One of my top films from last year was Neil LaBute's IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, well, I had my spies secretly on alert to find a screening, somewhere, for Neil's YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS. Well it finally happened. The film was screened. Now I this "Wildman" was so wildly paranoid he sent the entire dang thing encoded, so when I tried to read it, it looked like this...
"Svefg bs nyy, ybir lbhe fvgr, naq wfhg unq gb puvzr va jvgu n zvav-erivrj bs Lbhe Sevraqf naq Arvtuobef, gur yngrfg rssbeg sebz Arvy YnOhgr, gur travhf gjvfgrq zvaq oruvaq Va Gur Pbzcnal bs Zra. Qba'g xabj vs lbh fnj gung svyz, ohg fhssvpr vg gb fnl gung Ze. YnOhgr unf bhgqbar uvzfrys va gur gjvfgrq, fvpx zvaq qrcnegzrag. V unq gur bccbeghavgl gb nggraq n fperravat bs na rneyl phg bs gur svyz, jvgu nobhg 30 bgure erpehvgrq crbcyr, naq jung nccrnerq gb or n jubyr ensg bs rkrp glcrf fvggvat oruvaq hf."
Well, that about drove me nuts, as I'm sure it's driving you. Luckily my Commodore SuperPet is capable of decoding the above, and this is what I got...
"Just had to chime in with a mini-review of Your Friends and Neighbors, the latest effort from Neil LaBute, the genius twisted mind behind In The Company of Men. Don't know if you saw that film, but suffice it to say that Mr. LaBute has outdone himself in the twisted, sick mind department. I had the opportunity to attend a screening of an early cut of the film, with about 30 other recruited people, and what appeared to be a whole raft of exec types sitting behind us.
The film, which stars Jason Patric, Ben Stiller, Aaron Eckhart, Amy Brenneman, Catherine Keener and Nastassia Kinski, (and produced by Patric) is about six people and how they all get in and out of bed with each other, screw each other over and generally have a great time by making each other miserable. Somehow the film manages to be fun, tho' incredibly disturbing. This time around, Jason Patric has the brutally honest, incredibly misogynistic role as a guy who lives for himself and no one else. There's a scene with Patric in a steam room which is just about the most twisted, sick, and wildly disturbing scenes I have ever witnessed, in which he cheerfully recounts his most pleasureable sexual experience as having been the gang rape of a male teenager during highschool. Not really a film one could say they loved, given the audacity of its commentary on love and sex, but it's certainly one that will get 'em talking at the water cooler...
Technically, the film is ok -- pretty uninteresting from a cinematic perspective, but then this isn't really the point. The characters and dialogue are. Keep an eye out.
Yours Truly,
The Wildman
