"Your Friends & Neighbors" is about six people whose personalities range from somewhat superficial and self-absorbed down to frighteningly narcissistic. I've seen movies featuring unsympathetic lead characters before, but I don't ever recall seeing a film where the director seems to actively despise each and every one of his characters so much. A great deal of what goes on in this film is very funny and quite fascinating, if more than a little uncomfortable sometimes. (One scene features what I think must be the longest awkward silence in recent moviemaking.) Too often , though, the characters' motivations are left entirely unclear to the audience, and they seem to be pulled about by unseen motivations. This seems to be the result of too heavy a hand on the part of the writer /director Neil LaBute, who apparently is out not only to make us hate the characters, but to be confused by them and alienated from them as well. 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)
Overall Rating: 7 (out of 10), or 3 stars (out of 4)