“We’re graduating. In two weeks, none of this shit’s gonna matter.”

One frat boy says this to another in the new college comedy Neighbors. It’s about as close as the upbeat, raunchy film comes to a poignant moment, and it’s a striking line that nails the film’s surprisingly adult theme on the head. Neighbors is ultimately a film about its characters fear of the future, and the lengths they’ll go to in order to stay in the past for just a little longer.

The film’s most immediately sympathetic characters are new parents Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne). At the start of the film, things are going pretty well on the surface. They’re happily married, they have an adorable baby girl, and they just bought a new house in a safe, suburban neighborhood.

But they’re still somewhat rooted in the days of their youth. Kelly is terribly bored by the stay-at-home mom life, Mac is still sneaking joints at work, and, out of sheer boredom, they even attempt to go to a rave with their baby in tow.

And they of course don’t want to seem like lame old people when a fraternity moves in next door to them. At the same time, they and their baby need sleep. The frat’s leaders, Teddy and Pete (Zac Efron and Dave Franco) seem nice enough, until Mac’s late-night calls to Teddy to turn down the music go unanswered. They have no choice but to call the cops. A few increasingly more malicious pranks ensue and soon things escalate into an all out war between the young and the old.

The film’s premise is rife with comedic potential and wholeheartedly delivers on it with an infectious energy. Writing and directing partners Rogen and Evan Goldberg take the backseat as producers this time around, handing the wheel over to screenwriters Andrew J. Cohen and Brenden O’Brien and director Nicholas Stoller, but the film still features plenty of the improvisational raunch seen in films like Superbad and This is the End. Rogen and Efron once again prove their strong comedic presences, and Byrne and Franco manage to match their level effortlessly.

The heart of the film is alluded to in the first 45 minutes, but really comes into the foreground in the back half of the film, when the characters begin to realize that maybe the future isn’t such a bad thing after all.

It’s a solid message that is integrated perfectly into the comedy and could almost be interpreted as Rogen giving up his stoner persona and moving onto more mature things. Now, if we read the synopses of his next few films we will quickly learn that is definitely NOT the case, but it’s still a nice thought.

The future is a scary place. At the time of this writing, I am two weeks from graduating high school, and I’m basically paralyzed. It’s a tough thing not knowing what’s ahead, but Neighbors gladly faces that fear, laughing all the while.