SISTERS

2015 / Director. Jason Moore.
Review by Glenn Cochrane.

Once upon a time Tina Fey and Amy Poehler made a wonderful film called BABY MAMA. It was a sincere and understated comedy full of heart and two very strong comical performances. In the years to follow their partnership was reaffirmed as they continued to capture people's attention by way of hosting award ceremonies. All good things must come to an end, and their latest offering is a most shitful affair.

SISTERS sees Fey and Poehler trading their BABY MAMA places, with Fey taking on the rebellious role while Poehler assumes the straight uptight function. They play sisters (derr) who never grew up and seize an opportunity to host an old school house party. They invite all of their old childhood friends (all of whom have become respectable adults) and set in motion a night of illicit mayhem, that delivers one cliché after another.

So let me throw a few positive notes at you. Fey and Poehler have an undeniable synchronicity and the chemistry between them excuses some of the movie's shortcomings (just some). They are also very body confident and are never afraid to sacrifice their dignity for the sake of a laugh. It really is refreshing to see two powerful women like them take pride in their less flattering attributes. From pot bellies to playdoughy rolls of skin, and a whole variety of indecent postures and antics. I love what these two women represent, which makes the impact of SISTERS' nosedive all the more painful.

The film was written by fellow SNL writer Paula Pell and it would seem that her preparation consisted entirely of watching house-party movies. I would hazard a guess that CAN'T HARDLY WAIT and PROJECT X were the two titles she had on loop... that is until she saw NEIGHBOURS and thought “Fuck it! Lets just do that!”. And so there you have it. SISTERS is another comedy about middle aged people desperately trying to relive their youth and making fools of themselves in the process.

In the case of SISTERS there is a fifteen to twenty minute chunk of solid laughs in the middle, which is padded by seriously unfunny, long and cringe-worthy bookends. As talented as Fey and Poehler are together, this outing smacks of desperation. It's so bad that I would recommend avoiding it entirely..... IF it weren't for the fact that Diane Wiest drops a big fat C-BOMB... and that's something that is well worth the price of admission (or just wait for the home entertainment release, whatevs). 

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