Bad Neighbours

For F*** Magazine

BAD NEIGHBOURS

2014

Genre: Comedy

Run Time: 96 minutes 

Starring: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Roberts, Ike Barinholtz, Lisa Kudrow

Directed by: Nicholas Stoller

            You can’t choose your family, and it turns out you can’t choose your neighbours either – except perhaps if you can buy out the whole row of houses. In this comedy, new parents Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Byrne) don’t have that luxury. With an infant on their hands, they’re horrified when the Delta Psi Beta fraternity moves into the house next door, since it means endless loud parties and no peace for them or their baby girl. Mac and Kelly initially try to keep things civil between them and the fraternity president Teddy (Efron), but things soon get out of hand as the couple and the frat boys repeatedly clash, deciding the street isn’t big enough for both their groups.

            The film is titled Neighbors but is being released as Bad Neighbours in the UK, Australia and other territories presumably to avoid confusion with the long-running soap opera Neighbours. Director Nicholas Stoller is an oft-collaborator of Judd Apatow, having directed R-rated comedies Forgetting Sarah Marshall, its spin-off Get Him to the Greek and The Five Year Engagement. As can be expected, there is no shortage of wanton ribaldry on display in Bad Neighbours, every scene featuring large quantities of profanity, drugs, sex and nudity in any number of combinations. If lowbrow, American Pie-esque humour isn’t your cup of tea (or bong of weed, rather), it’s best to give this a wide berth. But if you’ve got no problem with lactation gags and 3D-printed dildos, this is the flick for you.

            The problem with many films of this genre is that the characters can be pretty detestable and it’s hard to enjoy their antics when you just can’t relate to them or root for them. By any standards, the characters in Bad Neighbours are not good people: Mac and Kelly are irresponsible, hard-partying parents and Teddy and his frat brothers are inconsiderate, lunk-headed jerks. Teddy even has his frat symbol tattooed on his bicep. However, they end up pretty likeable and somehow, it’s hard to stay mad at these guys and it becomes surprisingly easy to go along with the over the top gags and the sophomoric silliness thanks to the performances the cast turn in.

            Seth Rogen essentially plays himself once again – a schlubby, pot-smoking “hurr hurr” type – but he’s entertaining and funny while he’s at it and he and Zac Efron throw themselves into their crazy feud. This is far more Zac Efron’s wheelhouse than dramas like At Any Price and Charlie St. Cloud. He gets to goof off and show off that MTV Movie Awared-winning physique, charming but never repulsively smug. Once again Rose Byrne more than proves her versatility, holding her own opposite (and often stealing the show from) Efron and Rogen, gamely partaking in the juvenile hijinks without looking like she’d rather not be there. Dave Franco makes for an excellent foil to Efron as Teddy’s wingman Pete, their friendship/rivalry given surprising depth.

            Bad Neighbours unfolds in an episodic, somewhat predictable fashion and is far from a sophisticated affair but it manages to be amusing and engaging and some moviegoers will probably end up enjoying this one in spite of themselves. There’s a scene early in the movie in which Mac and Teddy discuss their favourite cinematic versions of Batman, Mac favouring Michael Keaton with Teddy preferring Christian Bale. It’s a moderately clever way of demonstrating a generational gap and the film tackles the worries of moving on from college to a job and a family without becoming sentimental goop. And hey, when “warring neighbours” comedies like Deck the Halls exist, you could certainly do worse than hanging out with Rogen, Efron, Byrne and co.

Summary: These bad neighbours make for a pretty good time!

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

ParaNorman

 For F*** Magazine, Singapore

 PARANORMAN

2012

Starring the voices of: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Directed by: Sam Fell and Chris Butler

Dr Dolittle could speak to the animals, and he was celebrated and praised as a result. On the other hand, small-town kid Norman Babcock (Smit-McPhee) can speak to the dead, but is shunned and mocked as a result. Norman lives in Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts, famous for its Puritan witch-hunting heritage – the place is to witches what Rachel, Nevada is to UFOs. Norman has a great love for horror movies and is a zombie aficionado, owning a zombie-themed alarm clock and toothbrush in addition to old film posters.

