Life of the Party

“Our daughter would love that,” my husband declared the instant it ended (only he used her name, of course).

“You’re right,” I agreed.

“She would be glued to the screen,” he said, “laughing the whole time.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “and then she would say, ‘Mom, this reminds me of me and you. We should go to college together.'”

Our daughter is nine, but Life of the Party is basically a Disney Channel movie for grown-ups (which, thinking about it now, is probably not a distinction most films strive for. In fact, I can’t think of a worse insult. But in this case, I mean it as a compliment, or an honest description, anyway). Think of everything that’s good about Disney Channel movies. Cute boys are always kind, adoring, and non-threatening. Parties are colorful and fun with catchy soundtracks that can be purchased separately. Friends are nice. Enemies are mean. Every girl is a princess. Debby Ryan is there for some reason.

This is the most non-R rated thing I’ve seen Melissa McCarthy do since Gilmore Girls. Despite the emotional trauma of the story’s first (and only) conflict, the whole thing is so fun and sweet and upbeat and inoffensive and funny and easy to watch. If Dr. Strange were to look ahead at all potential futures, I would be watching this movie again in every one of them. And that’s coming from somebody who doesn’t always love McCarthy’s humor.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Melissa McCarthy in general. She’s very pretty, extremely good at surprising us with bittersweet moments in comedies, and more committed to physical comedy than any other living performer (and anyone who doubts this has clearly never seen her host SNL. Imagine if Sideshow Bob were really getting hit in the face with all those rakes! Many times, I’ve watched her and thought, “I’m not sure this is making me laugh, but you’re winning me over, anyway, through sheer dedication to punishment.”)

But yeah, sometimes McCarthy’s style of humor gets a little too intense for me. Not here. Here her character is so…nice? That sounds like an insult, too, but, honestly her Deanna comes across as a genuinely kind and upbeat person who is a joy to be around. She’s sweet and lovely, and still very funny. And yet the movie is only PG-13. The humor is almost never crude. I can’t even remember any profanity. (I’m sure there is some. I notoriously fail to notice objectionable material in movies.)

But Life of the Party really does tend to evoke memories of Disney movies, for better or worse. There’s even one scene (involving Debby Ryan) that reminded me fleetingly of the original Parent Trap (you know the one starring Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills?) Seriously, this movie has a very non-era-specific Disney vibe. I kept expecting Dean Jones to show up. (In another decade, he could play the Chris Parnell character as the romantic lead.)  And the guy who played Beau on Good Luck Charlie actually was there.

The Good:
Life of the Party is funny. It goes for humor over realism, and since most of the jokes land, it’s a masterpiece of escapism.

Melissa McCarthy is funny and looks great. Her character is extremely sympathetic (almost too sympathetic, to be honest. Until some horrendously bad behavior by her late in the film, this was starting to seem like a hagiography (except for all the mild partying and PG-13 suggestions of sex). The big mystery of the film is why anyone would divorce Deanna in such a cruel and hurtful fashion. And that’s one thing I love about the movie, actually. You sit there thinking, “Okay, this is just how the movie works. The protagonist is nice, and it’s easy to pick out the antagonists because they’re mean to her for no reason. It’s not realistic, but it’s easy to watch.”

But then you think, “It’s not realistic? Really? It’s not? How many middle aged women have been completely blindsided when their husbands left them for another woman?”  I’m kind of reclusive, and I personally know multiple women (and some men) who have been shockingly cast aside in this way. And yes, there are two sides to every story, but quite often one of the sides seems to be, “What story? I didn’t even know anything was going on!”

So on the surface, this scenario seems unrealistic, but then it turns out to be more the kind of thing that merely should be unrealistic but actually happens all the time because our reality is so weird.

It’s the same with the Debby Ryan character. Why would she be so hostile for no reason? Are there really mean girls in college? I never ran afoul of any, but I should note that girls’ reaction to me is usually, “Oh, here, let me help you, you poor, befuddled creature.” But once in grad school, I took my younger sister to a party where a total stranger marked her as an enemy within ten seconds. The same girl had reacted to me as if I were a lamp shade, a friendly dog, not there. I would never have imagined her viciousness had I not taken along my younger, thinner, (apparently) more threatening sister who knew how to wear eye make-up correctly. I would think that for a mean girl like the Debby Ryan character, somebody’s forty-something mother would more likely inspire indifference than hostility, but it’s surprising what threatens some people.

So even though Deanna’s few hostile relationships seem cartoonish, they may be far more grounded in reality than they initially appear (a sad commentary on our reality).

Still, the movie is more wish fulfilling fantasy than anything else. Even though any of the plot elements could happen, the movie asks a lot when it tries to convince us that they all do happen.  Together.  It seems extremely unlikely that a mother would become BFFs with all of her daughter’s college friends and acquire a passionately, obsessively devoted young boyfriend, too. (She’s also her archaeology professor’s best student, but that’s less surprising since she’s come back to school expressly to finish the final year of her degree in archaeology which has always been her passion.) Once that first painful “I’m leaving you” Band-aid is ripped off, nothing unpleasant happens to Deanna ever again. This movie has remarkably little conflict and few realistic consequences. It’s great!

You’d think lack of conflict would handicap Life of the Party as a movie, but actually it just makes it extremely fun and relaxing to watch. It’s this great movie about a nice person making awesome, supportive friends, and the growth of their mutually affirming relationships. Even if it weren’t funny at all, Life of the Party would still be an easy-to-watch guilty pleasure because it’s all so soothing.

