Funny, relatable moms on screen
‘Bad Moms’ shows promise as believable take on motherhood
I had three thoughts when I watched the new trailer for “Bad Moms,” the movie starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn that’s set for a July 29 release.
Please be as funny as the trailer.
Please be as funny as the trailer.
Please be as funny as the trailer.
Moms have not fared well, historically, in the movies. If we’re not dead (“Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Little Mermaid,” “Frozen,” “Epic,” you get the idea) or evil (“Mommie Dearest,” “The Manchurian Candidate”), we’re men (“Mr. Mom”).
I jest — a little. Sally Field was a pretty great mom in “Forrest Gump,” but who has a wise slogan for every one of life’s challenges?
“Bad Moms,” which centers on one mom (Kunis) who caves under career/parentteacher association/soccer schedule pressure and takes her mom friends (Bell and Hahn) with her, will not provide us with paragons of self less, unassailable motherhood.
It doesn’t need to. It just needs to look familiar.
“It’s impossible to know whether you’re doing a good job,” Bell says during one scene.
“My son still watches ‘Sesame Street,’” says Hahn, about her teenager. “And he doesn’t get it.”
“My son failed study hall,” says Kunis.
“My daughter stole money from a homeless woman,” says Bell.
Kunis: “(Expletive!) I love them so much!”
Bell: “I would literally die for them right now.” Pretty much. In another scene, a familiar yarn about allergen-free snacks is, thanks to Christina Applegate’s delivery, darn funny.
“The bake sale,” Applegate says, as moms in the auditorium furiously scribble notes. “No BPA, no MSG, no BHA, no BHT, no sesame, no soy and, of course, no nuts or eggs or milk or butter or salt or sugar or wheat.”
If “Bridesmaids” taught us anything, it was this: We don’t need our female characters to be all good — virtuous and right-minded — or all bad — scheming and irredeemable. They don’t have to be examples to the rest of us. They can just be funny and relatable.
(It also taught us that women-led casts sell tickets.)
If “Bad Moms” has enough moments that have us nodding along in recognition and laughing along at the ridiculousness of motherhood — fictional and realworld — I think it will be worth our time.
Heidi Stevens is a Chicago Tribune columnist. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.