Blockers (film)

Blockers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kay Cannon
Written by	Brian Kehoe Jim Kehoe
Produced by	Seth Rogen Evan Goldberg James Weaver Jon Hurwitz Hayden Schlossberg Chris Fenton
Starring	Leslie Mann Ike Barinholtz John Cena
Cinematography	Russ T. Alsobrook
Edited by	Stacey Schroeder
Music by	Mateo Messina
Production companies	Universal Pictures Good Universe DMG Entertainment Hurwitz & Schlossberg Productions Point Grey Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	March 10, 2018 (2018-03-10) (SXSW) April 6, 2018 (2018-04-06) (United States)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$21 million
Box office	$59.1 million

Blockers is a 2018 American sex comedy film directed by Kay Cannon (in her directorial debut) and written by Brian and Jim Kehoe. The film stars Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, and John Cena as a trio of parents who try to stop their daughters (Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Gideon Adlon) from each losing her virginity on prom night. The film's title and posters are a reference to the act of "cock blocking"; the rooster icon was removed for advertising on broadcast television and cable networks that objected, with only the Blockers text being shown.

The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 10, 2018 and was theatrically released in the United States on April 6, 2018, by Universal Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its "humor and performances," as well as for "intelligence and empathy" not often found in the genre.

Plot

On the day of prom, Julie shares with her best friends Kayla and Sam that she plans to lose her virginity to boyfriend Austin. Kayla immediately pledges to do so as well, though on a casual basis with her lab partner and school drug cook Connor. Sam, a closeted lesbian confused about her feelings, is reluctant but joins the pact out of a desire for a shared experience that will bind her to her two best friends as they go on to college. She goes to prom with the harmless, chubby, Fedora-wearing Chad.

Julie's mother Lisa puts on a pre-party for the parents and kids. Mitchell, Kayla's father, greets Lisa and notes that she has been evading his attempts to catch up. Sam's free-spirited father Hunter, divorced from her mother after his infidelity, arrives in a limousine for the girls and pledges to make this night the best of her life. The girls head to prom and text each other about their sex pact; back home, Mitchell and Lisa hear Julie's still-open laptop and intercept the messages. Hunter helps them decipher the emoji codes and they realize the girls' pact. Lisa and Mitchell rush to "cock block" their daughters, and Hunter tries to stop them. Hunter shares his intuition that Sam is gay and that Chad is a beard, but at the first party, he sees her force herself to kiss Chad. Wanting to protect his daughter from making a mistake, he joins Lisa and Mitchell's crusade.

As they follow the girls from party to party, it becomes clear that each parent has an unresolved problem behind their motivation. Mitchell is overprotective and in denial over his daughter's sexuality, and thinks she needs protecting from men like Connor. Hunter feels guilty for neglecting Sam during his bitter separation from her mother, who cheated on him and assaulted him in public to his humiliation. Single mother Lisa is struggling to let go of her only child, in denial over Julie's plans to go with Austin to UCLA instead of to University of Chicago forty-five minutes away. This culminates in an angry phone call between Lisa and Julie, who claims that UCLA is the furthest she can get from her imposing mother and that she is not following Austin, it is the other way around.

A drunk Sam goes to bed with Chad, but decides she does not want to have sex after all. Chad is caught up in the moment and prematurely ejaculates. Kayla and Connor go off together, but Kayla changes her mind about her flippant attitude to her virginity and they mutually agree to get to know each other better. The parents arrive and Mitch storms into the room and throws Connor through the wall; Kayla is initially furious but ultimately touched by her father's good intentions and reveals that she does not need protecting, as he already taught her everything about protecting herself. Sam and Hunter share a tender moment where he reveals that a good night was the best he could give her in return for his neglect; Sam officially comes out to her father, who is deeply moved at being the first person she told. Sam goes to indulge Hunter in his much-sought prom night photo, but Hunter declares that he will remember the moment without one. Lisa sneaks into Julie and Austin's room and is moved by how much the two clearly love each other. She sneaks out of the hotel room unnoticed and leaves the two of them alone.

Lisa promises to keep in touch with Mitchell more, whose friendship she had been spurning because he represents her daughter's youth. The two of them also make Hunter welcome, acknowledging his emotional pain of being ostracized. The three girls share prom night stories and Sam (following Hunter's advice) comes out to them, to which Julie and Kayla are extremely supportive. They leave Sam with her crush, Angelica; the two share a romantic kiss. Chad raps for the crowd, thrilled at what he considered sex, and everyone dances.

