This Is Where I Leave You... A Little Too Crowded...

I'm not gonna dance around the issue, This is Where I Leave You is not really an ensemble film. But it's cast as if it is one.

Shawn Levy put together an interesting film contemplating life, death, and family. He created an element of heart and meaning, and got some pretty fun albeit rather forced performances from his cast. So in my estimation, he didn't fail with This is Where I Leave You. He just made a film with too much going on... to such a degree that I as an audience member didn't really know what to care about or focus on at any given time.

Shortly after Judd Altman (Jason Bateman) discovers his wife has been cheating on him with his boss, his sister (Tina Fey) calls him up to tell him their father has died. Talk about a bad month. So Judd goes back home for the service and his mother (Jane Fonda) springs it on him that his father wanted all of the siblings to sit shiva... seven days with your dysfunctional family... sounds like fun, huh?

In truth, the only real constant is Jason Bateman. And that's because he is absolutely the lead of this film. Which is strange given the massive cast Levy surrounded him with. Jane Fonda, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll, Kathryn Hahn, Connie Britton, Timothy Olyphant, and Dax Shepard... You should know all of these names pretty well at this point. And while I do really like Jason Bateman, I was left wondering why more attention wasn't paid to other cast members... or more importantly, why were they all there if it was so clearly meant to be a Jason Bateman vehicle?

I think that This is Where I Leave You's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. An all-star cast can sometimes be a burden on a production. And in the end, the weight of too many bigger-than-life performers was too much for this movie to bear. This is not to say I didn't enjoy the movie, rather I think it could have been a much stronger film than it was if only it had been pared down a bit. One character less would honestly have helped... Two and this may have even been on par with The Big Chill... probably the best film in this particular sub-genre.

That being said, I wouldn't turn you away from This is Where I Leave You. It's good enough and you'll probably have a good time... Just recognize it's not going to be a perfect movie... which is fine. That's a pretty rare thing to find anyway: a perfect movie.

Neighbors Has Something To Say... But I'm Not Sure What

Can you remember the last time you went to the movies and couldn't recognize which characters you were supposed to root for or care about?

That was my dilemma when I went to see Neighbors. I felt left in a sort of awkward limbo. On the one hand it seemed like they were trying to make Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne the good guys... just based on structure. But then their characters went ahead and lied and cheated and did just terrible things that honestly hurt a lot of people. So they really didn't seem like the good guys in this story... in fact they looked like terrible horrible parents who would do almost anything to get away from and forget about their baby. And while I have not yet reached that point in my own life, it just doesn't sound like good people to me. After all, if a mother went to a rave one night and got completely messed up, leaving her baby to fend for itself, that would make headlines and we would all be looking down on her. So why are these people different than that story? In the first ten minutes of the film they come within moments of literally taking their baby with them to a rave... Seriously?!?!

On the other hand, we have this Frat that just managed to nab a new house right by their school. So realistically they haven't done anything wrong. This is, as evidenced by the film, a college town where this is easily an expectation. And nobody else in the neighborhood seems to mind what these kids are doing at all. Every time the Frat members are meant to come off as bad guys, they prove that they are not. Almost every negative action they perform in the movie is an act of self defense against this crazy couple who live next door that acted like and even said they were one thing (partying with the kids one night) only to turn their backs without keeping their end of the deal (calling the cops rather than talking to their neighbors as they had agreed the night before).

Maybe it's an age thing, but Neighbors fails to accurately establish the adults who we're supposed to root for to win as responsible, trustworthy people. And that is a massive weakness for the film.

Now that I've got that out of my system, I do have to admit I had a good time going on the journey. Much was forced... some characters were given payoffs that they hadn't earned and didn't deserve... but the comedy did come through when it needed to most. The De Niro party was a pretty funny idea

and there was a very minor message included for the Frat guys about growing up. And ultimately I did leave the theatre feeling alright about seeing the movie. That's obviously not the goal with a flick like this, but if I didn't leave wanting to burn every print in existence, somehow that feels like a victory to me.

If you like movies that feel like an escape and do just enough to keep you onboard... or you just wanna get out of the house for an evening but you don't want to go to that rave your friends keep talking about... Neighbors may be a good fit for you.