A few names stand out during the opening credits for \u201cDestroy All Neighbors,\u201d a neurotic horror-comedy about annoying neighbors and a self-described \u201cserial manslaughterer.\u201d There\u2019s Rich Zim, who animated the trippy opening credits sequence, which sends viewers barreling down a long, ever-mutating tunnel of ear wax, eyeballs, microchips, trees, etc. Then there\u2019s special make-up effects supervisor Gabriel Bartalos, whose credits include collaborations with cult-certified artists ranging from Matthew Barney to Frank Henenlotter. There are also the headlining stars, Jonah Ray Rodrigues (co-host of \u201cMystery Science Theater 3000\u201d) and Alex Winter (co-director of \u201cFreaked\u201d), who also co-produced \u201cDestroy All Neighbors.\u201d You might also notice casting director Charlene Lee, whose earlier credits include \u201cBeef\u201d and \u201cFargo,\u201d as well as a handful of noteworthy series that showcase their comedic stars, like \u201cReview\u201d and \u201cSherman\u2019s Showcase.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee and her team deserve recognition for helping assemble \u201cDestroy All Neighbors,\u201d a comedy that\u2019s less about the plot\u2014or surreal humor, practical effects, or even individual performers\u2014than its ensemble\u2019s sketch comedy camaraderie. You may not remember this movie beyond isolated quips and gestures, but those moments will stick in your mind given how much fun the on-camera performers seem to be having in each other\u2019s company. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s still a plot, albeit a familiar psychodrama about a creatively blocked artiste who accidentally goes on a spree. Will (Ray) can\u2019t seem to wrap up his long (three years) gestating progressive prog rock (or \u201cprog squared\u201d) album. His girlfriend Emily (Kiran Deol) supports him anyway. Then a noisy stranger moves into the apartment next door after their old neighbor Alec (Pete Ploszek) finally sells his script. That new neighbor blasts EDM club music at odd hours of the night and looks like a cross between a bridge troll and a roadie thanks to his Popeye forearms, prominent tattoos, and newsboy cap. This is Vlad (Winter), a chummy, heavily accented Eastern-European(?) who likes saying \u201cbro\u201d a lot and also enjoys pushing Will\u2019s buttons. <\/p>\n
Will\u2019s story only really begins after he unintentionally murders Vlad. Before that happens, Will gets into some light shenanigans as a sound mixer for Scotty (Thomas Lennon), a spineless recording studio guy who does anything to please Caleb Bang Jansen (Ryan Kattner), a tantrum-throwing musician who does a lot of drugs. Will also occasionally bumps into Auggie (Christian Calloway), a bedraggled-looking homeless guy who won\u2019t stop bugging Will for a free croissant. Seriously, the plot\u2019s not the priority here. <\/p>\n
What matters more depends on your taste in hangout comedies, especially if you already like the Masada-high concepts behind certain jokes, like the running gag where Scotty tells us what he thinks rock \u2018n roll is all about (he\u2019s always wrong, of course). Or whenever \u201cSwig\u201d Anderson (Jon Daly), former prog-rocker turned online music guru, gives free advice to listeners, like Will, while sharing way too much personal information, including asides about alimony, his ex-partners, and oh yeah, getting rid of human remains. These jokes have amusing flourishes throughout but are usually not strong enough to carry whole scenes. That\u2019s kind of a problem in a plot-light movie, which careens from scene to scene of a passive Will figuring out how chaotic his life can get after he (tentatively) decides to stand up for himself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few names stand out during the opening credits for \u201cDestroy All Neighbors,\u201d a neurotic horror-comedy about annoying neighbors and a self-described \u201cserial manslaughterer.\u201d There\u2019s Rich Zim, who animated the trippy opening credits sequence, which sends viewers barreling down a long, ever-mutating tunnel of ear wax, eyeballs, microchips, trees, etc. Then there\u2019s special make-up effects …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[33,48],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horror-movies","tag-comedy","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}