11/26/06 Your Friends & Neighbors

Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), directed by Neil LaBute

watched solo; DVD rental (North American Video) @ home

First off, since this has absolutely nothing to do with the title of or plot therein of this movie, I thought it was at least coincidental that the title does lend to the connections in my life today. What I am rambling on about is that my friends (and not neighbors) in real life today are very much in my thoughts...as I have found out that my best friend & his wife are the proud parents (for the second time over) of a beautiful baby girl! Congrats to the web page master of this Challenge...while I've been devoting a year to watching other stories of life...he's been living one as a father. Not too shabby, but I'd like to see him try keeping his eyes glued to a TV-set for over a year. I'm just kidding...but I digress as usual. Speaking of keeping your eyes glued to a storyline...so is usually the case with any of director Neil LaBute's films of a stage-like character-driven quality. LaBute is responsible for some of modern day's most intriguing, hard-hittingly blunt, and questionable tales of morality in cinema. Blossoming as a playwright, and tackling subject matter that is in-your-face with conversational dialogue, LaBute was an indie hit with his first film "In The Company Of Men." He then followed up with this caustic tale of marital un-bliss, with people cheating on and lying to each other left & right. Oh a joyous piece it was...nont really. It's so sad that couples can be like this, and not just playing it up for the art's sake...but that people can generally be miserable a-holes if you let them. No one in this film deserves your sympathy or your understanding...they just are who they are, warts and all. The bitter/apathetic couples are played by Ben Stiller & Catherine Keener (Jerry & Terri) and Aaron Eckhart & Amy Brenneman (Barry & Mary). Unhappy with each other, the couples begin a dangerous game of infidelity, hoping to find the missing piece sexually in their sad monogamous lives. Thrown into the mix are exotic art gallery owner Nastassja Kinski (Cheri) and arrogant chauvinist Jason Patric (Cary) for good measure, and sexual tension. Oh, and clever Neil LaBute had to keep all the characters' names in a rhythmic pattern. Anyway, the women are unhappy and jumping into bed with obnoxious dudes who sit around the gym locker room trading conquest stories. It's a very blunt and matter-of-fact presentation of humanity's faults, done in every way that of a theatrical play...giving you someone to despise and never to become. There are artful cinematic elements that pop up within the converging storylines and agendas, where every character has their turn speaking with the exotic Cheri at an art gallery exhibition. Each person comments directly (or sometimes through innuendo indirectly) on a piece of art, only to reveal a piece of their unique personalities and tendencies. It's a fractured tale, yet powerful enough to keep you focused on disliking all the participants. Yeah!

3 out of 5 stars