Now that I’m middle aged, I have these moments where I feel very old. Films celebrating anniversaries is one way of doing that. Last year, Mean Girls hitting 20 was kind of mind blowing. Now, I have Britt Robertson starring as “too old for college” in The Reeducation Of Molly Singer, which is a little like what it felt like to watch Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings. Lawrence is 33, so I guess she’s safely beyond college years, even if you stay and get your Doctorate and have a gap year or two. Shockingly, the former star of Life Unexpected and The Secret Circle is also 33. They are the same age, which is freaking me out a bit. Oh, and that cute boy from Jerry Maguire? He’s here too.He’s ALSO 33.
Thankfully, Jamie Pressley is 46, which makes me feel old still. This is on Netflix now with audio description which I think was narrated by Roy Samuelson. I don’t know why I didn’t put a company with this in my notes, so there’s a chance I was guessing the narrator here.
Plot wise, molly Singer is a dumpster fire that also happens to be a lawyer, somehow, and she winds up upsetting her boss, who then tasks her with helping her socially awkward son acclimate to college. That is the plot. Of course, he can’t know, much like in no Hard feelings. Interestingly, there’s no sex on the table here. I say interestingly, because Pressley as the mom has her son sexually assault a stripper as some kind of life lesson. What a fun joke. They’re strippers, they like having their ass slapped! what fun! Thanks mom!
People don’t make these movies anymore, and they feel so weird when they are. A lot of people didn’t think Strays worked. No Hard Feelings got a lot of attention, but gender flip that and then get back to me. If that film was exactly the same, but the genders were flipped, no one would have praised it. Molly Singer is a bit of that forgotten time as well. I’m not sure what has happened to comedy, as we had some really good ones there for a while. 21 Jump Street, Game night, Blockers, Bad Moms, