Film Review - Good Neighbours

Living in Montreal can be challenging, especially when you move into your first apartment building. You will never be able to know what kind of people live right next to you. Do you knock on every door to introduce yourself? Probably not. Therefore, you grin and bear the feeling that someone who you live next to could be plotting your demise.

Good Neighbours is based on the novel “Chère Voisine” by Christine Brouillet, and Jacob Teirny, who directed Good Neighbours, has been itching to adapt it for a while now. It is a crime thriller with elements of film noire.

The film is set in 1995 in Montreal, around the same time as the Referendum. Victor (Jay Baruchel) arrives from Ottawa and has moved into the apartment building with our other two protagonists, Louise (Emily Hampshire), and Spencer (Scott Speedman). He is awkward, annoying and likes to have many conversations at the same time. The plot revolves around the N.D.G. killer, who chokes and rapes women. Louise becomes obsessed with these murders and the mysterious energy in the film is magnified. Who do we think is the closest neighbour to being normal? Why is Spencer always smiling like a creepshow? The audience starts to unfold the mystery of finding out who the killer is, and the director Tierny, takes us on a slow, bizarre and unusual pace.

The characters are really what made this film memorable. They are strange, disturbing and funny; you really don’t want to take your eyes off of them. The audience reacted very loudly when they found out what each character was like. Spencer, being in a wheelchair from a car accident leaves him bitter, very sarcastic and dry; Louise loves alcohol and really loves felines; and Victor is an obsessive man who is kind of lonely.

I loved being able to recognize Montreal and N.D.G. on the screen with my fellow Montrealers. The camera movements were not your typical, everyday Hollywood mainstream camera movements; some shots were very original and caught my eye. The camera gets really up close and personal with the characters, which helps with their development.

All in all, this film is an entertaining one, and you should go see it and support local filmmaking. Montreal is constantly being recognize for up and coming films and filmmakers, and as a person who lives in this wonderful city, you are obliged to do your part and support your own freaky, weird neighbours.

3 out of 5 stars

-Andrea Boulet