Hooting and rooting for Regina Hall
A summer sitcom about a hectic Hooters-style Texas roadhouse far exceeds expectations.
Support the Girls (out of 4) Starring Regina Hall, Haley Lu Richardson, Shayna McHayle, Brooklyn Decker and James LeGros. Written and directed by Andrew Bujalski. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 90 minutes. 14A
From its groaner of a title on down, Support the Girls should by rights be the kind of latesummer comedy that gives August a bad name as a movie month.
Except it’s not. Writer/director Andrew Bujalski takes a sitcom idea about a hectic Hooters-style Texas roadhouse and turns it into something that far exceeds the lowest common denominator.
He’s adept at this, having shown in such previous features as Computer Chess and
Results that he’s more interested in believable characters and situations than in reaching for easy laughs. Lead player Regina Hall ( Girls
Trip) greatly assists in this endeavour. Her character Lisa an- chors the antics with motherhen authority that doesn’t disguise a bone-deep melancholy about how she ended up where she’s at. She feels real, stuck in a situation that’s a lot like real life.
Lisa is general manager of a sports bar called Double Whammies (of course), where the shorts are short and the tops are cropped, and three Bs rule: “Boobs, brews and big screens.”
She’s having a bad day, one that begins with tears — we eventually find out why — and with no guarantee that it will end with a smile.
Lisa finds herself addressing multiple crises. A server needs help raising funds for a legal defence, since she ran over her badass boyfriend with her car. Lisa throws an impromptu car wash fundraiser in the bar’s parking lot, conscripting Double Whammies servers to help.
Meanwhile, she has to call the cops to free a guy caught in the ceiling, evidently a break-in gone wrong. And there is trouble at home.
Lisa has to do all these things without unduly alarming the bar’s sketchy owner (James Le Gros), who has no interest in making her life any easier.
She gets tangible and emotional assistance from two staffers, played with zest and compassion by Haley Lu Richardson’s enthusiastic Maci and Shayna McHayle’s take-no-guff Danyelle.
Support the Girls is rich in the details that are often overlooked in films like this. I like the instruction sheet telling servers that all customers must “get your full attention” — but only for two minutes, lest they get any big ideas.
Lisa enforces a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of sexual harassment, and that includes a biker twice her size who is spoiling for a fight. But she must also enforce the behaviour of her servers, including one she has to fire for getting a tattoo of NBA star Steph Curry on her body — tattoos are a no-no at Double Whammies.
Through it all Lisa maintains a stoic sense of calm and a yearning for a better deal.
“All I wanted to do today is just one good thing,” she sighs. She’s got our support.