Movie Review: Bad Neighbours 2

Bad Neighbours 2 opens in typical gross-out fashion, with a character vomiting into the mouth of another, and ends as one of the sweetest (and wokest) comedies we’ve ever seen. Now that’s an arc!

Director Nicholas Stoller reteams with Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne and Zac Efron for this sequel to their 2014 hit, reminding us of how much can change in just 24 months.

I’m not just speaking of the relationship between endearing, hugely-relatable nitwits Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Byrne), who are now parents to an adorable daughter and awaiting the arrival of second.

I’m not even talking about the fate of the full-grown frat boy Teddy (Efron), who was booted from his apartment after long-time bro Pete (Dave Franco) invited his fiancée to move in.

Bad Neighbours 2 reveals how much has changed culturally in two short years. It apologises for Rogen and company’s past sins and sets a new standard for inclusivity and cultural awareness in comedy, all in a sprightly 92 minutes.

You’d think such politeness would smother a sequel from a genre reliant on pushing boundaries. I suppose we can leave Sacha Baron Cohen to fight that particular, politically incorrect battle. Bad Neighbours 2 is warm, hilarious and doesn’t require a giant asterisk to qualify our enjoyment.

Finally, a fave that isn’t problematic. They said it couldn’t be done.

In the first flick, Mac and Kelly faced off against a neighbouring house chock full of randy male college students. Here, we meet a sorority of sisters who have abandoned their sexist campus and moved into the former home of Teddy and Pete’s felled frat. (We’re not exactly straying far from a winning formula.)

Kappa Kappa Nu’s founders Shelby (Chloë Grace Mortez), Beth (Kiersey Clemons) and Nora (Beanie Feldstein) object to the America-wide policy that keeps sororities from hosting parties, forcing co-eds to blow off steam in the drink-spiking hellholes of dude-fronted fraternities.

Quickly, they attract an army of young women who similarly want to cut loose without fear of harassment. For a while, the suffragettes are even guided on their heavy-partying mission by Teddy… until he’s fired for mansplaining too much. Rudderless, Teddy joins forces with Mac and Kelly, who head once more unto the breach by plotting against and pranking their raucous neighbours. The plan backfires. War is hell.

Miraculously – considering its five (five!) male screenwriters, including Stoller and Rogen – Bad Neighbours 2 is fiercely feminist. Its predecessor almost earned that tag just by letting Byrne’s character Kelly be as irresponsible, fun-loving and reckless as stoner hubby Mac, sparing her the indignity of the “nagging wife” stereotype. The sequel goes further by giving Moretz, Clemons and Feldstein just as much opportunity for slapstick as Efron and Franco had - not to mention the same usage of their bodily discharge. (They also enlighten their male counterparts by pointing out that all their “Pimps and Hos” parties were actually pretty offensively-themed. Get woke, Teddy.)

Once more, the friendships ring truer here than in almost any other franchise. Excellent newcomers Moretz, Clemons and Feldstein chart female companionship with honesty and heart. (Each is escaping a lonely high school experience; none have to feud over a boy.) Teddy and Pete’s bromance is entirely devoid of gay panic. (They don’t need to add “man” as a qualifier to their frequent, “I love yous”.) Mac and Kelly, best of all, are true partners, and Rogen and Byrne are a perfectly-paired double act. Despite its loud, goofy, wicked set pieces (those airbags return), Bad Neighbours 2 is elevated by the quieter moments in which Mac and Kelly confess their failures as parents, and then have a cry in the bed while playing with their three-year-old daughter. Good luck finding a lovelier couplet of scenes this year.

The main cast is joined by an absurd assortment – clown car, even - of beloved supporting comedians: Ike Barinholtz, Abbi Jacobson, Hannibal Buress, Jerrod Carmichael, Billy Eichner, Lisa Kudrow, Kelsey Grammar. Each part – no matter how minor – has seemingly been filled with someone who’ll make viewers say, “Oh, I love them.”

Wildly underrated, Bad Neighbours cut to the heart of some indelible truths, encapsulating the nearly-imperceptible transition from teenagerdom to adulthood, and its accompanying highs and lows. So too does the follow-up. But it has other ideas it wants to discuss too. Subjects like privilege, consent, racial inequality and slut-shaming are all examined (relax; with good humour) as are the “Take Back The Night” and #BlackLivesMatter movements. Fertile comic ground, I know.

Whereas the original disguised a debate about ageing with Animal House-style gags, the laughs from Bad Neighbours 2 mostly come from its constant conversation about being young and old; male and female; gay and straight; black and white. Even narrowing it down to those binaries does a disservice to the film. It’s primarily about characters seeking and understanding their place in the world, finding solace and freedom from those who keep trying to categorise and classify them with easy terms.

It’s also about a dancing Zac Efron using his oiled-up body as a distraction during a drug heist. Bad Neighbours 2, like its characters, did not come here to be defined.

Seth Rogen recently admitted that Superbad – a masterpiece of male co-dependency – has some jokes that are “bordering on blatantly homophobic at times.”

“It’s funny looking at some movies we’ve made in the last 10 years under the lenses of new eras, new social consciousness,” he told The Guardian. “There’s for sure some stuff in our earlier movies — and even in our more recent movies — where even like a year later you’re like ‘Eh, maybe that wasn’t the greatest idea.’”

He wasn’t prompted to apologise. And yet, he can see that the times have indeed changed, and just keep on changing. Bad Neighbours 2 is riotously funny, sweet and, surprisingly, evolved. Maybe growing up doesn’t have to be all that hard.

4.5/5

In cinemas now.

Bad Neighbours 2 is rated MA15+ for strong sexual references, drug use and coarse language.

Header Image: Universal Pictures