Gone are the days when wild night-focused comedies meant bachelor parties gone wrong and teenage males looking for their first sexual encounters. Those types of films still exist, but good riddance to the time when they ostensibly owned the sub-genre. Everyone else can behave badly over the course of a raucous 12 hours or so, too — ladies in the likes of Bachelorette, Rough Night and Girls Trip; seniors in Last Vegas; and now parents in Blockers. In the latter’s case, make that three doting caregivers worried about their daughters’ prom plans after stumbling upon the girls’ pact to lose their virginity.
After watching Julie (Kathryn Newton, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Sam (Gideon Adlon, TV’s American Crime) and Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan, Janet King) become instant best friends on their very first day of school and subsequently spend their entire childhoods together, single mother Lisa (Leslie Mann, How To Be Single), divorced dad Hunter (Ike Barinholtz, The Mindy Project) and the surprisingly sensitive Mitchell (John Cena, Daddy’s Home 2) are now confronted with every parent’s nightmare: their girls are all grown up. It’s the biggest night of the younger trio’s lives, and the BFFs intend to mark it in a time-honoured fashion. Alas, when their older counterparts discover the teenagers’ plans via a conversation filled with eggplant emojis, they decide to do everything they can to maintain their daughters’ chastity.
As both groups cycle through a range of recognisable exploits — outlandish parties, unusual beer-drinking competitions, imbibed substances, car chases and the like — Blockers fills its 102-minute running time in an episodic manner. Having evolved from not only writing Pitch Perfect and its first sequel, but from writing duties on the likes of 30 Rock, New Girl and Girlboss, first-time director Kay Cannon knows her format. Plus, she’s working with a script by fellow feature debutants Brian Kehoe and Jim Kehoe that happily runs through the expected developments. In brief: Julie, Sam and Kayla hop between locations, each pursuing their goal with differing levels of enthusiasm while facing differing problems, and their increasingly desperate parents rush after them.
It all makes for mostly laugh-out-loud entertainment; a comedy filled with awkward encounters, gross-out gags and just general unruliness on everyone’s parts, shot and staged to hit the right beats, and served up with equal portions of humour and heart. What sets Blockers apart is its perspective, though — and not simply its focus on two generations. At the centre of the film sits a smart exploration of young women approaching their first sexual experiences, parents grappling with their daughters doing just that, and the baggage that comes with it for both. Rarely does a movie convey the excitement that can accompany losing one’s virginity, the opposing desire to just get it over with, the determination to take control of the situation and the uncertainty to express who you really are, let alone fit all of the above into one amusing narrative in a relatable way. Wild night efforts often humiliate their characters, but not this one.
Mann, Barinholtz and Cena’s figures are treated with the same respect. Their protagonists are always playing comic catch-up to their daughters, and could certainly be accused of over-parenting, but Blockers has empathy for a woman eager to give her daughter more choices in life, a father who’s more astute and observant than his bumbling exterior seems to signify, and another dad who isn’t afraid to let his feelings show. Of course, the feature benefits from well-chosen casting, with the older threesome working to their comedic strengths. It’s Australian Viswanathan, however, who steals scenes, perfects her pithy dialogue and best embodies the film’s spirit; as her character and the film itself make plain, there’s a difference between merely following well-worn footprints, and traversing familiar terrain while still walking your own path.
★★★
Blockers
Director: Kay Cannon
USA, 2018, 102 mins
Release date: 29 March 2018
Distributor: Universal
Rated: MA
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