BLOCKERS (2018)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Kay Cannon
Cast: John Cena, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, Gideon Adlon
RunTime: 1 hr 42 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Content and Nudity)
Released By: UIP
Official Website: https://www.blockersmovie.com

Opening Day: 19 April 2018

Synopsis: When three parents discover their daughters’ pact to lose their virginity at prom, they launch a covert one-night operation to stop the teens from sealing the deal.

Movie Review:

Two generations of R-rated comedies – the teenage sex comedy best exemplified by 2001’s groundbreaking ‘American Pie’ and the more recent line of ‘adults behaving badly’ farces that started with 2009’s ‘The Hangover’ – collide with uproarious, irreverent and surprisingly poignant effect in ‘Pitch Perfect’ screenwriter Kay Cannon’s directorial debut. Both dynamics are at play here in ‘Blockers’, which sees a trio of parents set out on a frenzied mission to stop their daughters from fulfilling a pact to lose their virginity on prom night, otherwise known as ‘#sexpact2018’.

The titular blockers are made up of single mom Lisa (Leslie Mann), musclebound jock papa Mitchell (John Cena) and party-boy slob Hunter (Ike Barinholtz), nominal pals since their daughters bonded together in elementary school who happen to be together at Lisa’s house when their kids leave for prom. When Lisa’s daughter’s Julie’s (Kathryn Newton) computer pings with the emojis of eggplants, trees and yas queens, Hunter correctly deciphers that it has all got to do with sex, sending Lisa and Mitchell into a somewhat irrational panic over their respective children’s apparently misbegotten choices.

At least for a while, Hunter acts as the voice of reasonable opposition: simply put, he knows that intervening will certainly spoil what should be a memorable night for the girls, and he especially doesn’t want that to destroy his already fragile connection with his daughter Sam (Gideon Aldon). Unfortunately, Lisa and Mitchell are too caught up in their own insecurities to recognize Hunter’s logic – while Lisa is having extreme separation anxiety about Julie’s college plans, Mitchell just cannot help being coach (or cop) to his daughter Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan).

And so begins a long night of further snooping, limo-tailing and eventually righteous barging-in, which not surprisingly, involves some outrageous shenanigans for these middle-age killjoys. In one, Mitchell reluctantly agrees to a ‘butt-chugging’ challenge with some high-school dudes in order to gain entry into a house party. In another, all three parents end up participating in a (very) sexually active couple’s (played by Gary Cole and Gina Gershon) blindfolded sex game at their house to avoid being detected. These slapstick sequences are designed as much for hilarity as they are for discomfort, but as always, it is the players themselves who make or break the jokes – or in this case, knock them out of the park.

Oh yes, the reliably outstanding Mann hasn’t been as delightful since ‘Knocked Up’, hurtling herself completely into the role to portray Lisa with equal parts ferocity and fear – most notably, a scene where she tries to sneak out after accidentally ending up under the bed in her daughter’s hotel room is classic screwball perfection. Cena plays up his macho archetype to great effect as the sentimental dad who still cries at ‘Frozen’, and his chiseled physique also turns out impeccably suited for his blocklike personality in the movie. And last but not least, Barinholtz is simply hilarious running interference against Mann and Cena’s respective overprotective parenting acts, before eventually finding pathos as the absentee dad trying to patch things up with his daughter.

But like we said earlier, it is as much about the parents as it is about their children, and each one of the teenage actresses playing the latter deserve to be breakout stars in their own right. Relative newcomer Viswanathan is a scene-stealer as the no-nonsense Kayla who more than holds her own against her dad Mitchell as well as her druggy prom date Connor (Miles Robbins); in particular, she and Robbins have a side-splitting exchange where both play it disarmingly cool when she tells him that she intends to sleep with him. Newton’s performance may seem no more like a dumb-blonde act at the start, but the ‘Big Little Lies’ actress turns Julie into an engaging combination of dreamy, bossy and tenacious as the movie progresses. And though Aldon may play wallflower to Viswanathan and Newton at first, she becomes a comedic force in her own right when her character lets herself loose with her official boy escort Chad (Jimmy Bellinger).

That their characters have their own well-defined personalities is also credit to first-time writers Brian and Jim Kehoe, whose script bothers to be more than just teen sex farce. Beyond the crude jokes lies a thoughtful exploration for parents of when to let go and trust our kids to make their own life decisions, especially for fathers whose natural instinct is to be overprotective of their daughters. It is no coincidence that all three kids here happen to be girls, and the fem-centric spin is especially heartening when it becomes clear that these teenagers have the capacity and perceptivity to make enlightened decisions for themselves. While it is true that the Kehoe brothers made sure that they have done right by the sexual politics of our times, that in no way diminishes how they have succeeded in ensuring that their movie doesn’t patronise either demographic between the generation gap.

For a first-time director, Cannon has done exceedingly well. She knows just how and when to go in for the punch, never letting any joke drag on too long or lose the human touch even as the physical comedy goes into hyperdrive. There is sheer exuberance in the crude hilarity on display here, balanced with a down-to-earth sweetness and sensibility that makes the obligatory heart-to-heart conversations between parent and child at the end heart-warming. By acknowledging both the fears of a parent and the aspirations of an adolescent at the same time, ‘Blockers’ speaks not just to the generation for whom teenage sex comedies were traditionally made for, but also to that for whom this latest wave of R-rated adult comedies speak to. It’s an unblocked comic delight all right, but also simultaneously much, much more than just whacking, smutty, in-your-face farce.

Movie Rating:

(About the most refreshing R-rated comedy we've seen in a long while, 'Blockers' is as much fun as a teen sex farce as it is irreverent as an adults-behaving-badly romp, and surprisingly heartfelt either way)

Review by Gabriel Chong