Movie Review: Come Join! Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar
Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar (BASGTVDM) was NOT at all what I thought it would be. I knew it would be funny because Kristen Wiig (Star) and Annie Mumolo (Barb) wrote Bridesmaids together and, at their core, are just plain hilarious. Yet, I did not expect the movie to be so strange. It is Anchorman with middle-aged, white women with big hair, Mid-western accents, and who firmly believe things like, sand in a jar, are valuable collectibles. They adore coffee and conversation and swear a trip to CVS or Costco is an opportunity for adventure. Moreover, to them, Chico’s is a TOP fashion line. Truthfully….. after seeing this movie……it might be.
We all have encountered a Barb and Star. They are the sweet ladies who get excited about anything and have a pack of questions that are usually followed by another pack of questions. Thus, there will be people that find these ladies annoying or so irreverent that the first quarter of the film is a WTF. Yet, Anchorman garnered the same reactions. You watch these films because they are astonishingly weird and blatantly funny. They have no problem twisting their storylines into absolute outlandishness, which Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar does through: a Morgan Freeman crab singing to his oceanic retirement, a mermaid called Trish, and a man in love with a woman allergic to the sun who loves killer mosquitos and combining every soda together. Yes….. that is all in the film.
I was ROLLING in laughter as much as I was awed by BASGTVDM’s spy thriller, musical derangement. Yet, if there was one thing that kept me anchored enough to follow its strangeness, it was its leads. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo make Star and Barb such a pair of good hearts. For however aloof they may seem, you like them, and it explains why they attract crazy characters like, Jamie Dornan’s Edgar. I can honestly say this “romantic lead” is a total twist from how we usually see the actor, but this is a crew of characters that are highly quotable and standouts. For one, Reyn Doi “Yoyo,” a star of the trailer, is 100% one to watch.
Frankly, I love humor that makes me squint from its surrealism. Moreover, humor is always based on some level of morality. When we meet Star and Barb, they are at a crux in their life, but they also have zero bitterness or malice. Still, in having absolutely nothing to lose, because they have lost it all, they feel they don’t deserve anything. Thus, when an opportunity to go to the magical world of “Florida” arises, they take it, and so begins the laughs and totally perplexing journey of two women trying to find their “joie de vivre. ” Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar Comes Out February 12.
