thoughts on Neighbors

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne star as Mac and Kelly Radner, a thirty-something married couple with a baby.  When a fraternity moves in next door, they are concerned about the potential noise, but want to try to be cool; they introduce themselves to the guys (led by fraternity president Teddy, played by Zac Efron, and vice-president Pete, played by Dave Franco) and offer them a joint, trying a little too hard to be casual when they tell them to “keep it down.”  After they get fed up with the noise and call the cops on a party, however, they find themselves in a war.  Mac and Kelly break a pipe and flood the guys’ basement.  The guys steal the airbags from Mac and Kelly’s car and strategically place them in chairs, so that Mac winds up shooting towards the ceiling more than once.  Kelly gets the idea to try to cause a rift between Pete and Teddy by getting Pete to hook up with Teddy’s girlfriend.

It’s all pretty fun and funny.  Part of the humor comes from the fact that with a few exceptions, the war is way more on Mac and Kelly’s end than the guys’.  Yes, the fraternity guys are being loud and annoying, but most of it isn’t specifically directed at Mac and Kelly; they’re just doing what they do.  Mac and Kelly actually scheme to try to get what they want.  Their friend Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz) correctly suggests that they’re just bored, getting used to being parents.  Likewise, Pete suggests to Teddy that perhaps he’s taking all of the fraternity stuff so seriously because he has no idea that he’s going to do when he graduates. 

The movie is also surprisingly sweet at times.  Mac and Kelly enlist a pledge to try to help them bust the fraternity for hazing; he initially goes along with it, but backs out when Teddy demonstrates legitimate concern for him and his sudden problems with the fraternity’s initiation rituals.  Teddy and Pete seem to have a genuine friendship.  Mac and Kelly have an argument at one point—he tells her that one of them has to be the adult in their relationship, and she’s supposed to be the one to rein him in; she points out that she’s never been like that—but make up quickly.  The film also largely avoids gross-out humor, save for one gag with the baby finding a condom on the lawn.

All in all, this was a funny and sweet comedy with largely likable characters.  I’d recommend.