Bad Moms

Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Christina Applegate, Jada Pinkett Smith, Annie Mumolo, Jay Hernandez, J.J. Watt, Martha Stewart
Directed by: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Three overwhelmed moms (Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell) rebel against the impossible expectations placed upon them and begin doing what they want, even if that makes them "bad moms".

Review:

Tim: I liked the idea of Bad Moms more than I enjoyed the film itself. In our culture, mothers are held up as the nurturers, as the ones who always do what needs to be done, who sacrifice everything for their children. So, I loved the idea of flipping that narrative on its head and presenting mothers who defy those cultural expectations. It's a terrific idea upon which to build a comedy. That great premise sets this film up for success. Unfortunately, the execution is somewhat lacking.

This just felt like a very uneven film to me. There's certainly humorous moments, but the movie can't string enough of them together to truly be effective. That's a big reason why this 1 hour, 40 minute movie feels longer. Now, I understand I'm not the primary audience. This movie is clearly aimed at the young mothers demographic. And it works hard for that audience, entertaining by allowing them to live vicariously through these characters. That's fine (and the box office receipts shows it worked), but the movie could have pandered less to that demographic and just been better, funnier. There's too many extremes in this movie. Christina Applegate and her henchwomen may definitely call to mind real-life people, but their characters are taken to the extreme. It's black and white and we needed some shades of grey. The movie tries to address this near the very end, but it's a bit too late. I wanted a more complex, more mature story. This movie routinely chose the easy way, instead of telling a more nuanced, believable story. It could have done that and still have been funny.

The cast was mostly good. I liked Mila Kunis in the lead role. I think she's struggled a bit to find her footing. I'm not sure that a career doing lightweight comedies like this is the ideal path for her, but she firmly puts a foot on that path here. She's identifiable enough to work in the lead role. I believe Kathryn Hahn is funny, but her character needed to be dialed back some. The fact that she's the "crazy" one was a little too on-the-nose. We get it. Her performance would have been better with a little more restraint. Kristen Bell is better, but her character was again a bit too one-dimensional. She's the "straight-laced" one. It's fine, but it was a bit predictable and played out. Still, one of the highlights of the film is seeing these three funny actresses interacting together.

The supporting cast added quite a bit to the film. While Applegate's character was too one-dimensional, she did a great job embracing the character. There's definitely people like that in real life and she was as believable as she could be given the script. Jada Pinkett Smith was fun to see and Jay Hernandez added a surprisingly strong smaller performance to the film. It was funny seeing J.J. Watt here- he's not a good actor, but he did better than I expected. Martha Stewart felt out of place, another example of this film pushing the boundaries of believability.

While I doubt anyone would claim Bad Moms is a great comedy, I'm willing to admit it's a decent one. It does elicit some laughs throughout the film. It offers a terrific escape for tired, overwhelmed-with-motherhood viewers. I do wish the quality of the film had been better, but I don't fault anyone for having favorable feelings towards this film.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Boss, 21 & Over, How to Be Single