trivia Question:  Whose character's name is ever spoken onscreen?Answer, to the best of my knowledge:  None, which is how LaBute gets away with the ploy.This begins as a bitingly satirical comedy, but turns deadly serious by the third reel.Perfect performances by all, but the star here is the [somewhat talky but] brutally frank and uncompromising script.I liked this a lot..
What we need are new young writers and directors and actors who are not going to do things the good old (Hollywood) way, who are going to explore new areas, expand boundaries, and continue to expand the art of the cinema, not just make the same old movies over and over again.
Your Friends & Neighbors Why can there not be more films like this?
It tells the story of terrible relationships, affairs gone bad, realistic sex, and good friends.
Neil LaBute, director of YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, certainly likes voyeurism, and puts the viewer through an almost agonizing voyeuristic trip into sex, lies, and infidelity.
IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, his first film in 1997, starred Aaron Eckhart, who hates women so much, he plots to destroy the life of a deaf woman with the help of a "friend".
I wanted to like Your Friends & Neighbors more than I actually did, since I had rather enjoyed writer/director Neil LaBute's last film, 1997's In the Company of Men.
Your Friends & Neighbors, however, is much less plot-driven than In the Company of Men, and this emerges as a distinct liability under LaBute's style.
The film, like In the Company of Men before it, tracks the empty, morally void (some might say evil -- particularly in the case Jason Patric's character) lives of a group of yuppie friends.
"Your Friends and Neighbors" is one of those movies which sports a good cast, is well produced, and has few flaws with one HUGE exception.
As such, the characters and storyline line (or lack thereof) just grate on you until the celebratory event of the credits rolling.Bottom line: if you want to see an interesting or thought-provoking or enjoyable or exciting or clever movie, AVOID this one like the plague..
Writer/Director Neil Labute's first film, In the Company of Men, was a qualified success.
In Your Friends and Neighbors there is not a single place to search for redemption.A theatre professor who exaggerates his role while having sex with a woman who just wants to have sex without the dialogue; a man who prefers himself over women whose married to a woman who doesn't know what she prefers; and a man who hates woman with such feral animosity that I cringed during his scenes.
In Labute's tape the same feeling is drawn from the characters disdain for themselves and their friends and neighbors.
I think this is, perhaps, the worst film I've ever seen and that's saying a lot considering that I am a big Roddy McDowall fan which means that I have sat through a lot of schlock in my time waiting him to show up in the many, many bad movies he made during his later career.
"Your Friends and Neighbors" presents a haunting character study of six people who, though highly caricatured, remind you of someone you know ...
In his first film, In the Company of Men, Neil LaBute took an extreme look at the way men treat each other.
The picture he does paint is as sour and bleak as the picture of men.LaBute is making a name for himself by making movies with characters that are very stripped down.
At one point one of the characters asks Jerry (Ben Stiller) if he ever shuts up -- I was wondering the same thing.The steamroom scene left me feeling sick to my stomach.
These are people with out morals or humanity.Obvious comparisons will be made to "In the Company of Men" but you feel nothing for these characters except contempt..
This film, with all of its perverse subject matter, is a haunting follow-up to Neil LaBute's "In the Company of Men" - what you might expect from this independent writer/director.
On the whole, though, the interesting and funny parts made up for a lot of the things that I never properly understood about the characters, making the movie worth seeing.Overall Rating:  7 (out of 10), or 3 stars (out of 4).
Basically a character study of the six leads, this is  a film with a well written script and superb acting.Although all six of the main characters deliver excellent performances the true stand out is Jason Patric.
One particular monologue, is one of the most memorable scenes I have seen in years.Neil LaBute seems to have a fascination with dark, immoral characters.
Your Friends and Neighbors was written and directed by Neil LaBute who also directed In the Company of Men.
The performances by Mr. Stiller, the Lothario, Mr. Eckhart, TRULY self indulgent-you'll see why-, Ms.Keener, who likes QUIET, Ms. Brenneman, the unfaithful wife, Ms. Kinski, the lesbian lover, and Mr. Patric, the offbeat friend are very good, but Mr. Patric stole the show.
This was the best movie of that year, and Jason Patric was robbed of an Oscar nomination.Fantastic cast, Patrick, Eckhart and Stiller are fantastic and Catherine Keener is one of the best actresses working..
This movie is bereft of humor entirely, and if not for a good performance by Jason Patric (everyone else mentioned the monologue, but I have to say that it really was great), I would have burned the video, rental place be damned..
Catherine Keener, whose character was also not all that nice, was at least very pretty, and the best part of the film.
There are just so many films just like this, that I can't really say much for Your Friends & Neighbors, mainly because it offers very little to make in memorable or distinguishable in any way.
A group of people in their 30's spend the film talking about their unsatisfying relationships and sex lives and cheating on each other with each other; it has all the markings of a 90's theater play, and everything it takes to be an indie darling, including a cast of some of the more popular indie-film stars of the time (this at a time when Ben Stiller was still known more for Reality Bites than for comedies like Zoolander).
The acting is indeed good - Jason Patric and Catherine Keener especially, and the film does have a few good scenes, wittily written and well delivered.
Watching this movie, you may be tempted to ask if this is the way the world turns or if it is merely the way writer-director Neil LaBute likes to pretend it turns.
This film is an actor's movie - the story is entertaining and fetching; drawing you into the characters lives -- all because of the quality of the actor's work.
This is one of those movies that tries to say something about society--or part of society--as a whole, but ends up being nothing more than a boring, contrived film about shallowly constructed characters, whom we don't like.The flaws emphasized in each character were, indeed, the sort of things that many sexually frustrated yuppies suffer from in real life, but the way they were presented here was so over-the-top, it seemed like they were only there for comedic or shock value.
Strange not because of its story or acting, but because it has moments when it's absolutely great and moments when you have no idea what do the director wants.There are many things i liked about this movie.
None of the characters in this film is innocent, and they are to be quite honest not that interesting except for Jason Patric, who is playing the character who likes to put all things about the sexes in misogynistic perspective.
For example, using the "artist's assistant" scene over and over to tell us a little about each person's character, is a trite and "cute" trick, employed many times before in films- and better.
The manipulative nature of this movie has its great bites of dialogue and scenes especially with Jason Patric's character, Cary.
I was very impressed by LaBute's debut In the Company of Men, and I was expecting great things from this film, especially after the critical praise bestowed on it.
I was hoping with names like Ben Stiller and Jason Patric, the movie would be good.