Review of Bad Moms (2016) by Cath O — 08 Sep 2016

The most pleasant surprise of the year, this genuinely funny comedy plays like Mean Girls for mums! Mila Kunjs, is the wannabe supermom, taxiing her kids to,school, doing PTA and helping with projects while working for a frat boy idiot boss and handling feminazi Christina Applegate as the hard line PTA president. After kicking out her layabout cheating husband, she teams up with downtrodden Kristen Bell and brassy Katherine Hahn to do a bit of partying and challenging the perfect parent idea.

The film mostly avoids sentimentality and schmaltz, with just the right amount of 'we love our kids'. Yes, Kunis is far too gorgeous even when she is supposed to be a total mess, and the husbands cartoonishly awful - the bratty kids not much better, but the film (from the guys behind The Hangover) keeps the laughs coming and had a nicely mean edge. So nice to see a film with so many great women. Hahn is fantastic, Bell has a less showy role but is reliably great, Applegate reminds you of her excellent comic timing.

Almost the best bit is the end credits with the lead actresses mothers joining them for a chat about mums. Funny and touching.

I had very low expectations for this film so to laugh more than I have in the cinema for ages was such a nice surprise.