Neighbors

Some people flock to raunchy R-rated comedies in theatres, while I am the type of person who would rather just stand on the side of the road and wait for them to pass.  I don’t think I am a prude (I joke a lot about farts and bums) and am tolerable to a lot of the edgy elements that cinema can hold.  The way I see it, if it tells a story and stays true to what it is then I will let it be.  That does not really mean I will personally enjoy it.

There are a few in this genre that end up winning my heart over.  I absolutely loved the cleverly written and directed 21 Jump Street, and was very surprised when I had a great time watching The Hangover and The Hangover 3 (I hope you notice that I did not reference the second Hangover movie).  So, for the sake of being open minded (and because of the fact that I needed to see it for review on an upcoming podcast) I went to the theatre to take in the latest R-rated comedy, Neighbors.

The film is about a young married couple with a baby who put all of their money into buying a house.  Seth Rogan plays Mac, and his wife Kelly is played by Rose Byrne.  When I think of Seth Rogan, I think of a lot of raunchy comedies that I never really laughed at (excluding This is the End), and when I think of Rose Byrne I cannot get the image of her continually gaping blank stare that she had in Insidious.  Life for this happy couple, who still want to be youthful and hold onto their days of partying, takes a turn when a fraternity purchases the house next door.  They then find themselves worried about the noise, but they also don’t want to come off as uncool old people to the young college partiers.  There.  That is the basis of the plot.

I suppose, if I am talking about the plot, I should mention that the president of the fraternity, played by Zac Efron, ends up getting more than a little peeved at the attempts of his neighbours to keep the noise to a minimum, and a back and forth battle begins between the two households, each escalating events further and further.

There were indeed a number of times where I was laughing.  The movie started out with the comedy being dialogue based, and the comedic timing and delivery of Rogan was put on display quickly.  Rose Byrne, whom I had never pictured as being in a comedy, was the darling of the movie for me.  She had a great energy and was able to keep up pace with the well-seasoned and developed skills of Rogan.  She really opened my eyes to her potential, and I am so desperately hoping to see her name attached to comedies in the future.

Zac Efron also opened my eyes to his abilities and the possible future that may be in front of him.  I am sure that many a girl who had crushes on the young heart throb wanted to see the movie because of promotional material promising scenes of his cut body being on display (in a similar way that The Other Woman made sure to promote Kate Upton in a bikini).  Me, I do not have a crush on the young man, but I have now put him on my radar of actors to follow now.  His physically enhanced body will open some doors for him, and hopefully he does not end up taking regrettable roles which spiral him around in the void of mid-2000s Matthew McConaughey type films.  There were moments of charm, nuance, and charisma that show he may be able to be groomed into modern era McConaughey roles.  Alright, alright, alright, back to talking about the film.

However, of course there had to be a ‘however,’ the established comedic tone of verbal and situational jokes abruptly switched throughout the film, relying at times on very slap-stick and over the top, unrealistic moments.  Both slap-stick and unrealistic comedy is fine, but it works if it serves the unified feel of a film, and in Neighbors it did not.  Sometimes laughing, sometimes face palming, I sensed that this film was an intoxicated driver that could not stay within the lines and would get disastrously close to ending up in the ditch.

I believe that a large portion of the problem comes from the script, which felt disheveled and erratic.  The writers, Brendan O’Brien and Andrew J Cohen, were both first timers to writing a feature film, and I am not willing to write them off as poor script writers, but rather just having an unfortunate start.  They did try and create back story and motivation for the characters, as well as humanize both sides of this conflict, and they get points for that.  Sadly, because of the ever shifting landscape of the style of comedy and feel, you quickly forget any understanding of the principals involved.  I bet there are a lot of people who may not see the issues the same as myself, but after the first twenty minutes of the film I was lost in a world of shifting realities and jarring tonal transitions.

