Neighbors, the 2014 hit from Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s apparent feauture-hit-comedy factory of a writing partnership, came as a surprise to me and I think a lot of moviegoers. The premise of a young family moving in next to a fraternity house and the subsequent conflicts seemed a little too obvious, but the film succeeded for a number of reasons. First, it was really funny. But what made it stand apart was its thoughtful and genuine portrayals. A young couple (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) adjusts to life as new parents, but in shockingly real, honest, and hilarious ways. With the fraternity, we don’t get the portrait we see in movies like Old School where every debauched thing they do is hilarious and without consequence. Instead, we get to see behind the veil a little bit, and laugh at their vulnerabilities, and even their diversity.
Neighbors 2 is still very funny, treading similar ground as a sorority moves in next door to the couple. Rogen and Byrne are as dependable as ever, and Zac Efron really shines this time around. Chloe Grace Moretz seems unfortunately limited by the material she’s given to be funny with, since we know from 30 Rock, 500 Days of Summer and Kick-Ass that she is very funny, and has been for a while. The movie goes for probably a few more “shock” gags than I tend to appreciate – humor can be shocking and still funny, but these are best used when they build on or build toward something else. Two of the films most shocking shots are throw-aways, shock for shock’s sake. In this way, Neighbors 2 falls short of Neighbors as a comedy.
Neighbors 2 seems to be interested in more though, building off Neighbors’ subtle critiques of frat culture by offering a more blatant, feminist critique. The movie chooses not to play up stereotypical, fetishizing depictions of college-aged women, and instead skewers it. The women choose to start their own sorority house off-campus because it turns out that sororities are not legally allowed to throw parties, a ridiculous true fact the film goes out of its way to remind us how ridiculous and true it is.
At several key points in the film, Zac Efron’s Teddy has moments of clarity and realization at his own sexism, misogyny, and the sexism and misogyny of his cherished frat culture. These moments are both funny and profound, which is not an easy feat. Comedy is at its best when it can be used to criticize and correct injustice. Neighbors 2 co-star Kiersey Clemons said it this way in an interview: “Maybe because of a comedy movie, things will change. I think being funny is the best way to address any serious topic… if you’re trying to get a point across, approaching it with humor is a way to make everyone feel like you’re not jumping down their throats.” Neighbors 2 uses comedy to draw attention to rape culture, sexist double-standards, abuse, and degradation, and it’s at its best and funniest when it does so.
While the feminism of this movie is surprising and praiseworthy, I found the movie to be otherwise morally shallow. “Young women should get to party too” might be a victory for equal rights, but it falls short of critiquing larger problems with college party culture in America. When the sorority has their victory and gets to throw their parties, there is still exploitation in the form of hazing, there is still excessive drinking, drugs, and not one mention of college being scholastic in any sense. I don’t think we ever see a college campus or even a classroom in this film. The first Neighbors isn’t that much different, but there were memorable conversations between characters about how some were succeeding in their classes while others were failing, and getting good grades and graduating was seen as a value. In this movie, college is explicitly referred to as the time of life where you let loose, have a good time, and party like crazy. At the risk of sounding like a grouchy Puritan, can’t we do a little better than that? The male characters get a more satisfying conclusion in both movies, where the female characters’ story ends with waking up in a room full of passed-out partiers. It feels like a shallow victory for the characters, and maybe for feminism as a whole.
It’s difficult to write about feminism as a Christian male, for a number of reasons. On one hand, I am a Christian and a feminist, and I think it’s important for more and more Christian men to embrace feminism and become advocates for and supporters or women. On the other hand, the last thing that feminism needs is a bunch of male theologians stepping in with the “We’ll take it from here” mentality that is itself the problem. Being a male, Christian feminist is humbling, because it forces you to be aware of a problem, but then immediately reminds you of the ways that you yourself are part of that problem.
But what’s great about movies, maybe especially silly ones, is they can provide safe spaces to talk about hard things, and they elicit reactions from us that can lead to listening, learning, and change. I hope this movie encourages more people to critique sexism in our systems and world. And I hope that the conversation can be complex enough to allow for disagreement, and to allow for a movie to be both feminist in a positive way and problematic in others.
