‘Two Neighbours’ review: Opposing worlds collide in confident, spiky US debut

Dir: Ondine Vinao. UK/US. 2025. 108mins.

Two Neighbours is a heady cocktail of a debut feature. Strong flavours of Saltburn are mixed with a hefty measure of The Substance, a kick of premium Ruben Östlund satire and topped off with a twist of Paolo Sorrentino-style excess. An immensely confident, spiky assault on a world of mindless privilege and vaulting ambition, it should find a welcome among adventurous arthouse audiences following a world premiere in competition at Edinburgh.

Vinao shows an impressive technical command of the medium

Best known for her four-hour video installation Holy Fools (2019), Vinao and co-writer Jordan Johnson have adapted Aesop’s fable Avaricious And Envious into a sardonic satire contrasting the social position and aspirations of two young women. Stacy (Chloe Cherry) is a spoilt socialite, all fake smiles, glossy red lips and glassy eyes. Her current project is to launch a body positive underwear range called Stacy’s Undies. Cherry nails the pouty, petulant nature of her character’s vapidity. In contrast, Becky (Anya Chalotra) is a struggling writer made insecure by her lack of success.

Production designer Lili Lea Abraham does a fine job of visually defining their individual worlds. Stacy wafts around a vast family estate in Bedford, New York, lounging in a bedroom dominated by a four-poster bed and filled with feathers, flowers and frocks in various shades of pink and purple. She seems to be living in a John Singer Sargent painting. Becky shares a dingy, roach-infested flat under Brooklyn Bridge, which is a riot of soft furnishings, artworks and discarded philosophy books.

Stacy’s father Peterson (William Hope) is hosting a party at his estate to mark the 50th anniversary of his company and launch a new Grant-Your-Wish foundation. Becky’s father (Joseph Millson) is invited and she accompanies him, bringing the two young women under the same roof. The party becomes a battleground, populated by wolves and sheep where status is bestowed by whether you are invited to mingle with the in-crowd or ignored. Becky is frequently pushed to the sidelines, abandoned or left to her own devices. The discovery she has been collaborating with a very famous writer lends her an element of fame by association.

Jim Williams’ score, with its use of harpsichord, lends a certain majesty to the madness that unfolds, and there is a clever use of Marlene Dietrich’s ’Where Have All The Flowers Gone’ on the soundtrack. The perfectly manicured lawns on which sheep graze adds to the Sorrentino-like opulence

Dividing the story into six chapters (’Second Place’, ‘As Usual’, ’Entirely Predictable But Still Heartbreaking’, etc), Vinao shows an impressive technical command of the medium. The roving camera conveys the cavernous feel of the country mansion, the lighting suggests all the dark corners in which close encounters might occur, and the balance of slow-motion partying and cross-cutting between different characters starts to build the frantic nature of the event.

Time spent with Stacy’s troubled brother Sebastian (Jake Simmance) and her smug, peroxide-blonde trophy boyfriend Chadwick (Taz Skylar) broadens the picture of this social milieu but leaves the feeling there may be a little too much going on. And that’s before we meet the mysterious Genie (an underused Ralph Ineson), who can make wishes come true.

Vinao seems to lose track of some of the story strands, and there is a lack of clarity in places, but she ultimately returns the focus to the rivalry and resentment between Stacy and Becky. Their joint audience with the Genie underlines brutally the fact you should always be careful what you wish for.