TNLF: Your Friends and Neighbors (83%)

A modern immorality tale.

Neil Labute's second film, Your Friends and Neighbors, is everything one could hope and expect after watching In the Company of Men. Like that film, his second film is a character study filled with deplorable characters and uncomfortable situations. It is at times hilarious and at other times quite sad (while still remaining funny).

Labute shoots Your Friends and Neighbors in a much more stylized and glossy way than he did his first feature. Shot in a wider aspect ratio the images sparkle and glisten and support the story and characters in ways that his first film never could. He uses long takes, following the characters around or focusing on their expressions as they hear dialogue that would make anyone cringe.

Like In the Company of Men, this film is about the mean and horrible things people do to each other, both strangers and friends. But unlike that first film this one has six main characters both female and male; one married couple, one couple living together and two single people. The characters all cheat on each other, sleep with each others significant others and generally act in hurtful but laugh out loud funny ways.

This is due to the writing of Labute. Like Company, this movie is filled with realistic sounding dialogue and realistic characters. Everybody, in North America, has come across at least two people that act and sound like the people in this movie. At 100 minutes, this movie never drags for a moment, and it crackles with insights and jokes from one scene to the next. As good as a director that Labute appears to be, his skill as a writer is even better.

In his first film, Aaron Eckhart played the biggest asshole you have ever seen. Here, Eckhart plays the only nice person out of all the main characters (except for Nastassja Kinski) and is completely different. He looks and acts different and is almost unrecognizable from his previous role. Catherine Keener, Ben Stiller and Amy Brenneman all bring great performances to this picture too; all with their own neuroses and problems and all in one way or another display various degrees of assholeishness.

But by far the biggest asshole in the picture, the meanest of the mean, is the character played by Jason Patric. His character is so deplorable it becomes almost impossible to say who is a bigger asshole: him or Eckhart in Company. Yet Patric is mesmerizing and hilarious and watchable right from his opening scene. And even though he is alone in his opening scene, you still know exactly what kind of mean spirited guy he is. You will never forget his character after watching this movie.

I have seen this movie more than any other Labute film, and it gets better each time I watch it. It gets funnier each time and as I get older, more pertinent. Labute handles each character perfectly, giving each one enough screen time and dialogue to know exactly who they are and what kind of person they are. The way they dress, the way they style their hair and the way they talk is nuanced and perfected by each and every cast member.

And like his first film, he uses very little music in the proceedings. Every once in a while a piece of music comes into play, acting as a transition for the story. The music acts as an act ender/starter. The music that is used so sparingly is still rather memorable. Rather than have a score for the film these act breaks are set to the music of Metallica played by Apocolyptica. Apocolyptica is a cello based rock band and performs highly original, unique and incredibly memorable covers of Metallica. These songs kick start each new act with a jolt of energy that can't help but put a smile on your face.

Labute has made a film that has bested his very fine first film. He pulls in stronger performances, stronger humour, stronger character arcs and weaves them all together without skipping a beat. From the opening scene to the final scene he will leave you in stitches while at the same time make you cringe in your seat. This movie is like Woody Allen done by David Mamet, but darker. If you like dark humour and character driven drama then I promise you this: you can't go wrong with Your Friends and Neighbors.

Film Rating: 83%

Breakdown (How Your Friends and Neighbors scored 83%):

Production Design: 8 out of 10
Cinematography: 8 out of 10
Re-playability: 7 out of 10
Originality: 9 out of 10
Costumes: 8 out of 10
Directing: 9 out of 10
Editing: 8 out of 10
Acting: 9 out of 10
Music: 7 out of 10
Script: 10 out of 10