He is saddled with a special ability and can see, speak to and interact with restless spirits, cursed to wander the earth. This gets him ostracized at school and earns the ire of his shallow, ditzy older sister Courtney (Kendrick). He is picked on especially often by the thuggish, dim-witted bully Alvin (Mintz-Plasse). The only kid in school who seems to like him is the portly Neil (Albrizzi), who possesses some eccentricities of his own and is excited by the prospect of his friend being an actual necromancer. Courtney has eyes for Neil’s hunky and clueless older brother Mitch (Affleck), who becomes the gang’s designated driver. It so happens that Norman’s crazy old uncle Mr Penderghast (John Goodman) is about to kick the bucket, and tasks Norman with reading an incantation from a grimoire, in order to appease a witch who was executed 300 years ago to the day by seven Puritans. The Puritans are cursed to rise from their graves and wander around the town as zombies; and as the residents go into frenzy, it’s up to Norman, Neil, Mitch, Courtney and Alvin to restore the town to normalcy.

ParaNorman is easily one of the very best films this reviewer has seen this year, animated or otherwise. It’s an outstanding showcase of technical artistry, a display of a mastery of craft and a well-told tale with a strong emotional core. ParaNorman was created using stop-motion animation, one of the most painstaking mediums to work in ever. In these days of studios practically belching out cheaply-made 3D animated films, it is refreshing and heartening to see a movie made with so much love and hard work, with CGI used to enhance and augment the traditional puppets, models and backgrounds as opposed to replacing them altogether. If making a movie is akin to creating a world, then a film like this is probably the ultimate example. There are rich atmospherics, a markedly non-gimmicky (albeit not entirely necessary) use of 3D and some remarkable character designs that help the viewer get a rough understanding of the characters’ personalities just by looking at them.

Beyond and probably even more so than its visual flair and appeal is the story’s heart. On the surface, it appears to be a ghoulish comedy, a fun romp with a few haunted house-style frights and nothing more. However, this is really a tale of courage and compassion, about the power of acceptance and how it’s perfectly fine, cool even, to be different. Everybody can relate to being under-appreciated, and we’ve all felt like outcasts at one point or another. Just like superhero comics like Superman or the X-Men, ParaNorman is a fantasy in which the main character proves his worth, the very qualities for which he is shunned coming into play and ultimately saving those that scorned him. Kodi Smit-McPhee of Let Me In fame is excellent as the voice of Norman, and the rest of the voice cast provides similarly evocative and, when need be, over-the-top vocal performances that really tie it all together.

This is also a loving homage to horror film clichés and to the appeal of their kitsch – there’s a great bit near the start when Norman is watching an old zombie movie, as he often does, and the actress in the film pushes aside a boom mike that accidentally comes into frame. Norman is a bit of a throwback in that he’s a horror movie geek, just as many prominent filmmakers today (Guillermo del Toro and Edgar Wright, to name two) are. There is a good mix of gross-out moments and small scares leading up to a bona fide epic and rather intense climactic confrontation. The movie is also a throwback in that it’s a kids’ adventure flick in the vein of Stand By Me, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and The Goonies, and in fact shares a lot in common with last year’s Super 8.

In addition to its striking style, ParaNorman boasts a certain earnestness in its story-telling, very relatable characters and solid story arcs and evolution for them to undergo. It’s quite the laugh riot, featuring a good mix of slapstick pratfalls and more nuanced humour, but is also very rich emotionally, providing surprisingly mature ponderings on mortality. It’s also a fable about standing up to bullies, and taking pride in one’s own quirks, however unappreciated by the rest they may be. This reviewer will readily admit that he cried buckets through the whole film and particularly at the end. This doesn’t feel like your garden variety, over-commercially driven Hollywood cash-in; it’s kid-aimed but never pandering, and is something almost everybody (barring the really young ‘uns) should see.

SUMMARY: This is a near-perfect brew of wit, heart, humour, adventure, scares and BRAINS – an outstanding piece of animation which doesn’t feel stale, silly and zombie-eaten like much of its animated peers. 

RATING: 4.5/5 STARS

Jedd Jong