Under the Sea

Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021) was getting a lot of good buzz, so we figured we'd check it out. The buzz was right - it's good.

Barb and Star Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig, two middle-aged single women (one widowed, one divorced) living in Nebraska. They are best friends who work at the hottest spot in their little town, Jennifer Convertibles. They sit on the couch and talk all day, even if someone wants to buy the couch. They are timid, quiet types, but when they get fired, they decide to do something crazy, and go to Vista Del Mar Florida.

But someone else is heading for Vista Del Mar. A black haired, albino femme fatale evil supervillain has a plan to destroy the town by releasing venomous mosquitoes. She has dispatched her henchman, Jamie Dornan to do the deed. She promises that if he does this, they will be an official couple. So the girls run into him in the bar, and they share a very large tropical drink, with a surprise at the bottom - I'm guessing X. There's a montage of the three dancing furiously that ends with them waking up in a naked pile. So these woman are getting a chance to live a little.

But they each want to get some time with Dornan alone, which Wiig manages. Soon, she's making excuses to Mumolo to stay in the room (and later sneak into his) sending Mumolo out to have a good time. So we see Mumolo enjoying the resort amenities, including firewalking and getting high with some bikers, and even meeting the mysterious Tommy Bahama (Andy Garcia), while Wiig is getting it on.  

But don't worry, their friendship is strong enough to weather this. And their culottes are powerful enough to save their lives when the villain shows up. By the way, Wiig plays her too. I didn't figure it out, but I'm not that good at recognizing actors (I just misidentified Martin Landau as Martin Balsam). 

There are sort of two things going on in this movie. In some ways, it's a Coen Bros. version of Grand Budapest Hotel - all neon colors and musical dance numbers, very choreographed. It's also a loose improv comedy between Wiig and Mumolo. Their chatter can be a lot of fun, as they share old memories that are either crushingly banal or bizarre. But I sometimes think that they took something from improv that just wasn't that good and ran with it - the stuff about turtles, for ex. My common complaint about this style of modern comedy.

But the bizarre and surreal twists (Reba McEntire as a mermaid) just keep coming, and you don't get much time to worry about little things like that. Or that Barb and Star have Minnesota accents. Do they talk like that in Nebraska, too?