Blockers

Sometimes films surprise you and it's just great. You go to the cinema to pass a couple of hours and walk in assuming one thing based on trailers you've seen and walk out later smiling because you've seen something very different and far better than you were expecting. It doesn't happen very often but it's always a welcome feeling. 

Blockers fits that slot very well.

It's prom night and 3 girls, Julie, Kayla and Sam, have had enough of waiting around and make a pact to lose their respective virginity by the morning so they can have that worry out of the way before they get to college. However their parents, the very overbearing Lisa and Mitchell and the underachieving Hunter, find out about their pact and set out to stop their daughters plans using all possible means. Chaos ensues.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It's far from the sophomoric humour filled gross out fest trailers are depicting it as, well a few scenes aside anyway. It's fun, fast moving and flat out hilarious at points but best of all is the fact that it's filled to bursting with heart and dotted with lovely and genuinely moving moments of family closeness that will resonate with anyone lucky enough to experienced that type of relationship with a parent. From the description of the film above you wouldn't be blamed for thinking it's another American morality tale about how sex is bad and you should wait until the time is right and your partner is perfect. That conservative thinking is there but it's from the parents point of view. The teens, like real teens, don't care for such matters. It's all just another new experience for them to get out of the way and this gives the whole film a light touch.

Comedy, like horror, only really works if you care about the characters and here you do in spades and that's down to good writing and fine acting from everyone involved. Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz and John Cena are all on fire as the parents. Mann does that neurotic thing she does so well without the annoying asides that made her offputting in films like This Is 40. Barinholtz and Cena are called on to do the lions share of the comic stuff and manage to carry off some pretty horrible stuff while somehow emerging with their dignity intact. I've always enjoyed Cena in films, he's not the best actor but like other wrestlers turned actors he has great presence and he uses it well here and puts in his best work so far. The 3 teens are as good, Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan and Gideon Adlon all create their own individual personalities and you'll find yourself hoping for all 3 of them. Viswanathan is someone I expect to see a lot of in the future, her comic timing is immense.

It's nice to see a comedy with a bit of depth and one that uses it's characters as something more than a conveyance for a punchline. It has some telling dialogue about the different ways men and women are judged for expressing their sexuality. It's also about those moments when parents start fearing their child is growing up too fast and in holding on too tightly lose the run of themselves. In one way it is a morality tale but not the expected one. It's still a comedy though and some scenes will really tickle you. A stealth escape from a hotel room, an emoji translation scene and a moment where two people lock eyes at the worst possible moment all spring to mind. Some jokes miss the mark, one involving an odd way to drink beer and another involving an unnecessarily graphic closeup will make you cringe more than giggle but when the jokes are coming this thick and fast (err) you won't begrudge a few bad ones.

First time director Kay Cannon has made a fine film and a very entertaining one. Best of all and unlike a lot of other modern comedy directors (I'm looking at you Judd Apatow) she knows how to tell a joke without milking the life out of it. Get in, make the audience laugh and get out. She keeps the film flowing and keeps it tight even when a few hoary old cliches raise their heads. I can't wait to see what she does next.

This is well worth a watch.