Bad Moms

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Bad Moms
Theatrical release poster
Starring
CinematographyJim Denault
Edited by
Music byChristopher Lennertz
Distributed bySTX Entertainment
Release dates
  • July 19, 2016 (2016-07-19) (New York City)
  • July 29, 2016 (2016-07-29) (United States)
Running time
100 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[2]
Box office$89.9 million[2]

Bad Moms is a 2016 American comedy film directed and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Annie Mumolo, Jay Hernandez, Jada Pinkett Smith and Christina Applegate.

Principal photography began on January 11, 2016 in New Orleans. The film premiered on July 19, 2016 in New York City and was theatrically released on July 29, 2016 by STX Entertainment. It received positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $85 million.

Plot

Amy Mitchell (Mila Kunis) is a married woman with two children, Jane (Oona Laurence) and Dylan (Emjay Anthony), who feels over-worked and over-committed. She works as a sales rep for a "hip" coffee company, makes her kids healthy, handpacked lunches, does much of their homework, goes to all of their extracurricular activities, and is active in her school's PTA, run by the domineering Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) and her cronies, Stacy (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Vicky (Annie Mumolo). When she catches her husband Mike (David Walton) cheating on her with a dairy farmer via the internet, Amy throws him out and attempts to keep everything together.

After a particularly stressful day, Amy publicly quits the PTA in response to Gwendolyn's overzealous bake sale plans. At a nearby bar, Amy meets Carla (Kathryn Hahn), a laid back, oversexed single mom, and Kiki (Kristen Bell) a stay-at-home mother of four who admires Amy's dissent from Gwendolyn. Amy and Carla are also irritated to discover that Kiki's husband is domineering and expects her to take care of all the kids and the house with no assistance whatsoever, while Amy and Kiki are disturbed at Carla's very hands-off approach to parenting. The trio embark on an all-night bender that inspires Amy to loosen up with her kids: she takes them for rides in Mike's classic car, gets them lunch from Arby's, takes days off work, forces Dylan to fend for himself, and takes Jane for a spa day.

Amy's actions draw the ire of Gwendolyn, who uses her PTA authority to get Jane removed from the soccer team. Amy is angered, and decides to run for PTA president in opposition to Gwendolyn. A meet-and-greet at Amy's home draws only one visitor, who informs them that Gwendolyn has launched a rival party at her own house, catered by Martha Stewart. In spite of this, the other moms swiftly abandon Gwendolyn's party when it becomes clear that she intends to lecture them all evening, leading to a successful booze-soaked house party at Amy's.

Gwendolyn responds by planting drugs in Jane's locker, getting her kicked out of all extracurricular activities on the same day that Amy gets fired. Jane and Dylan both go to stay with Mike (who has agreed to an amicable divorce) in response to what they see as Amy's failure as a mom. A despondent Amy stays home during the PTA election, but is roused to action by Carla and by Kiki, who finally stands up to her husband and orders him to deal with everything alone until the meeting is over. At the event, she gives an inspiring speech about how all the moms are overworked, and that they need to take time off, do fewer and less stressful events, and most importantly, allow themselves to make mistakes. Amy wins by a landslide, and eventually winds up comforting a devastated Gwendolyn.

Some weeks later, Amy's approach has led to positive changes: Jane is stressing out less, Dylan is actually applying himself, and all of the moms, including Stacy and Vicki, are feeling more energized. Amy herself has gotten her job back with much better compensation, and continues to see Jessie (Jay Hernandez), a handsome widower she bonded with some weeks earlier. Gwendolyn has admitted that Amy's way has merit, and as the film closes, invites Amy, Carla and Kiki for a day of fun on her husband's private jet.

The credits play over the cast interviewing their real-life moms.

