June 5th, Movie 6

The June Swoon continues today diving into the world of comedy with Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. Barb and Star felt like characters that had been from another source, such as SNL or British TV, but, as far as I can tell from my research, they are originating in this movie.

Star is played by the wonderful Kristen Wiig and Barb is played by Annie Mumolo, who I was unaware of before this. Barb and Star are a pair of middle aged women who are friends and who spend their lives together, both widowed, talking and exchanging an almost non-stop banter with each other.

And it is exceptionally funny.

Poor Star and Barb lost their jobs and were kicked out of their discussion club for lying about it so they were at their wits end. They finally decided that they needed a vacation from their regular life, and they packed their bags for a place in Florida called Vista De Mar.

Coincidentally enough, an international terrorist named Sharon Gordon Fisherman (also played by Kristen Wiig), a white skinned woman, and her boy toy assistant Edgar (Jamie Dornan), were targeting Vista Del Mar for a complicated plan of revenge over its treatment of Sharon Gordon Fisherman when she lived in the community as a youth.

Fisherman sent Edgar ahead to set up her revenge. Unfortunately, he lost an important piece after a night of drunken debauchery with Barb and Star. Edgar, who had been in an unrequited loving relationship with Fisherman, started spending more time with Star. Star hid the relationship from Barb because she did not want to have Barb feel bad leading to a potential rift between the ladies.

The movie is utterly silly and has plenty of ridiculous scenes and moments, but it works because they are really funny. There were times when I could feel that if certain scenes were in different movies, I might hate them, but since I had drawn such a love for these characters, I accepted it as okay (I’m specifically thinking about parachute pants).

Jamir Dornan was great here too. He had solid comedic timing and he sang. Yes, there are a couple of moments when the film broke into songs. I would not consider the whole movie a musical, but there are at least two scene where it could make sense in a musical.

I’ve said this before… the most important part of a comedy is…does it make you laugh? Barb and Star made me laugh. I found it to be extremely charming and fun.