National Post (National Edition)
Support the Girls
Support the Girls
Support the Girls follows Lisa (Regina Hall) on a particularly stressful day at work as the general manager of a Hooters-style establishment called Double Whammies. The title could be the kind of line one of Lisa’s employees might use to describe her push-up bra while flirting with a customer. More likely, the name of the film refers to the fact that Lisa must support her employees psychological needs as their bodies are objectified in the name of food service.
The film begins with Lisa parroting the Double Whammies’ rules to new hires, number-one being: “NO DRAMA!” But rules are made for breaking. As Lisa laments at one point, it is impossible to expect anything but drama from 20-year-old women, especially when they’re tasked to hawk their bodies for better tips. The title’s tongue-in-cheek sexual innuendo serves as astute social commentary, highlighting both the grotesque service industry at play in breastaurants, and the undervalued emotional support that a manager like Lisa provides in order to keep everything in line.
That description sounds dire, but this is an Andrew Bujalski film, and as such, it has an unexpected tenderness to it, endearing us to Lisa’s plight as she faces one mishap after another. In a single shift, she navigates the legal implications of a man stuck in the vents, is forced to quietly and respectfully fire one of her best male employees, babysits a car wash as her saucy new employees act a touch more smutty than permissible for Double Whammies and endures the psychological abuse of her boss, restaurant owner Cubby (James Le Gros).
Bujalski is best known for writing and directing Results, the Guy Pearce-starring comedy set in a fitness club. Like that film — and to a lesser extent Computer Chess, Bujalski’s deft examination of computer programmers in the 1980s — the story and dialogue of Support the Girls deeply understands the cultural mores of the organizational system in which its characters operate, their commitments to the system and the ways in which their identities become forged with that sys- tem, for better or worse.
It’s obvious Lisa is worth so much more than being a Double Whammies manager. But the film makes us appreciate the psychology of her line of work and the toll it takes on empathetic, hardworking people. The patriarchal environment in Support the Girls establishes a very clear division between customer and employee, with Lisa juggles the needs of both with Herculean effort.
Her generosity with emotional labour makes her vulnerable to manipulators, but it’s empowering to see her switch between a motherly persona to the firm, respectful code of conduct she reserves for her customers.
While this is clearly a perfect vehicle for Hall to flex her acting muscles, the film also offers a strong vision of sisterhood. Her employees Maci (Haley Lu Richardson) and Danyelle (rapper Junglepussy) clearly value their boss, as they refuse to work their demeaning Mcjob without her. As a whole, Support the Girls is a standout among the recent movies in which women find stronger, more durable bonds with each other than heterosexual, romantic relationships.∫∫∫∫1/2