Neighbors Film Analysis

Neighbors premiered on May 08, 2014 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Houston, Texas. SXSW is a yearly held multi-media festival where musicians and independent filmmakers come and showcase their talents. According to Rotten Tomatoes, Neighbors made it as number 17 out of the 50 top summer blockbusters of 2014 which is based on ratings. Everyone involved in the filmmaking process, such as directors, producers and writers are all author (noun) and they make sure their film has a clear message presented, that way they can control the way their audience thinks and acts through the use of technical, symbolic codes and signs. In this film, SCWAMP is reinforced throughout. With the help of normative political economy, producers are able to produce the film, reinforced SCWAMP and gain back a profit. Meaning, this film breathes life and exploits problematic gender,race, agistic and body politics to appeal to a mainstream audience-- in this particular case, this audience being white heteronormative males. Universal and New Line Cinema (whose parent organization is Warner Brothers) fought over the then untitled film. Universal won and fully financed the production of the film and it was produced by the young independent production company Good Universe. However, Universal only gave them half the budget that they had originally expected to receive. They were given $18 million dollars to complete the film and 38 days to complete the film. Before the filming had begun, the screenwriters struggled to develop the characters and their relationships because of the previous film Old School (2003), which deals with older men reliving their fraternity past. Once the film was complete, it was screened at SXSW as a work in progress and the next day it was released in the United States. During the film’s opening weekend it made over $49 million dollars and overtime it had grossed $269 million (BoxOfficeMojo). It instantly received positive reviews and Nick Stoller co-director alongside Seth Rogan stated, “It’s a hyper-marketable idea… Just look at the poster; you don’t have to read to understand what’s happening. It’s easy, and people like easy.” (Cheney). The poster is simple, yet effective, it is composed of Rogen with a baby on him and Efron holding a red solo cup, with the bold letterings on top that says: “Family vs. Frat.” A person is admittedly attracted to see what this whole versus thing is about. Making a film about a family next to a fraternity and the constant battle between them is an easy way to make a profit quick, especially if they have the diverse group of mainstream actors they had: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Lisa Kudrow and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. For instance, Rogan is at his prime in the mainstream comedy industry and is able to bring his fans in. Efron and Franco are both …show more content…
Automatically, Mac’s physique is shown and it is not the ideal body shape that most people are attracted to that Hollywood tend to idolized. However, fast forward a few minutes later Teddy showed up and he has muscles and a well tanned body. Just within the first five minutes, able bodiness is reinforced in the SCWAMP ideology. Even though Mac does not have the ideal body physique, the film is reinforcing the idea that it is okay. Corporations and institutions, with the help of texts like moveies, embedded into people’s mind that once a male has gotten married and had children they are allowed to lose their toned bodies. There is even a cultural conversation about males bodies and the “dad bod”. The dad bod is the justification for men to be okay that they do not have the standard six pack, toned muscle body. However, this is a use of prescriptive ideology, because some men are trying to include themselves in the “this is my body” movement that has been started by women (Hentges). Which is an another point that is made in the film of women must make sure that their bodies are in “perfect” shape even if they had children and that idea is reinforced through Kelly. Throughout the film she was constantly wearing clothes even while she was having sex with Mac. Women are taught to hide their bodies, unless it fits in the social norms of what is acceptable figure for their