Review: Sisters

Good for fans of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but not for much else.
mpaa rating:R (For crude sexual content and language throughout, and for drug use.)Genre:ComedyDirected By: Jason Moore
Run Time: 1 hour 58 minutes
Cast: Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Ike Barinholtz
Theatre Release:December 18, 2015 by Universal Pictures

This is a great movie for fans of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who are OK with laughing until they cry at dirty jokes that have no right being that funny. Anybody who’s just one, the other, or neither, should probably steer clear and go see Star Wars.

For those of you left in that small camp, you’ve hit a gold mine. Sisters is hilarious in all the worst ways, one of those movies you feel bad for laughing so hard at and enjoying so much. Maybe that’s what makes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in combo so good – they can land some of the nastiest punchlines by making them feel as awkwardly spontaneous as crude jokes should. That chemistry is the most significant thing about the film. The story could be a lot worse, but any movie that bookends an hour-long party plot with brief sympathy-building scenes could be better.

Tina and Amy play to their strength of playing off each other as polar-opposite sisters Kate (Fey) and Maura (Poehler). Kate is a struggling single mom running a beauty salon out of her friend’s bathroom. Maura is a well-off divorcee who works as a nurse and spends her free time handing out sunscreen and homemade proverb cards to homeless people. Their retiring parents call Maura to hesitantly reveal the news that they’re selling their family home and need the girls to come clean out their rooms. They don’t want to tell Kate themselves, knowing she’ll overreact, and leave it to Maura.

Maura also opts out of this responsibility, instead submitting her more austere personality to her sister’s exuberance. On their loud drive to the house, they stop off for beer, flirt with the handyman, James (Ike Barinholtz), across the street, and blare their music. This early party …Continue reading…