Life of the Party (2018)
June 22, 2018 8:14 AM - Subscribe
When her husband suddenly dumps her, longtime dedicated housewife Deanna turns regret into re-set by going back to college - landing in the same class and school as her daughter, who's not entirely sold on the idea. Plunging headlong into the campus experience, the increasingly outspoken Deanna -- now Dee Rock -- embraces freedom, fun, and frat boys on her own terms, finding her true self in a senior year no one ever expected.
This was one of those movies where I intellectually knew it wasn't that great, but I still enjoyed it a lot anyway. I got a lot of laughs out of it so YMMV.
It kind of reminded me of 1980s and 1990s comedies like (of course) Back to School or some of those Chris Farley comedies. Not great movies but entertaining if you're in the right mood. And I remember watching those movies as a kid/teenager and enjoying them but feeling slightly alienated from/by them because the men did everything and the women were just sex objects to be won by the underdog, so this movie was gratifying as a correction to that.
I was a little underwhelmed by the cartoon villains, especially the new wife and the mean girls. Their dialogue and actions seemed over-the-top, but not in a campy or funny way, and not believable even within the world of this particular kind of comedy.
posted by lunasol at 9:39 AM on June 22, 2018
It kind of reminded me of 1980s and 1990s comedies like (of course) Back to School or some of those Chris Farley comedies. Not great movies but entertaining if you're in the right mood. And I remember watching those movies as a kid/teenager and enjoying them but feeling slightly alienated from/by them because the men did everything and the women were just sex objects to be won by the underdog, so this movie was gratifying as a correction to that.
I was a little underwhelmed by the cartoon villains, especially the new wife and the mean girls. Their dialogue and actions seemed over-the-top, but not in a campy or funny way, and not believable even within the world of this particular kind of comedy.
posted by lunasol at 9:39 AM on June 22, 2018
This was one of those movies where I intellectually knew it wasn't that great, but I still enjoyed it a lot anyway.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I think after I saw it I described it to a friend as "I laughed at a lot of individual parts but I'm not sure the movie was funny?"
posted by phunniemee at 9:57 AM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Couldn't have said it better myself. I think after I saw it I described it to a friend as "I laughed at a lot of individual parts but I'm not sure the movie was funny?"
posted by phunniemee at 9:57 AM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
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I love Melissa McCarthy. I like Ben Falcone. I really, really want them to become a Hollywood power couple and make billions of dollars and occasionally make a truly insane passion project because No One Says No To Melissa And Ben.
But this? This ain't it.
I will say that this used McCarthy's gift for physical comedy well. And it didn't spend too much effort on her being horrible or patently stupid / oblivious. But the jokes just didn't... land. My biggest laugh was the reveal that her booty call was her ex's new stepson (and I did like that they didn't lean on "Ha! He likes a fat chick!" in favor of "She is way too old for him, and everyone knows it including them", but they didn't really roll in the creepiness of that), and that came, what, halfway through? Not a good sign.
If you're a McCarthyite, this one's worth sitting through. That's about it.
posted by Etrigan at 8:42 AM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]