Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar Surreal endeavors like this should be referred to as “mood comedies” I can easily understand someone checking out early, but man was I apparently in the right mood for it. Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig co-wrote and co-star as Barb and Star, two permed and culotte-wearing best friends from Soft Rock, Nebraska who work together, finish each other’s thoughts and even moved in together after they were respectively widowed and divorced. After they lose their jobs, they decide to take their first-ever vacation together to a Florida resort town where, unfortunately, someone is planning to release genetically-modified mosquitoes to kill everyone. The wavelength it’s operating on feels similar to that of the
2/12/2021
Ian Samuels adapts Lev Grossman s time-loop teen romance in an Amazon film starring Kyle Allen and Kathryn Newton.
The time-loop genre is old and diverse enough now I ve reviewed around a dozen, and I m sure I ve missed several that there s no need to describe each new entrant as like
Groundhog Day. There s the
Edge of Tomorrow-like sci-fi action loop; the
Happy Death Day mystery; the teen romp; allegorical horror film; and so on. Given the format s friendliness to low budgets, many of these pictures premiere at fests and disappear; but last year s delightful
Palm Springs demonstrated the commercial viability of one variant: the we re in this together rom-com, in which two people relive a looping day instead of one, facing the prospect of a will-they/won t-they love story that might actually go on forever.