‘PARTY’ SCHOOL
McCarthy earns high grade in mom-in-college comedy
In the middle of “Life of the Party,” the betterthan-expected Melissa McCarthy comedy, Deanna Miles (McCarthy), a 40-something mother who decides to finish her degree at the same college her daughter attends, goes with her daughter and their sorority sister friends to a “Back to the ’80s” party. Talk about deja vu. The whole film is an ’80s flashback, especially to the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield effort “Back to School.”
Directed by McCarthy’s husband, Ben Falcone, and written by the two of them (this is their third film together, after “Tammy” and “The Boss”), “Life of the Party” flirts with and at times resembles such raunchy collegiate efforts as the classic “Animal House.”
In opening scenes, Deanna, aka Dee Rock, her husband, Dan (Matt Walsh), and their daughter Maddie (a very likable Molly Gordon) arrive at the college where Maddie is about to finish her senior year. As it turns out Deanna dropped out of the same school, where she studied archaeology, in her senior year when she became pregnant with Maddie.
After Dan declares that he’s divorcing Deanna to marry a Realtor named Marcie (Julie Bowen), who can only speak in property terms, Deanna, whose best friend Christine (a priceless Maya Rudolph) offers her full support, decides to go back to school.
In archaeology class with her daughter’s friend Helen (Gillian Jacobs), aka “Coma Girl” because she was in a coma for eight years, which is why she’s older than most other students, Deanna, who is dressed like a college Christmas tree, of course, encounters mean girls Jennifer (Debby Ryan) and Trina (Yani Smone), who ridicule Deanna for her age and wardrobe.
But Deanna learns to hunker down, take the punishment and acclimate. She even attracts the attention of a much younger lover in Jack (Luke Benward), a frat boy she meets at a party.
The best thing about “Life of the Party” is the cast, including Jackie Weaver as Deanna’s mother, Stephen Root as her father and Heidi Gardner (“Saturday Night Live”) as Deanna’s agoraphobic Goth roommate Leonor. That the unnamed college in the film costs $28,000 per year to attend may be the worst joke in the film.
A big surprise cameo is not quite as thrilling as the film pretends, and I could have done without McCarthy doing some (CG?) breakdancing and the inevitable hugs at the end. But this “Party” has some life after all.