There were a number of laughs, which meant it was not a complete waste of time.  With that being said, I cannot downplay the fact that I was incredibly bored for the final half hour, laughing only from time to time, and generally not caring about any outcome other than merely a quick one.  If you are a bigger fan of the R-rated comedy than I am, you may enjoy a lot of the humour that I did not and you may think that I am just too ‘conservative’ to enjoy the film.  That would not be a true assumption.  If a movie, of any genre, is done in a coherent way that that shows talent towards its purpose, I will appreciate it fully.  This film just simply was not that.

Rating – 2.5 out of 4 stars

Insidious

Today, for the most part, was a very good Friday, with the exception of a stupid anxiety attack that I am still reeling from.  It was brought on simply by my wife pestering me via tickles, and I guess the repetition of it (or something) made the anxiety put down its coffee and head to work.  If you have not dealt with it before, it may seem strange that it comes out of nowhere like that.  Actually, it is strange.  It is strange and stupid.  I am not a fan of anxiety and the effects that it has on my life.  Because of that, I am ditching reviewing Captain Phillips for today and am instead going to review a movie that I perhaps find strange, bewildering, and has caused ill effects on my life.

The movie is Insidious, and it stars Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson and was directed by James Wan.  Some people praise Wan, some are opposed to him and I think I land right in the middle.  I believe he has the ability to use interesting concepts and set mood well (at times), but also has the failings of reverting to the same images in multiple movies and having incoherent scenes.  When he is focused and on task he is a very talented story teller, but when he is unrestrained he can cause a great deal of pain (the perfect example of this is the third act of Insidious).

The movie is about a young family who moves into a new house (a big old house, to be exact) with the father working as a teacher and the mother staying at home with three young boys and trying to get her music career some traction.  The story takes a turn for the eerie when the youngest boy ends up in a coma and supernatural occurrences start to haunt the mother.  The father is a skeptic, of course, because every movie by Blumhouse Productions (the company that produced this movie, Paranormal Activity ) needs to have skeptics who don't seem to pay attention to what is going on.  In one movie of theirs, all of a sudden the skeptic became a believer and the believer became a skeptic... that wasn't nauseating at all.

What we end up having with the plot is almost a modern re-telling of Poltergeist as the child was trapped in another realm, with his physical body still in this one.  This was what I liked the most about the movie as it is different than the typical haunted house movie and could allow for some imagination to flow.  Unfortunately, the ending (which I referenced above) threw away all of the potential that it had at its disposal and ended up being a literal haunted house.  So ultimately, what I liked about the movie was later slaughtered by the same people who brought it to life.

There will be a lot of people out there who sing the praises of this film, as it got a decent following and spawned a very successful sequel.  What I was left with, was just annoyance.  I was annoyed at how people cease to act like real people and only do things that will push the plot.  I was annoyed that the main baddie looked like a cross between Darth Maul and one of those silly little trolls that people bring to Bingo to help them claim the pot.  I was annoyed at the potential that was wasted when the movie devolved into typical horror.  I was appalled at the end.  I don't know who thought going the direction they did was a good idea.

The movie could be very distracting, with random visuals that don't have any place in the greater narrative, or abrupt and cutting music.  The very first scene of the movie leads into the title sequence with some of the most obnoxious 'scary' music I have heard.  This immediately shook me from the movie, and any time I was feeling the film's vibe, the music was sure to pull me out.  This is an aspect of the unrestrained Wan that I have a hard time with.  Everything just feels so abrupt and chaotic that it is hard to find an actual horror tone.

I just found a cat hair in my nose... wow, that was surreal.

To tell you the truth, the best thing that Insidious ever did for me was help me get through the tail end of my anxiety attack by giving me something that I am passionate to write about.  The first time I saw Insidious I was thrown into a frenzy of disdain, but the second time left me with a little more affection.  Perhaps it is growing on me.  Not all things that grow on you are good, though.  That is important for us to remember.

Rating - 1 out of 4 stars