A couple with a newborn baby face unexpected difficulties after they are forced to live next to a fraternity house.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.1/10
IMDb: 6.3/10
Letterboxd: 2.91/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Metacritic: 68
TMDB: 6.2/10
Director
Nicholas Stoller
Production
Good Universe, Universal Pictures, Point Grey Pictures
Cast
Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jerrod Carmichael, Ike Barinholtz, Carla Gallo, Halston Sage, Craig Roberts, Lisa Kudrow, Elise Vargas, Zoey Vargas, Brian Huskey, Ali Cobrin, Kira Sternbach, Steven Michael Eich, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone
Curator Review
Verdict
A loud, raunchy studio comedy with a surprisingly sturdy emotional spine. It works best as a clash-of-lifestyles movie, with strong chemistry and a few very memorable set pieces, but the humor is uneven and often depends on how much you tolerate broad, juvenile escalation.
Best for
Viewers who like crude but polished mainstream comedies
Fans of domestic-comedy conflict and neighborhood warfare setups
People who enjoy chemistry-driven ensemble banter
Anyone looking for an easy, high-energy watch rather than a subtle one
Skip if
You dislike gross-out humor and sex jokes
You want tightly written, joke-dense comedies with minimal filler
You’re put off by frat-boy chaos and secondhand embarrassment
You prefer understated, character-first humor over broad escalation
Overview
Neighbors is a very specific kind of studio comedy: messy, shameless, and built to keep ratcheting up the chaos. The premise is simple and effective, and the film gets a lot of mileage out of the collision between new-parent anxiety and fraternity excess. It’s often funniest when it leans into the absurdity of both sides acting like they’re in a war for the block.
Worth noting
What keeps it from being disposable is the cast chemistry. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne make the exhausted young-parents side feel lived-in, while Zac Efron brings a strange mix of charisma and self-seriousness that gives the movie more texture than expected. The film also has a knack for turning dumb setups into genuinely memorable bits, even when the joke is aggressively juvenile.
Bottom line
Still, it’s uneven, and some of the material feels like it’s stretching for shock value rather than laughs. If you’re in the mood for a broad, high-volume comedy with a few real laughs and a decent emotional anchor, it’s worth a look. If you need sharper writing or more restraint, it may just be tolerable rather than essential.
Top Letterboxd reviews
🌻 lindsay 🌻 (3.5★) · 2576 likes
Dave Franco and Zac Efron were so aggressively straight in this that it turned around and became gay
mya (3.5★) · 1162 likes
teddy and pete were actually robbed of the most beautiful love story in cinematic history i think
kayleigh 🕸💖 (3.5★) · 1094 likes
"shaggy, scooby, jizzface, let's investigate!" is my new favourite line from any movie ever
crash_and_burn (2.5★) · 787 likes
brad pitt before grab clit 🤙
Graham J (3★) · 767 likes
A comedy is made with the intention of making you laugh. But when it doesn't make you laugh yet doesn't entirely suck it floats into that weird realm of being..... 'likeable'. Does that mean its failed as a comedy? Or succeeded as a movie?
I'm unsure, but Neighbors occupies that 'likeable' space in the same way the films fraternity occupy that neighbouring house. It's hard not to enjoy some of its recklessness but you'd also like it to mature a tad and turn the volume down.