But the best part is, the film is funny. McCarthy herself is magnificent. She even somehow sells stuff that really shouldn’t be all that funny. She really makes the jokes work in every scene.

And she’s surrounded by a supporting cast with immense talent. For whatever reason, I usually prefer Maya Rudolph as a straight man, but she’s zanily, over-the-top here, and I loved the energy and the character. She and her husband were clearly the couple my husband believes we can become (or already are). (The Six Flags line did sound like us in spirit.)

All the sorority girls are fantastic. My husband was so charmed by Jessie Ennis. Many times, he compared her to a young Amy Adams. Meanwhile, as the movie went on, I fell more and more in love with Gillian Jacobs and her strangely alluring character. That bit when her “fan” hits on her at the party just killed me. Her response to his overtures convinced me that she was the most awesome person alive. That was easily one of my favorite moments in the movie. We also liked Heidi Gardner’s Leonore character, another one of those “unrealistic or hyper-realistic?” elements.

I was stunned about halfway through the movie when I suddenly recognized Luke Benward as Beau from Good Luck Charlie. That really threw me because I found him as conspicuously handsome and charming here as I always found the Beau character unattractive. (My daughter regularly forces us to rank which characters on her shows we would date if we were the appropriate age, which gets weird when we’re watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, though I think it goes without saying that the obvious #1 choice there is Daisy.) Anyway, Benward has grown up a lot, and he’s really good in this part, a character who’s impossible not to love.

I couldn’t believe it when Nat Faxon showed up. I exclaimed to my husband, “It’s Pickle!” (I’ve been trying to master his Pickle voice because that’s the character I always play when my son wants to pretend we’re Blaze and the Monster Machines, a game in our regular rotation.) I was equally excited to see Karen Maruyama (“Look! It’s China Garden!”) because we’re watching the remix of Arrested Development‘s fourth season right now.

I find it slightly amusing that Julie Bowen plays a realtor and very funny that her character’s mysterious cartoon villainy seems like something straight out of Happy Gilmore.  (Maybe the tone of this film could best be described as Happy Gilmore Girls.)

Best of all–seriously, if they were in it more they would steal the movie–are Jacki Weaver and Stephen Root as Deanna’s parents. They’re so hilarious!

Best Scene:
It’s comes so early, but honestly my favorite scene is the bit at her parents’ home. Watching Root, my husband was like, “That’s me!” and then suddenly, “No wait! That’s your dad!” And he was so right! (Moments later while watching Deanna clumsily destroy her ex’s stuff, he was like, “That’s you!” Seriously, we were everyone in this movie! If you believed my husband, we were all over the place.)

I also really love the way the Gillian Jacobs character gets rid of that guy at the party.  It’s less a scene than a moment, but it completely won me over.

Best Action Sequence:
I like the big fight at the end. I wish we got more there. My husband pointed out that we probably will see additional footage in bonus features.

Best Scene Visually:
Even though I cringed, I must admit that the wedding reception was quite a spectacle.

The Negatives:
As I’ve said, this movie does not even pretend it is going for realism. Its goals are affirmation, happiness, and laughter. So just forget that usually there’s more conflict in life and drama or that actions should have consequences. (I’m amazed at one point that no one presses criminal charges and nothing at all happens to anyone but Deanna). None of that nonsense really bothers me since the film goes for feel-good laughs and gets them.

A couple of things did bother me, though. One is that the scene in which Deanna attempts to deliver her oral midterm is just so uncharacteristically uncomfortable and unpleasant to watch. I will give McCarthy credit for totally committing physically, as usual. But I’m not sure why we need this scene (except, possibly, that revisiting it makes a sweet ending). It seems like a potential subplot that never gets fully explored.  (If that happened to me, I guarantee you, it would not happen in isolation.  That would motivate me for…ever, until the situation were satisfactorily resolved.)

Also, while I didn’t care that we never got to hear Dan’s side (because he and his new love were the villains of the piece), I did think the film was a bit unfair to Jack. Deanna does not always treat him very respectfully (behavior to which he rather surprisingly does not take offense), and we get absolutely no insight into his character.

The basic problem overall is that since the movie always goes for the joke instead of worrying about what would happen in reality, when you step back and evaluate all that has happened, the events don’t make much sense.  McCarthy’s character keeps saying getting her degree means everything to her.  She keeps talking about her passion for archaeology, but I see scant evidence of either of those things because watching her do a whole bunch of crazy stuff is more entertaining for the audience.  Does this matter?  Not really, I guess.  I’d rather laugh than worry if a stranger is leading a centered, productive life.

Also, though this is less a true flaw than a disappointment, I wish we’d seen more from Debby Ryan’s character (more development or even just more egregious nastiness). It was a good part for her, but it could have been a great part, and making her character more fully realized would have improved the story.

Overall:
Life of the Party is the perfect movie for taking your mind off your troubles. It’s consistently funny (often laugh-out-loud funny) and never stressful. It’s also not rated R, which is a rare quality in funny comedies these days. That means that in a few months, if I want to watch it again at home, I can. Easily. With little stress or trouble.

I was going to say that it’s the best movie Ben Falcone has written with and directed for his wife Melissa McCarthy, but I just realized I’m not sure that’s necessarily true. I think I’ve skipped some of their movies because they haven’t looked that good to me, so making a sweeping statement about their body of work is pretty unfair on my part.

Definitely don’t skip Life of the Party, though. It’s good.  It’s not realistic in any way, but it’s definitely a lot of fun.