Blockers

To preface this review: I had no intent on seeing this film but, after I heard all the positive reception it was getting, my interest was peaked. Blockers is a sex comedy film, very much in the same vein as something like American Pie, now what makes this so refreshing is that it is a from the perspective of a group of teenage girls. This unusual for the genre gender shift is not cheap, tacky or done just to be different, but actually as a means to tell a fresh story. It is this freshness that makes this film shine; vastly exceeding my expectations at every turn. The general plot focuses on a group of three teenage girls Julie, Kayla and Sam, (Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan and Gideon Adlon) who plan to lose their virginities on prom night, so far so generic sex comedy. The other half of the cast is made up of the parents Lisa, Hunter and Mitchell (Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz and John Cena) who try and stop their daughters from their sex pact, and it is these two sides coming together that elevate this film to another level. The film is as much for a teenage audience as it is for parents, by this I mean that there are two themes running parallel the first: is what it means to grow up and become an adult, the other is what it is like to let your children go; both of these themes work well together. The script for this film is phenomenal being both incredibly funny, with Cena’s Mitchell and Hannibal Buress’ Frank being the two standouts, but also incredibly deep. The emotional beats it this film are all very genuine and real, with Barinholtz’s Mike being the most impacting. Mike at first seems to be a bad dad caring more about sleeping around then he does his daughter Sam, (Adlon), but as the film goes on and you learn more about his character, you see past his façade, seeing him as much more. That is the genius of this script: it creates these incredibly fleshed out, three-dimensional characters completely subverting your expectations. Furthermore, the plotline about Sam discovering her sexuality was very well done, and the touch of having her dad (Marinholtz) always knowing about it, without being told; made it feel incredibly sweet and heart-warming. My only issue with this film is that some of the jokes between the main teenage cast fell flat, with some even making me cringe, but these were very far and few between. Overall I strongly recommend you go and see this film: because it will make you laugh, think and at times even cry. Finally, the message this film has is very timely and worth listening to. This is a far cry from crude, dumb gross-out humour, with the under-reliance on constant sex jokes in favour of a more thoughtful plot helps to make this one of the best comedies I’ve seen recently.
4/5
Reviewed by Luke