Movie Review: 'Bad Moms'

"Bad Moms" is that rare movie: both poorly made and worthwhile. Rarer still is the degree to which writing/directing duo Jon Lucas and Scott Moore ("The Hangover") take seriously the concerns of working class women even if the finished movie isn't—overall—very good.

The film begins with a glimpse into the hectic world of 32-year-old Amy (Mila Kunis), a mother of two who finds it difficult to be a "perfect" mom.

"I had my first kid at 20 years old," Amy reveals in an opening voice over. "And I’ve been running late ever since."

People don’t talk like this.

The film’s plot kicks in at a PTA meeting where Amy proclaims that she’s going to "quit" being a good mom. She befriends a pair of equally stressed out mothers, Kiki (Kristen Bell) and Carla (Kathryn Hahn), and the three of them begin cutting loose: drinking, seeing movies in the afternoon, huffing whipped cream.

One major distraction in "Bad Moms" is the filmmakers' tendency to end scenes with the sight of Mila Kunis laughing. It’s very off-putting to watch people on screen enjoying themselves. It seems quite obvious, but is worth noting, that it’s more fun to laugh at people than with them.

"Bad Moms" relies pretty heavily on montages: The bad moms go out drinking, the bad moms drunkenly trash a grocery store, the bad moms drive drunk around town. The novelty of the protagonists being women, rather than men, never wears off.

The film’s saving grace is its pacing; it moves along at a nice clip even if nothing of particular note happens. There are bursts of laughter surrounded by scenes with tonally uneven, unrealistic dialogue. Many of the film’s jokes rely on adding a curse word to a conventional statement.

If “Bad Moms” is ultimately a wash, it’s a diverting enough one. In one of the movie’s final scenes, Amy and her kids dance in a car, singing Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance.” As far as finales go, it’s a welcome respite from the usual summer formula of computer-generated Marvel murder. And even though it’s better to laugh at people than with them, sing-alongs are always a more-the-merrier-type situation: Shut up and dance. Shut up and enjoy the movie. [B-]

Reviewed at AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13, New York, NY., Aug. 15, 2016. Running time: 101 min.

Image via STX Entertainment