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'sMelissa 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.

unspecified

Movie Review

Clooney and Pitt elevate the stylish yet imperfect new movie Wolfs

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Brad Pitt and George Clooney in Wolfs.

Thanks to the Ocean’s trilogy, the duo of George Clooney and Brad Pitt has become iconic both on- and off-screen. After a 16-year break, they're together again, teaming up in the charming new Apple TV+ comedy thriller Wolfs.

The film, written and directed by Jon Watts, features both actors playing professional fixers with no names, people who excel in getting high-powered people out of sticky situations. They’re both called into action when the movie opens on Margaret (Amy Ryan), a district attorney, freaking out when a younger man (Austin Abrams) with whom she was having a one-night-stand has a seemingly-fatal accident in her hotel room.

Instead of being partners, though, the two men are competitors (i.e. each one is a lone wolf), requested by different people to clean up the same mess. Though antagonistic toward each other, the two initially have no problem completing the task at hand until a series of discoveries sends them on a mission around the city, one that has them utilizing their complete sets of skills.

Both actors are significantly grayer than they were in the Ocean’s trilogy (although Pitt oddly pairs a salt-and-pepper goatee with frosted tips in his hair), but their chemistry remains as fun as ever. For much of its running time, the film has the two sniping at each other, with both characters believing they are the better man for the job. The banter, and the sharp way in which the actors deliver it, is the best part of the movie.

The story of the film is more hit-and-miss, starting out strong and fading over time. Not knowing the two fixers’ names or who assigned them to do the job makes certain parts of the storytelling unknowable. The discoveries they make along the way expand both the scope of the film and the number of characters involved, making the plot even more complex than it needed to be.

Still, the film remains interesting because of the stylish way in which Watts shoots it, showcasing locations in New York that highlight both its glitz and griminess. He turns the movie into a sort of action thriller in the second half, and even if the details are sketchy, the individual scenes work well, usually because of the charm of Clooney and Pitt.

Both actors lean heavily into their established movie personas, with Clooney the smooth and suave (if occasionally befuddled) one, and Pitt the sexy, self-assured one. Their performances elevate the film as a whole and their fellow actors, even if Ryan, Abrams, and Poorna Jagannathan (in a brief but memorable role) are more than capable of standing on their own abilities.

Wolfs doesn’t reach the highs of, say, Ocean’s Eleven, but it’s a welcome reunion for Clooney and Pitt that only solidifies their status as a great movie pairing. The two of them working off one another remains a delight, even if the story they’re telling is not quite as compelling.

---

Wolfs is now streaming on Apple TV+.

movies film