One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. The end.
Oh, you want me to elaborate? (No? Well, I’m going to anyway.) This turd of a movie stars Melissa McCarthy (it was also co-written with her husband, who also directed the movie) as a mousy mother whose husband files for divorce right after they drop their daughter off for her senior year of college. McCarthy then talks in a weird high pitched old lady voice non-stop for the next 90 minutes. Other characters are allowed to speak in those few moments where she has had to stop to take a breath. It’s a relentless unfunny raining blows down upon the senses. Her voice and this movie bludgeons the ears. With teeth gnashed, and the desire to live rended, viewers are left wondering where things have gone so terribly wrong with their life. This film is less insulting bad comedy and more an introspection into the horrors humans will commit upon their fellow man.
After the divorce McCarthy decides to go back to school to finish the senior year she dropped out of 20 years ago to have her daughter…the same school the daughter now attends. Can you say HIJINKS? (Yes, this is basically a poor person’s version of Back to School starring Rodney Dangerfield. Who is actually funny.)
There are other characters in this film whose roles are so trite and underdeveloped it’s no wonder most of the lines are delivered in complete monotone. The daughter is sad about the divorce….I think? She’s not happy that her mom is hanging around her sorority….I guess? Then she is happy for her mom….maybe? It’s really hard to tell. The actress looked the same emoting I had while while watching the movie: Stone faced.
Somehow Gillian Jacobs plays a student in the film. They even half-heartedly tried to explain her age by saying she was in a coma for 8 years. That’s about half of what it should have been. She’s supposed to be a weird but loyal social outcast who doesn’t take grief, but plays the role even more stoically than the daughter. I’m assuming this character becomes a serial killer later.
Maya Rudolph plays McCarthy’s sassy best friend who lives vicariously through her. She somehow is even more over the top, but I’m assuming she felt the need to outburst as much as possible while given the opportunity.
You have your classic attractive, bitchy sorority type villains in the film as well. It’s almost as if they were thrown in as an obligation. They are no threat to anyone, don’t advance the plot at all, and as far as I can tell were put in there only because movies about college always have bitchy sorority girls in it at some point.
The most insulting scene in the movie is that we were supposed to believe this character is terrified of public speaking when giving an oral mid-term presentation. She literally screeches at people the entire film. There’s no way this would be a worry. She would probably take the entire class period, and go into the next one. There’s no way she wouldn’t take every available second. She is definitely the type of adult student who would constantly raise their hand to try and counter the professor, and preface everything with “In my role as a mother…”
The second most insulting scene is when they trash the reception area of her ex-husband’s wedding. It was odd and out of place even for this steaming heap of a film, and I’m pretty sure in real life charges would have been filed, and the police called. Her daughter is sad and then not sad about this very quickly and, umm…I’m running out of adjectives for stoic.
Anyway, spoiler alert if you’ve made it this far: Everything turns out fine. She does not attempt a triple lindy.
I’m awarding this film a skull for every laugh I had that was over a light exhalation of air: ZERO.
