A Three Year Wait
Why women must see Bridesmaids: If it doesn't kill, there's no hope for funnygirls
What are you doing this weekend? If you're like me, plans include hitting a food truck festival, sitting by the pool, a game of poker and a dinner party where everyone is required to bring a crazy version of macaroni and cheese. (OK, maybe the last one just pertains to me and my weird friends.)
But I know that no matter how busy I am, I have to go see Bridesmaids.
This is hardly a chore. I should say that I really want to see Bridesmaids, which stars Kristen Wiig and a bunch of other women who are funny on television, like Maya Rudolph, The Office's Ellie Kemper, Wendi McLendon-Covey of Reno 911!, and Mike & Molly's Melissa McCarthy. (If Mike & Molly doesn't convince you that McCarthy has raunchy girl humor down, remember her cousin is Jenny McCarthy, who kinda invented it.)
It's just that queuing up to see a movie on opening night has never been my thing (um, unless said movie stars Johnny Depp). Isn't the point of movies that you can see them when you want to see them, like on slow Wednesday nights and rainy Sundays? Or, you know, when they come out on DVD?
It's me and my kind who like good movies but are not in any hurry to see them that have created the Transformers 2 cinema universe we live in. It's like the film industry is solely devoted to the tastes and humor of 16-year-old boys, the only consumers that will reliably show up en masse on opening weekend.
Bridesmaids, as a comedy about women that doesn't just revolve around relationships (aside from, you know, the wedding they are all in) is the cinematic equivalent of a while elephant. Sure, there was Baby Mama, but that came out over three years ago.
To put that in perspective, when Baby Mama came out, the unemployment rate was 5.1 percent, Michael Jackson was still alive and there was only one set of Real Housewives. Nicolas Cage has released nine movies since then. NINE. That's just wrong.
When the Bridesmaids trailer came out, I was nervous, because it feels like the fate of women in big-budget comedies is in her shriveled little hands. Wiig is funny on Saturday Night Live, but she's generally known for quirky, sometimes one-note characters. (Even when the note is really, really funny, like her half of the Two A-holes sketches.) I didn't know if she could write and carry a two-hour movie.
So I'm excited and relieved that the reviews are almost universally good — Bridesmaids has a Rotten Tomatoes "fresh" rating of 91 percent and there are raves about how the ensemble really shines. That rating's up there with classic comedies like Best in Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, well above great movies like The Hangover (79 percent fresh) and The Wedding Crashers (75 percent). Maybe that can get Bridesmaids the kind of buzz that will draw in even the teenage boys who have to wait two more weeks for The Hangover Part II.
I know I can't complain about a lack of smart, funny movies for and about women if I'm not going to put my money where my mouth is. So look for me as I wait in line, dodge crowds of high schoolers and attempt to smuggle a three-course meal into the movie theater this weekend.
This one's for you, Wiig.
