Better In Your Head?--NEIGHBORS

 

Spoiler Alert: LCD + OTT  ÷ BYOB x WTF = SMH.

THE BOOK-Written by Thomas Berger, released 1980

THE MOVIE-Directed by John G. Avildsen, written by Larry Gelbart, released 1981

THE STORY-Round in stature and square in disposition, Earl Klease is a middle-aged, middle-class Everyman. He lives the comfy cul-de-sac life, and besides the odd hallucination, complications are prosaic. Until Harry and Ramona move in next door.

MIND THE GAP-Early 1980s suburban warfare meant questionable fashion and forgivable hair (oh how the decade took a turn!). Take sides! Are you infuriated by the new couple, rude and lewd? Or are you flustered by the staid, repressed normie with a wicked persecution complex? I'm Team Earl. Pompous disapproval of behavior deemed improper is one thing. The desire to live free from presumptuous busybodies is quite another. 

Over twenty-four hours, Dud vs. Stud plays out as an assortment of misdemeanors, with a felony or two for flavor. Earl's descent into madness as he tries to convince his family that the new neighbors are overbearing swine is glorious to behold, and his victory (when his wife and daughter admit, yes, Harry and Ramona are maddening shit-sacks masquerading as charming eccentrics) is a splendidly Pyrrhic one.

Neighbors is a jarring, nervous read. Thomas Berger drops a huge clue early on as to his tale's true texture. Earl is "gifted" with a peculiar optical abnormality, wherein objects distort. This is not a constant, or even frequent, occurrence, and Earl is reconciled to these intermittent aberrations. In fact, he's confident he's never been fooled by one. But is that really the case? (You'll be stunned to learn the movie makes not even a coy reference to said abnormality.) 

The bizarre events take place alongside even more bizarre dialogue, a verbal variety of East Coast puffery the film thankfully discards of. Anyone doubting Berger's work as a satire need only read: "Your principles are quite as good as most, and your methods may be eccentric, but they are always founded in rectitude."

Director of Rocky, producers of Jaws, Jake and Elwood...when a movie of such pedigree fails, its fate was usually sealed from day one of filming. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd switched roles before shooting commenced, much to the chagrin of director Avildsen (a man neither respected). They incurred the wrath of Larry Gelbart for taking his script out on a date to the woodshed. Audiences weren't pleased either, expecting buffoon Belushi/deadpan Dan, and Neighbors moved out of theaters before the last box was unpacked. 

The scenes with Tim Kazurinsky and Tino Insana as the crusty, musty father/son servicemen steal the show. Petty theft, yes, but laughter in this movie is rare as a hundredth birthday. Cathy Moriarty went from Raging Bull to this, holy shit. 

"Holiday In Cambodia" appears on the soundtrack, a concession to Belushi's wishes. "Staying Alive" pops up later, a song later parodied fifteen years later in an episode of The Simpsons titled "Two Bad Neighbors." You say it's a coincidence, but I don't believe you. Fuck it, let's have some wine and Chinese food. Unless you'd rather listen to Bill Conti's score. Children will appreciate it, but adults should keep a cup of ginger tea nearby.

BETTER IN YOUR HEAD-Neighbors the book is fabulously overwritten. Neighbors the movie is tragically overbaked. I wonder if any adaptation could've done justice to the coarse genius of the source material. Without the main character's superbly apeshit inner monologue driving the narrative, an engrossing, profoundly unhinged existentialist journey became just another imbecilic flick.