Bridesmaids

Finally, after 7 years of movies starring mostly dudes, producer Judd Apatow is giving the ladies their chance to shine. There's actually a lot riding on Bridesmaids. Most female-led comedies are aimed directly at women, and usually star Reese Witherspoon or someone else who is not particularly funny. They then go through the motions of having to decide between two men, both perfectly appealing, blah blah blah. "Chick Flicks". Well, Bridesmaids is here to show us that movies about women can be funny across the board, not just for women. That you don't need Will Ferrell to anchor a comedy.

Don't believe the "It's The Hangover for girls" crap. It really bares no similarity at all to The Hangover. There's no debauchery. It really feels a lot like the other movies produced by Judd Apatow: A lot of improvised one-liners, a lot of humor derived from social awkwardness and personal pain, and, like most of them, about 20 minutes longer than it needs to be.

Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig stars as Annie, who is going through a bit of a rough patch in her life when her childhood friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) asks her to be the maid of honor at her wedding. Annie is not very good at getting her own shit together, so, of course, the comedy ensues when she has to organize all these special events for someone else. Along for the ride are a mismatched group of bridesmaids. It's a pretty simple formula, and it doesn't deviate much from where you would expect. But that doesn't matter if it's funny, which it really is.

Kristen Wiig is fantastic in this. She's one of those rare comedic performers that is just at home playing over-the-top as she is playing subtle. I always like her more human characters more. Her awkwardness and nervous patter makes her relatable. I had quite a crush on her in Bridesmaids. She pulls of bedraggled and overwhelmed-by-life nicely.

The rest of the bridesmaids (and the bride) are funny too. A lot of people are saying Melissa McCarthy runs away with the show as Lillian's butch future sister-in-law. She's pretty funny, and they don't use her too much, so she doesn't wear out her welcome. Ellie Kemper (from The Office) and Wendy McClendon-Covey (from Reno 911) are both unfortunately underused. Rose Byrne is excellent as Helen, Annie's rival for Lillian's best friend position.

Also in the mix is Chris O'Dowd, as Annie's love interest. I'm glad things are looking up for him in Hollywood. He's on one of my favorite shows in England, The IT Crowd. He's a funny guy.

One more little thing: I found out in an interview with director Paul Feig that the above poster was modeled after the below iconic album cover:

How cool is that???

As I said before, a lot is riding on Bridesmaids. If it hits, (which, judging by the packed theater at 4:00 in the afternoon, it did) a lot more hilarious women will be getting their big chance. Me, I'm dying to see a Kristen Schaal vehicle.

So, to wrap things up, I'll say that Bridesmaids is pretty damn good. Even though the story itself didn't cover much new ground, it was still engaging, likeable, and funny.

I usually give movies a letter grade at the end, but I'm sick of it and they're stupid and arbitrary, so those are over. Just go see Bridesmaids! Even if you're a dude. Gender really shouldn't matter if it's good comedy.