Bad Moms
Dustin Chase
Thankfully the latest raunchy comedy doesn’t star Zac Efron, but the quality is still equally as bad. Writer/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore have created a film aimed at young moms who are tired of trying to be perfect. Their script over exaggerates the difficulties of motherhood and life in general. In the universe of this film, being a “bad mom” isn’t just the musical montage where three grown women destroy a supermarket, it’s standing up for yourself, taking a few minutes each day to do what she wants, and not spoiling the children. The good or bad mom scale is derived entirely from the male perspective.
Amy (Kunis) tries to be the perfect mother, working three days a week at a new age coffee company, fixing her two pre-teen children’s lunches, science projects, attending their various extracurricular activities and being home at night to put dinner on the table. Her husband Mike (David Walton) doesn’t pitch in because he is too busy skyping with other women in his home office during his many hours of downtime. Amy has enough and decides to drop her balancing act. She befriends other outsider mommies Carla (Hahn) and Kiki (Bell), together they discover what’s been missing from their predictable lives – party time. Together they make it their mission to take down judgy PTA mom Gwendolyn (Applegate) who is part of the reason their lives are so manic.
Every female on screen selfishly represents the male stereotype of both women and mothers.
In one scene Amy is complaining that she has no time and no money, yet after a few disruptions, she is able to take a few hours at the bar, wasting money on alcohol. “We’re killing ourselves trying to be perfect,” Amy says. Real mothers are likely to be offended by this film’s notion that all mom’s feel the same. Bad Moms preaches revolt from oppression but never explores each women’s own choices for being in their present situation. The moment Amy hands her son his science project, I would expect most mothers are scratching their heads thinking why would a good mother even be doing that in the first place? The film never addresses this, just offers endless troubles of her own making.
Hahn gets the only authentic laughs out of the film, but it’s trial and error comedy for the comedian who spouts vulgarity in every scene. “I feel like everything that comes out of your mouth is a cry for help”, Carla jabs at Kiki. Bad Moms feels more like a Mean Girls sequel, as it pits one type of female against another. Every female on screen selfishly represents the male stereotype of both women and mothers. Now sure all female characters in film can’t represent strong, independent figures who change the world, but the characters in this script are insulting. The movie uses nearly every Billboard top ten pop song in the 104 minutes of running time. Then after the most vulgar of dialogue and behavior, we hear a new song from The Calling that’s supposed to wipe away everything and make the audience feel emotional and sentimental?
Final Thought
Women and mothers are stereotyped in one of the year’s most vulgar films.