Taglines: A modern immorality tale.
Your Friends and Neighbors movie storyline. On the heels of his award-winning debut, In the Company of Men (1997), writer-director Neil LaBute moves from the corporate boardroom to the bedroom but continues to explore male-female relationships in this modern morality tale, a dark comedic commentary on social interactions and sexual politics among upscale urbanites.
Six characters are introduced: After womanizer Cary (Jason Patric) is seen rehearsing make-out lines into a tape recorder, the scene shifts to a montage of marrieds as several couples couple between the sheets. Terri (Catherine Keener) is living with a theater instructor Jerry (Ben Stiller), but she’s tired of listening to his monologues in the middle of lovemaking.
Also plagued by marital-type problems are self-denigrating Mary (Amy Brenneman) and impotent Barry (Aaron Eckhart). Jerry’s desire for an extramarital affair with Mary impacts on the lives of the others. Soon Terri takes an interest in an attractive art gallery employee, childlike Cheri (Nastassja Kinski). Betrayals and deceits ensue.
Your Friends & Neighbors is a 1998 black comedy film written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Amy Brenneman, Aaron Eckhart, Catherine Keener, Nastassja Kinski, Jason Patric, and Ben Stiller in an ensemble cast. This film was the first to be reviewed on the website Rotten Tomatoes. The film’s credit sequences feature music by Apocalyptica. Your Friends and Neighbors was released on August 21 1998 in a limited release in 32 theaters grossing $340,288 with an average of $10,634 per theater. The film’s widest release was 246 theaters and it ended up grossing $4,714,658, slightly below its $5 million production budget.
About the Story
Set in an unnamed American city, two urban, middle-class couples deal with their unhappy relationships by shamelessly lying and cheating in their quest for happiness. Jerry (Stiller), is a theater instructor who is married to Terri (Keener), a writer who is alienated and unfulfilled with his love-making skills. Jerry and Terri have dinner with Mary (Brenneman), a writer friend of Terri’s, and Mary’s husband Barry (Eckhart) a business executive who is oblivious to his wife’s unhappiness.
During dinner, Mary talks about writing for a local newspaper column about bickering couples and their troubles, while Barry does not think that other couple problems are anyone else’s concern. After dinner, Jerry discreetly asks Mary out on a date. Mary, out of frustration, accepts. The next day, Terri, visiting a local art gallery, meets and begins a secret romance with Cheri (Kinski), a lesbian art gallery worker. Terri feels satisfied with their lovemaking and enjoys the quiet of it compared with Jerry’s performance.
Meanwhile, Cary (Patric), a doctor friend of Barry’s, is a devious and narcissistic sexual predator who picks up and seduces naïve and emotionally vulnerable young women, and quickly dumps them for his cruel pleasure of watching them cry. Aware of the distance between Barry and Mary, Cary tries to persuade Barry to leave his wife for the swinging, non-monogamous lifestyle that Cary has built for himself. Barry thinks that his marriage can be saved.
During Jerry and Mary’s rendezvous at a local hotel, Jerry fails to get aroused during foreplay. As a result, he takes out his frustrations on Mary, believing that she has made him impotent. Angry and offended by Jerry’s misogynist outburst, Mary abruptly ends their “affair.” She feels more miserable a few days later when Barry unwittingly takes her to the very same hotel room to rekindle their romance. Mary realizes that Jerry had told Barry about being in the room. Barry fails to understand Mary’s unhappy attitude and thinks he might somehow be responsible for it.
Jerry, Barry, and Cary get together to work out at the local gym and, in the steam room, Barry tries to get them to reveal their best sexual experiences. Barry tells them that he only feels satisfied with himself. Cary then tells a disturbing story about his best sexual experience: partaking in a gang rape where he and a group of friends forcibly sodomized a male high school classmate on the floor in the locker room at his boarding school when he was a teenager.
Both Barry and Jerry are stunned but fascinated by Cary’s sordid and evil story. When Barry tries to persuade Jerry to reveal his best sexual experience, Jerry refuses. After being goaded in the locker room, Jerry angrily responds that his best sexual experience was with Barry’s wife. He then leaves, with Barry too stunned to respond. Cary, also caught off-guard, says: “that beats my story.”
Your Friends and Neighbors (1998)
Directed by: Neil LaBute
Starring: Amy Brenneman, Aaron Eckhart, Catherine Keener, Nastassja Kinski, Jason Patric, Ben Stiller, Josh Dotson, Lola Glaudini
Screenplay by: Neil LaBute
Production Design by: Charles William Breen
Cinematography by: Nancy Schreiber
Film Editing by: Joel Plotch
Costume Design by: April Napier
Set Decoration by: Jeffrey Kushon
MPAA Rating: R for graphic sexual dialogue, strong sexuality and languag.
Distributed by: Gramercy Pictures
Release Date: August 21, 1998
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