Cast

Production

On April 30, 2015, it was announced that Jon Lucas and Scott Moore were set to direct an untitled female-led comedy, based on their own original script.[3] Bill Block of Block Entertainment and Raj Brinder Singh of Merced Media Partners would produce the film, along with Judd Apatow and Josh Church through Apatow Productions, while Merced Media financing the film.[3] Leslie Mann was set to star in the lead role.[3] This was Bill Block's first film produced through Block Entertainment after leaving QED International.[3] Paramount Pictures acquired the film's distribution rights on May 8, 2015.[4] The film was sold to different international distributors at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.[5] On June 1, 2015, Mann and Apatow exited the film because of scheduling conflicts.[6] On October 26, 2015, it was reported that Paramount had left the project, with STX Entertainment coming on board to handle the American distribution.[7] Mila Kunis, Christina Applegate, and Kristen Bell joined the film, starring in its lead roles, while Suzanne Todd produced the film along with Block.[7] On January 11, 2016, Jada Pinkett Smith and Kathryn Hahn joined the film, with Smith playing Applegate's blunt best friend, and Hahn also playing a mother.[8] It was later revealed that Oona Laurence had also joined the cast.[9]

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on January 11, 2016 in New Orleans[8][10] and concluded on March 1, 2016.[11]

Release

In May 2015, Paramount set the film a release date for April 15, 2016,[4] but later, in July 2015, the studio moved the film out to a new unspecified release date.[12] STX Entertainment later bought the distribution rights to the film and released it on July 29, 2016.[13]

Reception

Box office

As of August 14, 2016, Bad Moms has grossed $71.5 million in North America and $13.6 in other territories for a worldwide total of $85.1 million, against a production budget of $20 million.[2]

Bad Moms was released in the United States and Canada on July 29, 2016, alongside Jason Bourne and Nerve, and was projected to gross around $25 million in its opening weekend, from 3,215 theaters.[14] It grossed $2.1 million from Thursday night previews. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $23.8 million, finishing 3rd at the box office.[15]

Critical response

Bad Moms has received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 63%, based on 105 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bad Moms boasts a terrific cast and a welcome twist on domestic comedy – and they're often enough to compensate for the movie's unfortunate inability to take full advantage of its assets."[16] Metacritic gives the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[18]

IGN gave the film 7/10, saying, "[t]he uneven Bad Moms is an entry in the slobs versus snobs genre that never quite realizes its full comedic potential."[19] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-, writing: "beneath all of its hard-R partying, rebellious debauchery, and profanity, it taps into something very real and insidious in the zeitgeist. It's one of the funniest movies of the year-and one of the most necessary."[20] Peter Travers and Kyle Smith both gave 2½ stars out of 4, with Travers saying: "the movie cops out by going soft in the end, but it's still hardcore hilarity for stressed moms looking for a girls night out",[21] and Smith saying: "Bad Moms is like Sex and the City: The Sneakers-and-Minivan Years, a good-natured girl-power comedy that balances a bland sitcom structure with some weird and hilarious moments."[22]

Dana Stevens of Slate described the film as "seldom flat-out sexist," but went on to say: "the dad minds behind Bad Moms don't seem to understand, or be terribly curious about, the minds of mothers...Bad Moms’ essential message [...] is that, rather than overturn the systems that cordon off “moms” from the rest of society by attempting to keep them at once as sacrosanct and as powerless as possible, women should look for the evil within the women around them — that the problem is other women, who seek their oppression for personal reasons of vengeance or jealousy. The role of structural sexism [...] in making good-enough motherhood in America all but impossible goes unexamined."[23] The A.V. Club's Jesse Hassenger opined that Bad Moms "sells its characters’ struggle short by shuffling their kids off screen whenever it’s convenient, and not even in the name of comical neglect; there always seems to be time and money to get a sitter. [...] [This] at times turns the movie into a referendum on unhelpful husbands of well-off moms, rather than the absurdities of Perfect Mom culture."[24] Lindsey Bahr of Associated Press wrote, "Bad Moms had so many opportunities to be great, edgy and insightful, but instead settles for the most milquetoast commentary possible on modern motherhood."[25]

Controversy

In the aftermath of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, in which more than one hundred members of the LGBTQ community were killed or injured,[26] the trailer for the film was criticised for including "a throwaway joke about one of the first hate crimes against a trans person ever to get any media attention at all — the rape and murder of a boy of twenty-one, absolutely and entirely because he was transgender."[27] The trans man in question, Brandon Teena, died in Humboldt, Nebraska in 1993, and his life and death were the subject of the Academy Award-winning 1999 film Boys Don't Cry.[28][29]

