A Star (and Barb) Is Born

Before I can bring you my annual movie recap and personal Top 10 list for 2021, I have to squeeze in a couple of review posts. That's because two movies I saw just recently (after New Year's Eve, in fact) wound up carving out on a spot on my list. Today, I want to talk about one that just barely made the list.

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is a movie that defies easy explanation. It's a buddy comedy written by and starring Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo. The title tells you (sort of) what the movie is about: a pair of chatterbox best friends decide to take a beach vacation together. Hilarity ensures. But that simple encapsulation fails utterly to capture the "what the hell am I watching?" zaniness at the heart of this movie.

I could try another angle and try to describe what this movie is like by comparing it to other movies. I could tell you that Wiig and Mumolo were also the writers and co-stars in Bridesmaids, and tell you that if you like that movie, you'll like this one. But Bridesmaids is so much more normal than this movie.

I could tell you that some people have compared it to Palm Springs -- a sort of "squint and you'll get there" comparison based on the fact that both movies were released on Hulu, one in 2020 and one in 2021, with each movie capturing an element of "life in a pandemic." (Palm Springs captures the "every day is the same" ennui of isolation, while Barb and Star arrived when everybody was "ready for vacation, dammit!")

I could say that if I had to compare Barb and Star to just one other movie, I'd pick Dude, Where's My Car? A couple of extreme characters flit about through a series of outrageous (and escalating) circumstances.

None of that would adequately prepare you for the sheer absurdist anarchy of this movie. And while I could probably come up with some form of "put these four movies in a blender, and you'll get Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar" analogy, I'd honestly rather not. Because the less you know going in, the more I think you might enjoy its charms.

I can say that this movie is really, really dumb. But also, because there's nowhere it won't go, it's often really, really funny. Kristen Wiig kills -- particularly in the other, unhinged half of a dual role she plays. Annie Mumolo is funny to a degree that made me wonder why, despite her background in the Groundlings, I haven't seen her in more things. And in an inspired example of casting a "serious actor" for an utterly non-serious role, Jamie Dornan is given some of the broadest jokes of all, and makes an absolute fool of himself to get a laugh. Add small appearances by Damon Wayans Jr, Vanessa Bayer, Phyllis Smith, Ian Gomez, Richard Cheese, Andy Garcia, and... actually, I don't think I'll spoil the last one.

The result isn't going to be for everyone -- and almost seems to have the attitude that it doesn't care if it's for anyone else. How will you know it's for you, when I won't tell you more about it? I suggest you just give it a try. If you watch the first 5 minutes and don't want to know more, you can safely just bug out.

I give Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar a B. It will be pushed out of my Top 10 List as soon as I see just one other "worthy" movie from 2021. But while I might find something I like more, I'm very unlikely to find anything else quite like it.