Review of Your Friends & Neighbors (1998) by Itamar K — 30 Sep 2011

There are just so many films just like this, that I can't really say much for Your Friends & Neighbors, mainly because it offers very little to make in memorable or distinguishable in any way. A group of people in their 30's spend the film talking about their unsatisfying relationships and sex lives and cheating on each other with each other; it has all the markings of a 90's theater play, and everything it takes to be an indie darling, including a cast of some of the more popular indie-film stars of the time (this at a time when Ben Stiller was still known more for Reality Bites than for comedies like Zoolander). The acting is indeed good - Jason Patric and Catherine Keener especially, and the film does have a few good scenes, wittily written and well delivered. But in the end, the characters are all completely unlikable and forgettable - they're all characterized solely by their insecurities, shallowness, selfishness, delusions and sexual quirks,.

And there's nothing there to make the viewer care at all about any of them or about anything that happens to them - and not much happens, at that. The film is the very definition of mediocrity and forgettability.