BEFORE: I sped through the Emmy Awards last night - it turns out that if you watch on a time-delay, speed through the writing and directing awards, fast-forward through the majority of the speeches, and ONLY pay attention to who wins when a show that you like is in contention, you can get through the whole thing in just over an hour. It's weird how I think I'm watching more TV than ever, but very little of what I like to watch gets nominated for stuff. I never got into "Game of Thrones" (that's a time-saver right there) and in fact I've never watched ANY of the nominated drama series this year. My comedy record is a little better, I watch "Barry" and "Schitt's Creek", but have resisted the hype around "Fleabag", "Russian Doll" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel". For "Competition Series" (is that a new category, separated out from "Reality TV"?) I've seen every episode of "Top Chef" and "The Amazing Race", though I wonder in both cases if their best years are behind them. But Limited Series and TV Movies, I don't touch those at all - both of those things are oxymorons, if you think about it.
Ah, but "Variety Series", that's where I really cover my bets. I watched almost ALL of the nominated Variety Series this year, even caught up on three seasons of "Documentary Now!". Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert and the cast of SNL are my peeps, though I wish I knew how to quit "SNL", I usually hate-watch it and I can't bring myself to stop that. It's been in the crapper ever since _____________ left the show (this bit is interactive, just drop in either Will Ferrell, Eddie Murphy, or Chevy Chase, depending on your age) and I don't see it improving any time soon. Still, I enjoy it for "Weekend Update" and the occasional funny fake ad.
So congratulations to Bill Hader and John Oliver, the two people who won from shows that I watch. Two? That's it? Somehow even though I'm always watching TV, I'm not watching enough TV. I guess just most of the TV I watch just doesn't get nominated. Can we please get a new category for best show about food? I nominate "Carnival Eats", "Chopped", "Man vs. Food", "Halloween Baking Championship", "Burgers, Brew & 'Cue" and "Worst Cooks in America", and then you can move "Top Chef" into this category and throw in "MasterChef" and "Hell's Kitchen" if you want.
Ben Falcone had a cameo in "Cheaper By the Dozen 2" and he carries over to make another cameo appearance today.
THE PLOT: After her husband abruptly asks for a divorce, a middle-aged mother returns to college in order to complete her degree.
AFTER: Speaking of Emmys, Melissa McCarthy has two of them, and she'll be hanging around here most of the week. This is my last scheduled "back to school" film, except I think there's one more film partially set in a high school coming up in a few days. Well, I covered kindergarten in "Toy Story 4", grade school and high school in "Cheaper By the Dozen" and "The Glass Castle", more high school in "Fist Fight", and college in "Higher Learning" and tonight's film. Then there was "Night School" earlier this year, which was also about adults trying to complete their degrees years after the fact.
McCarthy plays Deanna, who suffers a setback and alteration to her life plans when her husband suddenly wants to split up AND sell their house. With no place to live, I suppose going back to college to complete her degree solves several problems at once (she was THIS close years ago, but didn't complete her archaeology degree because she was pregnant). Conveniently, her daughter is in her senior year at the same fictional university (Decatur, supposedly outside Atlanta) so they manage to set up the maximum number of cringe-worthy opportunity for Deanna to embarrass her daughter, just by being her clueless self. What is it about Moms, that they just love to talk all day and not really say anything at all?
The exception, however, proves to be a fear of public speaking, when Deanna finds out that her midterm has to be an oral presentation, and she develops intense anxiety, flop-sweating, awkwardness and klutziness when forced to speak in front of the class. I would love to point out that this displays no consistency to her character, like how is she so outgoing in general but freezes up when speaking to the class? But I know that phobias are often irrational, and don't have to follow logical rules.
I thought for a while they were going to have Deanna hook up with her professor - they're about the same age and I guess they attended college together before - but they went a different way with it, and had her fall in with a 20-something student who learns that he's got a thing for older women. Well, I suppose they would tend to be more sexually experienced, so perhaps that's an upside.
There are definitely some laughs here, but it's also very formulaic - if your first thought was of Rodney Dangerfield in "Back to School", since his character attended the same college as his son, you're not that far off the mark. But then there are differences, like his character was very rich, and dated his English teacher, and was on the diving team. Deanna was not rich at all, did not date her teacher, and was on the soccer team. But it seems like maybe those were choices made so this movie wouldn't just be a re-tread of what another comedian did before.
It's too bad, though, that there are so many very underdeveloped characters - I'm thinking about Maddie's boyfriend, Jennifer's sidekick and Frank (Christine's husband), who just weren't given anything to really DO or any way to distinguish themselves. If these three characters (and several others) weren't even there, the story would have proceeded just fine without them.
But there's also a positive message about how college girls need to support each other, and not tear each other down, whether they're older or insecure or agoraphobic or are just having trouble fitting in, or they spent several years in a coma. Whatever, it doesn't matter, as long as you get that degree, everything else is going to fall into place, right?
Also starring Melissa McCarthy (last seen in "Love, Gilda"), Maya Rudolph (ditto), Molly Gordon, Gillian Jacobs (last seen in "The Box"), Jessie Ennis (last seen in "The Disaster Artist"), Adria Arjona (last seen in "Triple Frontier"), Matt Walsh (last seen in "Widows"), Jacki Weaver (ditto), Stephen Root (last seen in "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"), Julie Bowen (last seen in "Planes: Fire & Rescue"), Debby Ryan, Luke Benward (last seen in "We Were Soldiers"), Heidi Gardner, Jimmy O. Yang (last heard in "The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part"), Chris Parnell (last seen in "The Battle of the Sexes"), Damon Jones (last seen in "Tammy", Steve Mallory (ditto), Yani Simone, Karen Maruyama, Nat Faxon (last seen in "Orange County"), Sarah Baker (last heard in "Smallfoot"), Courtney Patterson, Steve Falcone, Michael D. McCarthy, Christina Aguilera (last seen in "Exit Through the Gift Shop").
RATING: 4 out of 10 tequila shots
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