Amy Poehler’s love for her castmates—and lots of alcohol—fuels her trip to Wine Country
Film Reviews Movie Review
Both on screen and off, Amy Poehler’s steadfast belief in the power of women working together has made her a sort of patron saint of female friendship, an ambassador of the joys of—as our sister site The Onion once put it—friends validating the living shit out of each other. Poehler’s not faking it when she gushes in interviews about how wonderful and talented all of her gal pals are, a fact that’s evident throughout her feature directorial debut, the ladies-of-a-certain-age buddy comedy Wine Country. As with Poehler’s previous film vehicles with Tina Fey, Wine Country views its story mostly as a generic, cheerful vessel for jokes and performances, taking well-worn archetypes and infusing them with the personalities of, and dynamics between, the actors playing them. The film’s cast is stacked with the real-life friends Poehler has made throughout her decades in comedy, and she showcases them all as adoringly as you might expect.
The friends accompanying Poehler’s type-A over-planner Abby on a celebratory birthday weekend to Napa include modest Rebecca (Rachel Dratch); workaholic Catherine (Ana Gasteyer); exhausted Naomi (Maya Rudolph); over-it Jenny (Emily Spivey, who co-wrote the screenplay); and cheerful Val (Paula Pell), who just got new knees and is looking for new love to go with them. She’ll give it her best effort with a much younger painter named Jade (Maya Erskine), one of a handful of characters who enter the group’s orbit throughout the trip. The others include Tammy (Tina Fey), the brusque, flannel-clad owner of their rental house; Devon (Jason Schwartzman), their paella-obsessed driver, who—as a running joke throughout the movie goes—“came with the house”; and Miss Sunshine (Cherry Jones), a cynical psychic whose cards are full of foreshadowing.
These characters are all moons orbiting Planet Friendship, however, as Wine Country takes our core sextet from restaurant to hot tub to winery and back again, pairing them off for funny, improv-heavy conversations fueled by endless glasses of wine. Listing the strengths of the film mostly involves quoting a series of funny bits, each tailored to that particular cast member’s strengths. Pell steals the show early on when she opens up her purse and declares it to be “Dickmas,” presenting each of her friends with a thoughtfully purchased dildo, while Rudolph gets in some of the film’s best one-liners (in response to a rhetorical question about the source of Prince’s deep artistic pain, she replies, “His hips”) as well as a big laugh when she grabs the mic from an al fresco jazz trio and turns a civilized wine tasting into a day-drunk karaoke bar. Later in the film, Dratch delivers a hilarious monologue about having a personal epiphany while staring into the eyes of a raccoon that culminates with a triumphant cry of, “Put me in my finest muumuu!”
But while the chemistry between the core cast is easy and convincing, generated by skillful banter and impromptu singalongs, the scripted elements of Wine Country are more mixed. An ongoing bit where the group outright ignores all of their tour guides—they’re there to drink, not to learn—only gets funnier as the film goes on, as does a very pointed bit about gendered language and therapy-speak. (“Can I say something?”) But other aspects of the script start clunky and end hollow: Although Chicago is, admittedly, the spiritual home of all improv comedians, the idea that all six of these women became best friends while working at a deep-dish pizza restaurant, and stayed close for decades afterwards, raises more questions than it answers. The “kids these days” jokes scattered throughout the script are also predictable, as are the secrets that spill out once the wine really starts flowing. (In many ways, these dynamics resemble those of Girls Trip, a film with which Wine Country shares quite a bit of interpersonal DNA.) But while this isn’t the most original project that any of these women have ever done, it is as warm and comfortable as a cashmere blanket draped around one’s shoulders by a considerate friend.
50 Comments
I guess it’s a triumph for sexual equality that now not just Adam Sandler and George Clooney can fully expense their buddy trips.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
You stole this joke from my comment yesterday. Let’s sue Conan O’Brien.
I really got the sense watching this that it was basically a gender-swapped Grown-Ups*, albeit with way funnier/more talented people surrounding the lead.* I have never watched any of the Grown-Ups movies.
Sounds exactly like I expected and exactly as I wanted–I just want to watch these people have fun together because they’re hilarious.
“the idea that all six of these women became best friends while working at a deep-dish pizza restaurant, and stayed close for decades afterwards, raises more questions than it answers”Oooh, is this in the Little Italy Cinematic Universe?
Mystic Pizza 2 Electric Bugaloo!
you mean the one where a douchebag from Staten and a douchebag from Jersey piss on the same building during San Gennaro?
I used to really enjoy Maya Rudolph, but she found what schtick was working for her and leaned into it so hard that it is now over the top and grating.
Nah she’s cool
I’ve always liked Maya but she’s been that way for a long while now in her performances – I think it’s probably a byproduct of all the years she spent on SNL doing bits. She’s terrific in her talk show appearances. I’m sorry her variety show didn’t work out.
