Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo are an established comedic duo and I suspect that how much one likes this film directly depends on how much you like their act. I’ve never seen any of their work before this and I have to say that I was totally flummoxed by the tone of this film and who it’s meant for. Eventually I was able to work out that it’s really a power fantasy for middle-aged women while embracing maximum silliness. This isn’t really a film that is to my tastes but I do acknowledge how well-made it is and how fully committed it is to its particular vision of female friendship.

After Barb’s husband dies and Star’s husband leaves her, the two best friends work together in the same shop and live together in the same house. When the store suddenly closes, they decide to take a trip to Vista Del Mar in Florida as they have not been out of their home town before. Despite being originally booked to stay in a modest motel, they soon move into the much more luxurious and glamorous resort next door. They have the time of their lives there and meet a younger man Edgar. After getting drunk and high with him, they have a threesome with him. Star develops feelings for Edgar and pretends to be sick to continue to meet him without Barb. Barb in turn has fun joining in all sorts of activities without Star but feels guilty about it. Unbeknownst to the both of them however, Edgar is actually an agent working for a villain, Sharon. He is there to carry out her nefarious plan to kill everyone in the town by unleashing genetically-engineered mosquitoes on them.

I knew going in that this was about two middle-aged women going on holiday so I was left wondering if I was watching the right film when the prologue made it look like a children’s superspy action movie instead. Okay I can deal with that, I thought but then this isn’t an actual children’s movie either as the duo participate in an orgy, do drugs and there are copious sex jokes. It took me a while to realize that I am not the target audience and this really is a kind of power fantasy for middle-aged women, and they are surely entitled to it as much as anyone else. So this is film in which they get to romance and have sex with a hot man younger than them, have fabulous adventures and save everyone, live it up at a fancy resort and unapologetically indulge as much as they want in their favorite bonding activity of chattering endlessly to each other on an infinite number of topics. Given how strongly I dislike the archetype of chatterbox aunties, this isn’t an easy fantasy for me to buy into and the duo here do annoy the other passengers on the same flight as them with their interminable talking. But I have to concede that there are women who really live for this and so it’s really kind of brilliant of Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo who play the duo and also wrote the screenplay to lionize this archetype.

As ludicrous as this premise is to me, I admire how the filmmakers go all in on it. The musical sequences with funny lyrics and flamboyant dancing, particularly on the part of Jamie Dornan who plays Edgar, the color palette and costumes, the ridiculous way that the duo deals with threats without needing to fight, are all perfectly tuned in service of this vision. There are all kinds of jokes and references I’m not getting either, such as just what is the deal with Trish, but I assume they mean something to their intended audience. On one level this may look like a dumb film but there’s so much thought and intentionality directed towards a specific purpose with no wasted effort. It really is an amazing piece of craftsmanship.

I’m too far removed from the target audience to personally enjoy it but I think it’s pretty great that this film exists. Josh Greenbaum is credited as the director but it looks to me like this was mainly the pet project of Wiig and Mumolo who knew exactly what they wanted to do and hired all the right people to make it happen. I doubt I will ever like any of their previous films so I won’t be watching them but I wish them the best all the same.