Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2016 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Define Bad Bad Moms (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Bad Moms (110 minutes) is a film about women written and directed by men. Let that sink in for a minute. I am not criticizing Jon Lucas and Scott Moore for writing a female-centered film, but the Hollywood system puts out material written and directed by men more than material written and directed by women. And it's not because women aren't funny, or because women choose not to write and direct films — it's because women are shut out of the Hollywood boys club. We begin with the story of single working mother — wait a minute; my bad. Amy (Mila Kunis) is married to Mike (David Walton) — and he doesn't cook, clean, pick kids up from school or apparently bother taking regular showers. My rage face appears. For the first 10 minutes of the film, Amy is talking about all the stuff she does for her family, including her kids' homework and that whole time she had a spouse sitting at home in sweatpants? What in the world? My rage face reappears frequently over the next 90 minutes of the film. It turns out that Mike is engaged in some virtual cheating via an Internet live pornography site, and the thought of someone cheating on Mila Kunis is easily the least believable thing about a movie that includes moms who actually show up for last- minute PTA meetings fully dressed and sober. Then there's Kiki (Kristen Bell). Where do I begin? Kiki's husband is verbally and emotionally abusive, and while the way he treats Kiki clearly makes her friends uncomfortable, they never pull her aside to say, "Gosh, that way your husband treats you is not okay." They limit themselves to talking about her crappy relationship after she leaves. Kiki has no job, and when her husband catches her out with her friends, he tells her it is her job to stay with the children at all times — limiting someone's movements, isolating them and ensuring financial dependency are all red flags for domestic violence. I am further horrified by the fact that her character arc leads not to divorce and escape from her husband, but to a newly confident Kiki redistributing the childcare responsibilities to a temporarily submissive husband. Do the writers not know about the cycle of abuse? I mean, he's acting submissive by the end of the film, but abusers typically go through an apologetic phase on their way to more abuse. Overall, the first half of the film made me laugh more often than it did not, but by the second half I was thoroughly bored, as the narrative descended into montages of women drinking and misbehaving as a counterpoint to the B plot about running for PTA president. Lucas and Moore are best known for writing and directing films in the Men Behaving Badly genre (The Hangover franchise; Wedding Crashers). I am not a fan. And while I think they managed to cover quite a few issues present in modern families, I think some of their insight was accidental. The women are not well characterized and the men are similarly one- note. Some of the material comes off as completely tone deaf — and I am pretty sure that the writer's ideas about relationships are extremely unhealthy. Now showing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Guest Celebrity MC Don Chase of WKML Carolina's Best and Most Country Awards Presentation 6:30 p.m. Welcome: Bill Bowman, Publisher, Up & Coming Weekly Remarks: Mayor Nat Robertson County Commission Chairman Marshall Faircloth Chamber Chairman Darsweil Rogers Cedar Creek Road, Fayetteville 2016 BEST OF FAYETTEVILLE AWARDS PARTY Tuesday, September 13, 2016 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at You are cordially invited to attend the exclusive preview $i. 50 Drink, Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Drink, Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Popcorn. Every Day All Day! $i. 50 Popcorn. Every Day All Day! $i. 50 Popcorn. Every Day All Day! $i. 50 Drinks. Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Drinks. Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Drinks. Every Day, All Day! $2.00 before 6:00 p.m. $3.00 after 6:00 p.m. $1.00 extra for 3D MOVIES Movie Monday: $1.50 All Day(Holiday or 3D movies excluded)