Setting aside the drinking games that potentially raise eyebrows, Blockers is an outrageous adolescent-centered film that also provides screen time to the adults forming a film that – while being at times overburdened – is fresh and indeed long overdue in the genre.
Porky’s, Teen Sex Comedies and American Pie have been delving deep into the fantasies of horny high school dudes attempting to get rid of their v-plates for ages, but strangely no one has yet made such a film about such obsession from a female point of view. At least not with the honest and funny Blockers. The screenwriter for lesbians, Kay Cannon, made her feature film debut in this film and handles this task very well. It attempts to tell a story of three rather strict parents who try to stop their daughters from losing their virginity within one night.
Its most likely and closest kin with regards to spirit is probably Easy A, which probed on the dynamics of female sexuality as a site of violence – both from perpetrators and social aspiring – but in Blockers, the act of losing it is treated with the matter-of-factness it deserves; for some people it’s an event, for the others it’s something much less important, and more and more it’s just something that you do because you want to do it.
These three perspectives include idealist Julie (Kathryn Newton, who was previously seen in Big Little Lies and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) who enjoys cheap losers romance with her high school sweetheart which she wishes to consummate on prom night or never- which is reasonable; nerdy Sam (Gideon Adlon, daughter of Better Things creator Pamela Adlon), who is a true ring’s nut and is questioning whether she is really a lesbian rather than just straight only to try playing with boys; and sporty Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan ) who rather rudely selects what I thought to be the only attractive young male at the cafeteria after Julie spills the announced operations which Well why not? Julie’s promiscuous mother Lisa (Leslie Mann in this case is on fire, as always) Sam’s father hunter (Ike Barinholtz) and Kayla’s absentminded skit misogynist father Mitchell (Cena) know their daughters are about to cross over to eternity thanks to suggestive emojis left on Julie’s computer. (Here comes Hunter’s wild card, as he is in the loop on all Sam’s caused desires and simply wants to ensure that Sam enjoys her night, and at times he actively participates in derailing Lisa and Mitchell’s impetus.)
An exceedingly positive aspect is the actual rottenness of Lisa and Mitchell’s point of view – ironically in the scene where Marcie (Sarayu Blue), one of Mitchell’s wives, scolds them for being double-standard sexist, that is in fact very preachy, as the rest of the script does a much better job on showing without telling how these teenagers are empowered, capable and grounded, which is quite a feat considering this is a teenager film. In fact, there are no objectification or a comic overemphasis on the guys or boys which is also a refreshing twist from this cliched teen movie – these children are self prospective enough to know what it is they need (or what they think they need) and very funny madam about saying so. Although the film goes on to take up the challenge of combating the regressionist view that there is always a distinction between how boys and girls approaches and executes sex, this is more than how melee parents can err by tryin only to examine the core theme of the story – teenage fears and other issues that accompany this stage of development and parental concerns about hinsights will make some sputum blockers too late to engage with.
Blockers has this strange twist in that the parents embark on a crazier debauchery as compared to their daughters during the mission, and it does not hurt that a huge number of the film’s funniest moments involve Mann, Barinholtz, and Cena simply being funny together and going off a script – Mann most of all executes a brilliant instance of physical comedy which brought the house down at SXSW’s opening film, while Cena’s unorthodox approach to his aggressive marshmallow routine produces some rather funny gags other than the butt thrusting scene. The only problem with this, and there’s always one with almost all films in this genre, is the fact that it suddenly becomes too obvious that every single set piece needs to be followed by a single set piece that is even more bonkers than the first – I have not laughed so much at a film in ages but there is a limit and somewhere in the middle of the film and the last act I noticed that Lisa, Mitchell and Hunter’s pursuit of their goal was well bordering on parody – which might come as a result of too many writers: Brian Kehoe, Jim Kehoe, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
The teenagers remain just as interesting as the parents, with Viswanathan winning on account of some impressive one-liners delivered pitch-perfect which is a pun avoided in this circumstance, but still a good number of those on the screen are entertaining to spend two hours with and that is one of the difficult tasks for all the most comedies.
The Verdict
Though Blockers explores somewhat familiar areas with respect to the sex pact excursions and, from time to time, gets a bit too tangled in the madness, a new outlook and a good cast makes this a coming of age comedy that is quite different from the rest of the crowd, hopefully allowing for many more comedies that are not all about the “battle of the sexes” humor.
Watch free movies on Fmovies