References

  1. ^ "Bad Moms (15)". British Board of Film Classification. August 4, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "Bad Moms (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d Fleming Jr, Mike (April 30, 2015). "Leslie Mann Set To Star, 'Hangover' Scribes Jon Lucas & Scott Moore To Direct Untitled Comedy". deadline.com. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Sneider, Jeff (May 8, 2015). "Leslie Mann Comedy From Producer Judd Apatow Lands at Paramount". thewrap.com. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  5. ^ McNary, Dave (May 15, 2015). "Cannes: Leslie Mann-Judd Apatow Comedy Sees Strong Sales". Variety. variety.com. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  6. ^ Fleming Jr, Mike (June 1, 2015). "Leslie Mann & Judd Apatow Exit 'Bad Moms'". deadline.com. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  7. ^ a b Kit, Borys (October 26, 2015). "Mila Kunis, Christina Applegate, Kristen Bell to Star in Mom Comedy". Hollywood Reporter. hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Busch, Anita (January 11, 2016). "Jada Pinkett Smith & Kathryn Hahn Join STX's Mom Comedy". Deadline. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  9. ^ Coffin, Lesley (January 17, 2016). "Interview: Stars of Lamb Ross Partridge and Oona Laurence". TheMarySue.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  10. ^ Scott, Mike (November 2, 2015). "R-rated comedy, previously titled 'Bad Moms,' to bring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate to New Orleans". nola.com. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  11. ^ "On the Set for 3/4/16: It's Morphin' Time as Cameras Start Rolling on 'Power Rangers' While Kristen Bell & Jada Pinkett Smith Wrap-up 'Bad Moms'". SsnInsider.com. March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  12. ^ McNary, Dave (July 27, 2015). "Richard Linklater Baseball Comedy to Release April 15". variety.com. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  13. ^ "Comedy 'Bad Moms', Sci-Fi Film 'The Space Between Us' Swap Release Dates". The Hollywood Reporter. March 14, 2016. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
  14. ^ "'Jason Bourne' Should Lead Box Office, But Not Ladies Looking For 'Bad Moms' & 'Nerve' – B.O. Preview". Deadline.com.
  15. ^ Brad Brevet (July 31, 2016). "'Jason Bourne' Tops Weekend with $60M; 'Star Trek Beyond' Suffers Big Second Weekend Drop". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 31, 2016. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  16. ^ "Bad Moms (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
  17. ^ "Bad Moms reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  18. ^ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  19. ^ Lasser, Josh (July 28, 2016). "A week in the life of a suburban parent". IGN. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  20. ^ Nashawaty, Chris (July 28, 2016). "Bad Moms: EW review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  21. ^ Travers, Peter (July 28, 2016). "'Bad Moms' Review: A 'Hangover' for Stressed Mothers". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  22. ^ Smith, Kyle (July 28, 2016). "'Bad Moms', good laughs". New York Post. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  23. ^ Stevens, Dana (July 28, 2016). "A women-gone-wild comedy that could have been a bit wilder—and gone after different targets". Slate. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  24. ^ Hassenger, Jesse (July 28, 2016). "Bad Moms alternates satire with easy answers". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  25. ^ Bahr, Lindsey (July 28, 2016). "REVIEW: 'BAD MOMS' FLIRTS WITH ANARCHY, COMES UP SHORT". Associated Press. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  26. ^ Stolberg, S. G.; Pérez-Peña, R. (June 14, 2016). "Orlando Shooting Survivors Cope With the Trauma of Good Fortune". The New York Times. Retrieved June 19, 2016. The slaughter early Sunday left 49 victims dead, in addition to the gunman, and 53 wounded.
  27. ^ Bergman, S. B. (June 16, 2016). "Even Hate Crimes Against Us Are Punchlines. What Do Straight People Expect?". Huffington Post. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  28. ^ "Unite States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit – Brandon v. Lotter (No. 97-3708)". FindLaw. August 28, 1998. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  29. ^ Howey, N. (March 22, 2000). "Boys Do Cry". Mother Jones. Retrieved June 19, 2016.

External links

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