Neighbors might just have my favorite performance from Zack Efron, which I believe has a lot to do with Seth Rogen’s influence. Efron takes a page from Rogen’s comedy book by utilizing improvisation, quick-paced humor, and affectionate satire towards his real life self; an unexpected direction for him to take, yet works surprisingly well as Efron’s pretty funny in the film (which I honestly didn't expect from the misleading trailers). In fact the good majority of Neighbors’ performances bring hilarity, with some of the highlights being Seth Rogen (whose humor never fails to crack me up), Rose Byrne (another unexpected delight) and Dave Franco (who gives one of his better comedic performances). Even the side characters such as Jerrod Carmichael as Garf and Lisa Kudrow as the Dean can steal the spotlight when on screen, a lot of which is due to the great chemistry between cast members; in particular Rogen and Byrne who work off one another with perfect naturalness, as if they've been working together for years.
There’s also an understanding in Neighbors of what it’s like to grow up and move on from your younger and crazier years. Interestingly enough, Neighbors looks at multiple viewpoints rather than simply one; from the young couple just entering parenthood, unsure of how it will affect their lives, to the senior fraternity members close to leaving college into a grown up reality unknown to them. For such a raunchy comedy, Neighbors handles both situations with surprising grace and understanding; leaving on a positive message that while there’ll be struggles and changes, things will somehow work out and life can still be fun. Those are some good morals for an R-rated comedy, but then again that’s how many Seth Rogen’s films are; filled with hilariously crude and vulgar entertainment yet always leaving on a positive message.
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