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Movie Review: 'Life of the Party'

Melissa McCarty Improves Mediocre Material in 'Life of the Party'

By Sean PatrickPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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Life of the Party is a desperately conventional, highly predictable mom-com that is somehow still quite funny despite its inherent obviousness. Melissa McCarthy is such a force of nature, such a presence with such incredible comic rhythm that even the worst jokes tend to land. Say what you will about the rather hacky high concept of Life of the Party, the laughs are there.

McCarthy stars in Life of the Party as Deanna, the mother of Maddie (Molly Gordon) who is returning for her final year at Decatur College, Deanna's alma mater. We meet Deanna as she is dropping Maddie off at college and just as she is being dumped by her jerk husband, Dan (Veep star Matt Walsh). Dan has met and fallen for a real estate agent and intends on selling their shared home.

With nowhere to turn, Deanna returns to her parents (Jackie Weaver and Stephen Root in scene stealing cameos) where she rekindles what she loved from college: Archaeology. Here is where the high concept kicks in as Deanna enrolls in her daughter's college with the intent of finishing her degree and starting her new life without Dan.

Naturally, this is awkward for Maddie, especially when mom wants to hang out with Maddie's friends, played by Adria Arjona, Jessie Ennis, and Life of the Party's secret weapon, former Community star Gillian Jacobs. Throw in a weirdo roommate, a pair of mean girl bullies, and a couple frat parties where Deanna goes from awkward and out of place to the titular 'life of the party,' and you have a very familiar and highly predictable formula.

That said, with the high level predictability, and a concept that plays for obvious laughs, I still laughed a lot, and quite loudly during Life of the Party. The critic in me admonished me for the guffaws at something as blatantly obvious as Deanna's arc from doofy hausfrau to party hardy, Big Gal on Campus, Melissa McCarthy is so funny I could not control myself. I just could not get mad at Life of the Party no matter how painfully conventional the story and direction were.

There is truly nothing special about Ben Falcone's direction of Life of the Party. Falcone may as well be directing a single camera sitcom as a feature film. And yet, the work of the cast of Life of the Party kept winning me over, they just kept making me laugh at even the dopiest of the film's gags, including an 80's themed dance contest and Deanna's super awkward first days on campus in her silly smocks and sweaters.

Gillian Jacobs, as I mentioned earlier, is the secret comedy weapon of Life of the Party. While McCarthy sweats and pants and wrings every laugh out of this overly familiar premise, quite successfully, it's Jacobs who fills in the periphery with wonderful flair. Jacobs' Helen is a first year college student following eight years in a coma. The laughs from her numerous coma jokes are unexpected delights, never getting in the way of the main story or McCarthy's heavy lifting, they just arrive perfectly timed and get off screen just as swiftly and hilariously.

Melissa McCarthy is quite simply the biggest thing in mainstream comedy. No one, male or female, is as consistently hilarious as McCarthy. Sure, she's not without her missteps, such as the only mildly funny The Boss, but even her lesser efforts like Tammy or Identity Thief contain a few pretty big laughs. When she's on her game as she is The Heat, Spy, Bridesmaids or here in Life of the Party, she's comic gold.

Life of the Party is on the lower end of McCarthy's comic resume, but not because she isn't giving it everything she's got. McCarthy makes some really clunky comic ideas really, really funny in Life of the Party. Her chemistry with her supporting players makes them better, including the newcomer Molly Gordon and McCarthy's Bridesmaids co-star Maya Rudolph whose performance borders on overkill but shines thanks to the infectious chemistry between Rudolph and McCarthy who seem more interested breaking each other than making us laugh and yet it still works.

This won't be a popular recommendation among critics. I can already sense the outraged critics annoyed about the unimaginative direction and hacky, high concept premise of Life of the Party. That will likely keep many from seeing what's good about Life of the Party, the hard working performance of Melissa McCarthy who moves mountains to make this formula so much more than it would be in the hands of a lesser comic talent.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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