High school high jinks that will have you in stitches
Blockers (15) Verdict: Slick, resonant comedy ★★★★✩
WHEN my daughter, then 17, first brought a boyfriend home to stay the night, I confess that I showed him to the spare room, held his gaze for a little longer than was comfortable for either of us, and said ‘this is where you’ll be sleeping’.
Meanwhile, my wife was downstairs dealing with my daughter’s furious indignation, saying: ‘Daddy won’t let him share your room so just do what teenagers have always done and creep across the landing when we’re asleep.’ Outrageous, I know. And not because she still called me Daddy.
The always-relevant topic of parents agonising about their teenage daughters’ sex lives is dealt with, sometimes lewdly, often uproariously, in Blockers. I truly hadn’t expected to enjoy it so much, but it is wonderfully slick, painfully resonant and laugh-out-loud funny in more than a few places.
Lisa (Leslie Mann), Mitchell (John Cena) and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) have known each other since their three daughters became best friends on their first day at elementary school. Now the girls, Julie (Kathryn
Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon), are preparing to leave high school for college. Julie has a steady boyfriend, Kayla is unattached, and Sam thinks she’s probably gay, but that doesn’t alter the pact they make: that they will all lose their virginity on prom night.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, their parents discover the plan by reading their text messages and resolve to stop them. Predictably, great hilarity ensues, but amid all the riotous slapstick (and, in truth, one or two gross-out scenes that veer a bit too close to The InBetweeners films for my liking), there’s a surprisingly punchy, sophisticated wit.
The writers are brothers Jim and Brian Kehoe, while Kay Cannon, who wrote the Pitch Perfect movies, makes an admirably assured directorial debut. She keeps the tone light and the pace brisk, yet does not overlook some serious themes, like the double-standards of those who think that it is fine for boys to be sexually active but not for girls.
If the film has a single message, it’s one I rather endorse: that most decent, sensible teenagers can be trusted to make their own decisions about these matters, and parental interference is generally not helpful. Mind you, that’s easy for me to say. My daughter isn’t 17 any more.