Saturday, January 09, 2016

8:34 AM | Film Log 12: Sisters

I love Jason Moore's Sisters (2015) for what it is: a celebration of irresponsibility for adults on the verge of Peter Pan syndrome. But as a showcase for Tina Fey's fumbling search for a cinematic foothold, it remains much of the same. Look, she's not a bad comedian. She's a treasure, and that is easily seen in her comedic work -- both acting and writing -- for television. Only a smidgen of that has ever translated to film though. It has been almost 12 years since Mean Girls (2004). You'd think by now lighting would have struck twice, or thrice. The efforts since then -- Baby Mama, The Invention of Lying, Date Night, Admission -- have been funny, but middling. Sisters is a continuation of that. But I laughed my head nonetheless. Who wouldn't? Two grown-up sisters (played by Fey and Amy Poehler) are shocked to find out that their parents (James Brolin and Dianne Wiest, in a strange casting continuation as an older married couple straight from the set of TV's Life in Pieces) have sold their childhood home. They then proceed to hold one last wild party in the house together with what has remained of their high school friends (apparently so many has stayed on in the same town since graduation), trashing the house in the process -- and also consequently falling in love and encountering life lessons along the way. It's de rigeur to elevate trashy comedy like that, but I appreciated more the bacchanalian disregard for adult responsibility by much of the cast. I can feel their pain and joy. I'm now 40, and a part of me still wants to party like it was 1994. The film is gleeful wish fulfilment more than anything else. There is a scene in the middle of the film where Fey's character delivers a rousing call to arms when a couple of old friends attempt to leave the party as adults are wont do in the name of responsibility: "To anyone who's even thinking about leaving, you can forget it. You need this as much as we do. If you think I shlepped all this so that you can go home and watch Flip or Flop, you are fucking dreaming. Don't you want to feel that carefree again, like balls deep in joy? It's not too late! The young you still lives inside you. We used to party in this house because we thought we would never die. I say tonight we party like Vikings because we know we could die tomorrow!" Amen, sister! ★★☆☆☆

Labels: film, life, review

[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich

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