Interactions with our neighbors are a huge part of our daily lives. Everyone has those neighbors they adore and those neighbors that they cannot wait to forget. Nicholas Stoller‘s film "Neighbors," which stars Seth Rogan, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne, tells the story of dealing with the latter set of neighbors.

Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Byrne) Radner have recently moved into a new neighborhood with their newborn baby. Life as parents is not working out too great for them as they feel that they are losing their freedom and sense of who they are as individuals. But that problem becomes even greater when their duty as parents is threatened by a fraternity moving in next door. Led by President Teddy Sanders (Efron), this new frat is intent on making the organization's history books at whatever cost. The Radners wind up in a battle with Sanders for control over their respective lives.

The film is exactly what you would expect from anything including Efron. It is raunchy, hilarious and even charming. You will get an amazing battle between Efron and Rogen in which they do Batman impersonations from different eras. You will see some incredible Robert DeNiro impersonations. You will witness a rather unique use of airbags as well as a rather grotesque but comic idea for a fundraiser. But make no mistake about the film's overall quality and aim. While the narrative is dominated by the silly antics that the two sides engage in to defeat one another, at its core it is a movie about growing up and letting childhood and adolescence go.

Mac and Kelly yearn to feel young again in the midst of taking care of their newborn Stella and in their initial confrontation with the fraternity they try to recapture their youth. They walk over to the house wearing the attire they probably wore when they were teens and try to utilize ridiculous mannerisms to sell this image. Later on, they actually enter the house to attempt to appease the fraternity. As the narrative reveals, their attempts at youth seem to be the manifestation of their subconscious yearning for that part of the lives they are simply not ready to let go of. But this theme does not only manifest itself in the two grownups.

Efron's Teddy is arguably the heart of the story despite being its main antagonist. He is admittedly mediocre in every possible way except on a superficial level. He is a good looking guy with an attractive girlfriend who is also the life of the party. But his grades are terrible and his aspirations at actually living and thriving in the real world are non-existent at best. But he doesn't care. He loves to party it up and his one seeming goal in life is to land on the "Wall of Fame" that the fraternity has to commemorate past inventions. Early on in the film, Teddy narrates how his frat actually created the toga party and beer pong; later in the story, Teddy has to realize the sad truth -- it is all a fraud.

Teddy's character, and by extension Mac and Kelly's, are juxtaposed with the character of Pete (Dave Franco) who is Teddy's best friend and the vice president of the fraternity. Initially, he seems to be another one of Teddy's henchman, but as the story develops he actually asserts himself as a more mature individual who realizes that life is far more than going to a party. Unlike his best friend, he sees through the façade of the fraternities and knows that there is far more to life than that. The narrative resolution of all the main arcs is quite effective.

If there is any major gripe about the film it is the often emphatic use of product placement. At times, the filmmakers use it to comic effect. Such is the case with one of the end sequences in which Teddy appears as an Abercrombie model and gets to show off his six-pack. Rogen's Mac pokes fun at the whole scheme but you have to wonder what the actual commercial is for: Abercrombie or Efron's six-pack? However, there are moments where the product placement does not work as well. At one point, Teddy heads to a job fair and is approached by a representative of AT&T. While the narrative function is to show how Teddy lacks initiative, the sequence lasts a few minutes and is clearly a commercial for the company. Other more innovative uses include the iPad and a 3-D printer among other things.

The performances are all strong with Efron stealing all of his scenes. He is imposing and menacing, but he does manage to elicit sympathy in key moments of the film. Efron plays the same character he portrays in virtually every movie he is in, but his appearance here is no less fun for it. If anything, his chemistry with Byrne and Efron is terrific. Byrne gets to showcase some of her comic wit to solid effect. Franco seems more grounded in his performance, despite having his moments of wildness.

"Neighbors" is everything you would want out of a summer movie. While admittedly unrealistic in some of its wilder antics, the film manages to blend hilarity and entertainment with some emotional depth and unique characters. The performances, particularly that of Efron, are top-notch in every respect.