Condescending raunch-com
|||BAD MOMS
DIRECTOR: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore
CAST: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Christina Applegate
CLASSIFICATION: 13 D L N
RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes
RATING: 2 stars (out of 5)
BY Lara de Matos
Parenting in the modern era has become something akin to psychological warfare – mostly between mothers. Particularly if your child swims in the social shark-infested waters of private schooling.
Failing to adhere to the unspoken rules of the moneyed clique (which ranges from ensuring your child wears the "right” clothes – read designer wear – provides Cake Boss-style confectionery at their class birthday party, or presenting a project that looks as though it was sculpted by the hand of Auguste Rodin himself), could have serious repercussions on your child and their future standing within the establishment.
And should you as a woman deign to have a job (much less a full-time one) that may well prevent you from participating in even the most mundane of school events, you may as well stick an “O” on your back for “outcast”. Never mind that your wee mite has yet to reach the 5-year-mark or that, unlike the twin-set wearing Mommy Brigade, you don’t have a pinstriped-suited hubby who works all hours in a high-paying profession, so you don’t have to. Nor do you have the luxury of full-time domestic workers, live-in nannies or au pairs to help ease the pressure of daily drop-offs, pick-ups, lunch packs, cooking, cleaning, bathing and (hopefully) a bit of bonding time before you send your little one off to bed, and the whole cycle begins again in a few short hours.
All of which is to say, I feel Amy Mitchell’s pain. Throw in a job where she’s overworked and underappreciated, along with a deadbeat baby daddy, and it’s little wonder Mamma Mitchell (Kunis) loses the plot and reverts to a devil-may-care-student-style approach to life – and mothering.
Helping her fly her freak flag are fellow parenting pariahs, sex-crazed single mom, Carla (Hahn), and sweet, but desperately insecure bedraggled mother-of-four, Kiki (Bell).The newfound BFF’s antics don’t go unnoticed, however, not least when Amy decides to spread her “let’s all be bad moms” philosophy by running for president of the PTA – an audacious move that positions her directly in Mommy Queen Bee, Gwendolyn’s (Applegate) crosshairs.
Cue contrived Mean Girls for 30-something women script, gratuitous f-bombs, a saturation of puerile spaghetti-on-face, drinking-straight-out-the-bottle-in-a-store, how-to-handle-an-uncircumcised-penis gags (all set to a slow-play sorority type soundtrack) and that, in a nutshell, is the premise of the whole movie. It’s a garden-variety tale as told from the perspective of men who’ve likely never experienced the very reality they so blithely belittle – and it shows.
Directors Lucas and Moore also donned the hats of writers. That this is the same team responsible for subjecting us to the equally infantile (though bizarrely, widely successful) The Hangover, explains the complete lack of meaningful insight into the very real pressures of modern motherhood. Kunis is competent in her lead role, but unremarkable, and rather too well put together for someone supposedly over-the-edge; Bell and her celebrated comedic skills are woefully under-utilised; Applegate is passable, albeit predictable, in her turn as the stereotypical stay-at-home-mom suburban snob, while Jada Pinkett-Smith and Annie Mumolo contribute absolutely nothing in their turns as Gwen’s stereotypical sidekicks.
The film’s only saving grace is Hahn. Mostly relegated to background roles before, this could be the project that finally makes her a household name. Shameless and sassy in all her too-tight leopard print, bright lipsticked glory, her character provides the only genuinely humorous moments. As, too, does the feature’s rolling-credits sequence with all the actresses’ real-life mothers. All that being said though, it’s a movie that’s still likely to attract a huge layman’s market. So while it won’t be winning any Oscars and it is far removed from the realm of originality, if it’s a hackneyed girls’-night-out laugh you’re looking for, Bad Moms is just the ticket.
If you liked The Hangover or Bridesmaids, this will be to your taste.