Blockers
Nothing strengthens the bond of family more than a horny child and a desperately protective parent.
Cast of Characters:
Lisa Decker – Leslie Mann
Hunter – Ike Barinholtz
Mitchell – John Cena
Frank – Hannibal Buress
Brenda – June Diane Raphael
Julie Decker – Kathryn Newton
Ron – Gary Cole
Cathy – Gina Gershon
Kayla – Geraldine Viswanathan
Sam – Gideon Adlon
Director – Kay Cannon
Screenplay – Brian Kehoe & Jim Kehoe
Producer – Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg & Chris Fenton
Rated R for crude and sexual content, and language throughout, drug content, teen partying, and some graphic nudity
Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon) have been lifelong friends dating back all the way to their elementary school days. Now, in high school, the BFF trio are about to experience a milestone occasion of high school life – prom night. This isn’t gonna be just tacky corsages, limo rides and slow dances to Taylor Swift, however. Nope, these three have also made a pack to lose their virginity to their boyfriends.
WHOA!! Wait just a second there!
Enter the three girls’ parents – Julie’s clingy single mom Lisa (Leslie Mann), Kayla’s softie in hulk body dad Mitchell (John Cena) and Sam’s smart-ass dad Hunter (Ike Barinholtz). When the three learn of “Operation: Deflower”, thanks to Julie accidentally leaving a group chat open, they make a pact of their own, which is they’ll be damned if they let their baby girls throw their virginity away to three penis-controlled, teenage dolts. Though Hunter is initially hesitant, he soon relents and joins Lisa and Mitchell on their quest to prevent their daughters doing something they may or may not regret.
Blockers comes in the vein of previous teen sex comedies such as Porky’s, The Last American Virgin, Superbad and the American Pie franchise. This time around, however, it offers a twist on the formula: Instead of centering on a group of insufferably horny male teenagers, Blockers flips the script and puts the focus front-and-center on three high school girls. Given the different wiring of girls and boys thrust into the throes of puberty, the perspective switch could provide a refreshing change of pace for the comedy sub-genre.
Despite a talented comic cast headlined by Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz and John Cena, I’d be lying if I said there isn’t some initial concern in this being helmed by Kay Cannon, the writer of the Pitch Perfect trilogy making her directorial debut. Let’s be honest, the Pitch Perfect films aren’t exactly a shining resume offering. That said, an entirely new project should not be judged based on one’s prior missteps, and we should never underestimate the right material’s ability to highlight what strengths a filmmaker may have. After all, it was only around two months ago that John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein – the directing team behind the horrendous 2015 Vacation reboot/sequel – bounced back big time with the hysterically funny Game Night.
So with the right material and cast placed in her hands, is Cannon able to prove her filmmaking worth?
The Good: John Cena’s acting career certainly didn’t start out with promise. Remember when the WWE tried their damnedest to make him the next big action star in crap like The Marine and 12 Rounds? But then he did Trainwreck and Sisters, both in the same year, and that’s when it appeared he had found his wheelhouse – comedy. Of course, Cena doesn’t have the leading man charisma of Dwayne Johnson or the potential for growth like Dave Bautista has shown in the Guardians of the Galaxy films and Blade Runner 2049. Well, not yet, at least. Who knows? What he does have, however, is comic timing and a game ability to completely subvert our perceptions of the macho-man persona he’s created in the WWE, whether he’s playing insecure (Trainwreck), riffing on the tough-guy image (Sisters), or playing a softie in a tough shell (Ferdinand). When paired with veteran comic talent like he is here, it can produce comedy gold.
Undoubtedly, it’s the cast that is the best thing about Blockers, and Cannon wisely let’s her three primary actors – Cena, Mann and Barinholtz – play to their strengths. Mann, who is one of the best there is at delivering the hysterical, doom-and-gloom rant, gives easily the strongest performance she’s done in years. Her trademark despairing is put on full display here, even adding in a little bit of Lucille Ball style physical comedy to the mix in a great third-act escape segment that would make the late comic legend proud.
Credit should also be given to the trio of young actresses playing the daughters, who are given just as much screen-time as their onscreen parents. Humor-wise, Blockers is at its sharpest during their scenes (when Julie tells her boyfriend that she got the idea for rose petals on the bed from American Beauty, he responds by asking if she actually saw the movie all the way through), and Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan and Gideon Adlon (daughter of King of the Hill and Californication actress Pamela Adlon) all tackle their scenes together with great timing and genuine chemistry. Viswanathan, in particular, is a wise-cracking delight, who hopefully we get to see more of.
The script, originally written by five writers before finally being credited to two, indulges in its share of R-rated gags, some of which land and some of which fall flat (as extremely hit-or-miss as scatological humor is, Cannon successfully manages to score laughs out of a mid-point projectile vomiting scene). Still, Brian and Jim Kehoe don’t shy entirely away from relatable topics that present themselves, such as the difficult time a parent may have in seeing their child cross-over into adulthood, friends feeling pressured into sex just ’cause it’s prom night and (or) their friends might be doing it, and the obligations some parents might feel in being friends with other parents just ’cause their children are friends. Though some are handled and developed better than others, most, if not all, get a standout moment or two.
The Bad: While Cannon deserves credit for hitting more than she misses, there are times when her grasp of tone is evidently shaky. Blockers wants to be a mix of raunchy yet sentimental; high-brow yet low-brow; sharp, grounded and relatable yet upping the slapstick to insane levels; yet the film isn’t nearly as effective when it begins to slip away from its emotional grounding.
It’s no surprise that as Blockers starts to wrap things up it quickly switches gears and moves into climactic sentimental territory, which here feels more like a need for an obligatory tidily wrapped-up happy ending than genuine emotional payoff, which is typically the case when your characters are written more as comic plot devices than authentically drawn humans (as crude and raunchy as Judd Apatow’s films are, his best work still showcases his ability to create well-defined characters).
That said, despite what bumps this film encounters along the way, they’re hardly a deal breaker. It’s a testament to how great this cast is and Cannon’s handling of them that even when the film wobbles between authentic teen banter, heartfelt conversations between a father and daughter, and John Cena chugging beer through his asshole, that it never goes completely off the rails.
The Ugly: Man bunned dipshits. I swear to God, if I ever have a daughter that brings one of them home I’m gonna punch that hideous, moppy-haired douche-nozzle in the throat.
Consensus: Despite some rookie mistakes made by Kay Cannon, the writer-turned-director still gets great mileage from a hilarious comic cast and a mostly sharp script, earning her a solid directorial debut.
Silver Screen Fanatic’s Verdict: I give Blockers a B (★★★).
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