• Film
  • DVD
  • Editorial
  • About ScreenFish

ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • News
  • OtherFish
  • Podcast
  • Give
You are here: Home / DVD / Life of the Party: The Schools of Hard Knocks & Education

Life of the Party: The Schools of Hard Knocks & Education

August 7, 2018 by Jacob Sahms Leave a Comment

Deanna Miles (Melissa McCarthy) put her ambition and dreams aside when she found herself pregnant as a rising college senior. Her chauvinistic and appearance-driven husband Dan (Matt Walsh) pushed her to quit college, but when he quits on their marriage during their daughter Maddie’s (Molly Gordon) senior year, Deanna returns to college herself and transforms herself into the sorority sister known as Dee Rock. But will her back to school attitude provide her the life she wants?

McCarthy’s personality is on full display in several scenes, like when she attends a sorority’s 1980s party and rules the dance off, or when she butchers the toast at the first party she ever goes to, over and over again. Her best work may have been left on the cutting room floor – or at least the gag reel. But there’s something telling about a woman pursuing her dream and going back to school when the man in her life fails her terribly. [My own mother found herself going back to school late in life, rocking the undergraduate and graduate degree programs, twenty years after she was financially forced to leave school. No tragedy took her back, but I remember our family’s pride in her followthrough.]

Unfortunately, Life of the Party seemed terribly unfunny, considering how overstocked with comedians (Chris Parnell, Maya Rudolph, Stephen Root, Julia Bowen, etc.) the cast was. And here’s the thing: while the film is intent on reminding us that women can be awesome moms and follow their dreams, Life of the Party accents how lately, McCarthy seems to be doing too much. As terrific as she was on Mike & Molly, it’s sad to notice the trend on these lesser lights on her resume: on Tammy, The Boss, and Life of the Party, she and husband Ben Falcone wrote, directed, produced, and starred. On the other hand, when she “just” starred in Spy, St. Vincent, The Heat, The Identity Thief, and Bridesmaids, she was funnier than most of her peers. So, while this is not the point Life of the Party was trying to make, maybe McCarthy should stick to being a dynamite actress who can both kill it and light up a scene.

One last thing about the film made me uncomfortable: McCarthy’s Dee Rock ends up performing some Graduate-like older woman-on-a-younger-man action that ends up… creepy. If an older man had gone back to school and engaged in the sexual escapades she did, it would be an outcry-worthy moment. I found this to be no different, and even more frustrating, regretted the script’s need to show that a good portion of Dee Rock’s value was that she could ‘net’ a younger man. Her value as a woman, a mother, a student, and a leader was diminished – her greater influence was in the ways she inspired her daughter’s sorority to be themselves, to believe in themselves, and to not define themselves by the men in their lives.

There’s beauty in Life of the Party, but you’ll have to see past some of the college pitfalls, too.

Share it!

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: DVD, Featured, Film, Reviews

About Jacob Sahms

Jacob serves as a United Methodist pastor in Virginia, where he spends his downtime in a theater or playing sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

THE SF NEWS

Get a special look, just for you.

sf podcast

Hot Off the Press

  • Birds of Passage – Lost Values Lead to Ruin
  • 52 Words for Love: Love in Every Language
  • Oscar-Nominated Live Action Shorts
  • Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts
  • Fantasy and Reality in BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
Find tickets and showtimes on Fandango.

where faith and film are intertwined

film and television carry stories which remind us of the stories God has woven since the beginning of time. come with us on a journey to see where faith and film are intertwined.

ScreenFish Articles

Birds of Passage – Lost Values Lead to Ruin

52 Words for Love: Love in Every Language

  • Widows: A Heist of Their Own

    Widows: A Heist of Their Own

    Continue Reading...
  • About ScreenFish
  • Privacy Policy

© 2019 · ScreenFish.net · Built by RVA Creative

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.