Three months later, Julie goes off to college, with Sam and Kayla driving with her to California. As they drive away, Lisa realizes she's been added into their group text, which is filled with plans to get marijuana, cocaine and other drugs. As the three parents run for the car, the girls reveal it was a prank and text a final "I love you" to them.

Cast

• Leslie Mann as Lisa Decker, Julie's single mother.
• Ike Barinholtz as Hunter, Sam's absent father who cheated on his wife, leading to divorce.
• John Cena as Mitchell, Kayla's overprotective, emotional and sports obsessed father.
• Kathryn Newton as Julie Decker, Lisa's daughter
  • Amelia Oswald and Audrey Casson as 12-year-old Julie
  • Anniston Almond as 5-year-old Julie
  • Aubree McGuire as Young Julie
• Geraldine Viswanathan as Kayla, Mitchell and Marcie's daughter
  • Anjal Jain and Madeline Erwin as 12-year-old Kayla
  • Noor Anna Maher as 5-year-old Kayla
• Gideon Adlon as Sam, Hunter's daughter
  • Hannah Goergen as 5-year-old Sam
• Graham Phillips as Austin, Julie's boyfriend
• Miles Robbins as Connor, Kayla's prom date
• Jimmy Bellinger as Chad, Sam's prom date
• June Diane Raphael as Brenda, Sam’s mother and Hunter’s ex-wife
• Jake Picking as Kyler
• Hannibal Buress as Frank, Sam's stepfather
• Sarayu Blue as Marcie, Mitchell's wife and Kayla's mother
• Gary Cole as Ron, Cathy's husband and Austin's father
• Colton Dunn as Rudy, a limo driver
• Gina Gershon as Cathy, Ron's wife and Austin's mother
• Ramona Young as Angelica, Sam's crush
• T.C. Carter as Jayden

Production

Principal photography on the film began on May 2, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Release

Blockers was released by Universal Pictures on April 6, 2018. The film was originally produced under the name The Pact, referring to the girls' agreement to lose their virginity.

Reception

Box office

As of April 17, 2018, Blockers has grossed $39.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $15.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $55.2 million, against a production budget of $21 million.

In the United States and Canada, Blockers was released alongside A Quiet Place, Chappaquiddick and The Miracle Season, and was projected to gross $16–20 million from 3,379 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $7.8 million on its first day (including $1.5 million from Thursday night previews). It went on to debut to $21.4 million, finishing third, behind A Quiet Place ($50 million) and Ready Player One ($25.1 million). In its second weekend the film dropped 50% to $10.3 million, finishing fourth.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 82%, based on 152 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Blockers puts a gender-swapped spin on the teen sex comedy — one elevated by strong performances, a smartly funny script, and a surprisingly enlightened perspective." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 76% overall positive score.

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2 1/2 stars, saying that it is "the kind of comedy one could stumble upon late at night on HBO and thoroughly enjoy, but it strains under the weight of its tonal inconsistencies in a movie theater." For Exclaim!, Kevin Scott gave the film an 8/10, saying "Blockers is still a teen sex comedy, but this is as progressive as comedies get."

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars, giving credit to the cast but saying they were not given much to do, and writing, "Despite the best efforts of reliable comedic veterans Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz, not to mention a game and always likable John Cena...Blockers becomes less interesting and less funny as the onscreen hijinks grow more outlandish and stupid and demeaning and crotch-oriented."

Describing Blockers as "highly dubious and not very funny," Adam Graham of The Detroit News stated that the film "awkwardly tries to balance gross-out gags with tender, warm-and-fuzzy moments. It's a tough trick to pull off, and Blockers gets stuffed at every turn."

Projecting a feminist perspective, Ann Hornaday from The Washington Post wrote, "the underlying values of "Blockers" are refreshingly healthy and affirming, proclaimed not only by Kayla's pointedly levelheaded mom (Sarayu Blue) — in a fiery speech about the double standards and the dubious politics of policing female sexuality — but by the girls themselves."

Music

The film features the hit single "Love Myself", by Hailee Steinfeld, which appears twice in the film. In her review of Blockers, Insider writer Kim Renfro wrote "The anthem carried throughout the movie, Hailee Steinfeld's 'Love Myself,' drives the message home: 'I love me, gonna love myself, no I don't need anybody else.'."

External links

• Official website
• Blockers at IMDb