See also: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
You might enjoy Forever. She very much plays against type in an interesting meditation on marriage.
100% agree
I tried! They were so boring! I peaced out after episode 3 or 4…
I loved Forever!!
Her Judge character on The Good Place doesn’t do it for me, but all her hosting gigs lately have cracked it out of the park.
She is GOLD in Big Mouth.
*Buuuuubble Baaaath*
Hmmm?
I found this film breezy and, well, around a B- as well, at least until the filmmakers decided to make lame Millenial jokes during the “art show” scene for some strange reason.
^classic millenial defensiveness amirite ladies
I feel as if I’m about to take umbrage…
“until the filmmakers decided to make lame Millenial jokes”Pretty irresponsible to not have at least some trigger warnings about those jokes
All of her art was about Fran Drescher!
This was really disappointing.
It was kind of a mess but enjoyable enough in a few spots. Tina Fey stole the whole thing though, with Cherry Jones coming in a close second. Also enjoyed the Wendy & Lisa score along with The Revolution (sans Prince) doing “I Would Die 4 U” over the end credits.
Damn! Sounds like a rock solid “bunt” for debut director Poehler!
I was on the fence about this until you said “karaoke.” Pass.
that’s literally one minute of the movie
It tells me what kind of movie it is.
uhhh okay. I mean, the gag (complete with “I’m okay”) is REALLY tired but she pulls it off okay, and it’s slightly amusing that it’s like a jazz quartet she just busts in on.
Laurence was just looking for a nit to pick.
She doesn’t actually do karaoke, for what it’s worth, she immediately falls over after wrestling the microphone away from the band. It’s a quick little blackout gag.
The trailer makes it look more like Ibiza than Girls Trap. Glad to have expectations slightly adjusted.
Girl Strip
I was obviously referring to the neo-hip hop R. Kelly horror movie that was a darling at cinema festivals.
Girls’ Trap: Trapped in the TrapGirls’ Trap 2: Rober2
Why didn’t they just call it “Smug Country” And Maya Rudolph’s just got to be the most balls-ugly woman on earth.
Kill yourself.
It’s always the ugly guys who say this tired shit.
Wow, what an insightful and meaningful comment! Thanks for sharing.
God, I hope there are more frosted douches like you out there who feel that way. That would leave more of the Maya Rudolphs for me 🙂
As I said on an earlier thread. “I will watch this because of them”. I did, and I was not disappointed.
I was with the author, until this point “the idea that all six of these women became best friends while working at a deep-dish pizza restaurant, and stayed close for decades afterwards, raises more questions than it answers.”Clearly you’ve never had opportunity to be bonded by the sisterhood of service industry. I worked for a supermarket chain throughout my teen years, and midway through my 20’s. The friendships made in that store, have been going since 98, for me, and 95 or earlier, for the rest of them, even long after life took us out of the store, and out of one another’s 40hr work weeks. We’ve cheered one another on, through career changes, marriages, divorces, parenthood, etc and still get together regularly. Work families are forever.
I really enjoyed it. It’s not groundbreaking or profound and I am totally fine with that. It’s funny and it’s nice to see a group of women who are friends hang out, make jokes, talk, drink, etc.
This review makes clear that each cast member gets an amusing moment to shine, and if you are okay with sitting for 100 minutes to see about six or seven moments then well that’s better than some episodes of SNL but this is really kind of a mediocre slog otherwise. But the raccoon bit is great, Amy Poehler wins best dead-shark-eyes with one genius take, Maya Rudolph sniping one-liners, Vagmas is hilarious. It’s just the rest is pretty normie and basic, esp. the bitching about millennials which must have been REALLY embarrassing to film (and what the heck is Tina Fey exactly going for with her accent etc. here anyway?). Paula Pell gives the best overall performance, I think, kind of wish she was given more to do arc-wise (and that they didn’t use her in such farley-esque physical comedy if it is just going to be lame stunt-double gags). Frankly, I am dying to see Paula Pell do a sincere romantic comedy with…I would have said Felicity Huffman but jailtime…Blythe Danner? Octavia Spencer?
this is the kind of movie you get when you type “Amy Poehler” into your phone and keep hitting QuickType
One note:>the idea that all six of these women became best friends while
>working at a deep-dish pizza restaurant, and stayed close for
>decades afterwards, raises more questions than it answers.Either this is not as unusual a thing as you think it is, or I need to sit down and have a serious talk with my wife about the fact that she’s still really good friends (they were in each other’s weddings, travel together, etc.) with several women with whom she worked at a bar about 15-20 years ago.
It was fine and fun and everything.I just wish all this enormous, collective talent would be given a solid script to work on (and off).Imagine the potential.
The second half of the movie was way funnier. The ending cover of I Would Die 4 U was hilarious and catchy. Overall? 82%