Blockers - Review
This review of Blockers is spoiler-free!
Comedy is often a difficult beast in the current days of the film renaissance we are experiencing. Sometimes we get comedies reminiscent of the early 2000s that target a duller and older demographic, focused on raunchy moments and vitriol between main characters. But in today's world, the majority of comedies are either based on the problems we have with society such as racial tension, weight issues, or dirty jokes in general. For me, good comedy has been something that is hard to find in the current landscape. Thinking of my most recent comedic experience in theaters, Game Night was an excellent but generic story for a comedy elevated by great performances. Blockers follows in this same vein but doesn't manage to assemble such a widely known cast. What it does have though is John Cena.
The story of Blockers is actually fairly simple. Julie, Kayla, and Sam are three friends who meet at a young age and travel through youth together. Arriving at their senior year of high school and prom, the three of them decide to make a pact to lose their virginity on prom night however possible. Soon their parents Hunter, Mitchell, and Lisa learn of this secret pact and decide that their children aren't ready. Together they choose to go after their daughters and stop them from doing the deed in whatever manner necessary. Blockers at face value looks like a rather generic story focusing on raunchy comedy and a cast of characters that could be forgettable outside of their comedic moments. Blockers though manages to shake the mold of a comedy by having a lot of heart and emotion. From the trailers, the story feels mostly like an adventure for the parents but comes full circle to connect with the teens as well. There's alot more depth to this story that I'll talk about later, but all around Kay Cannon (the director of Blockers) does great working developing an all-encompassing story.
For characters, honestly, all of the characters in this story could be talked about. But, I think I will spend some time talking about each group as a whole. Firstly, let's talk about the parents. Playing the parents we have Leslie Mann's Lisa Decker, a single mother of Julie (Kathryn Newton); Ike Barinholtz as Hunter, the absentee father of Sam (Gideon Adlon); and John Cena as Mitchell, Kayla's extremely overprotective, emotional, and obsessed with sports father. As I mentioned, these characters are more than meets the eye and even though they have their share of raunchy moments, there are some serious undertones with each of these characters. Their bond with each other is just as important to the story as is their bond with their children. All of the actors here play their role better than anticipated and I truly believe John Cena is on a trajectory to be an even bigger star in Hollywood than Dwayne Johnson, just in comedy, not action.
Speaking of the children though, even though they get less screen time they have their own story as whole compared to their parents. Exploring young love and pressure amongst peers, we see the three teen girls deal with their own inner emotions along with the pressure from their friends and parents. In the end, each girl does decide what they want from prom, with Gideon Adlon's Sam being the one to take the most exciting turn in the story. The others have fairly generic but interesting arcs, but Sam's is a unique take on a comedy and something that makes the movie that much better. This ability for two different audiences to connect with Blockers make it that much better of a movie as a whole.
All in all, the story of Blockers could be considered by many to be rather one-note and uninspired if they weren't to go to the theater and actually see it. For me personally, I can't help but smile and acknowledge at how much help the secondary stories of the lasting relationships between the parents and the pressure amongst peers between the children help to improve the story as a whole. Yes Blockers is a comedy, and raunchy at times, but when it comes down to it it's a movie with a lot of heart and emotion and helps to push forward a narrative and change in comedies that isn't just empty laughs.
8.5/10
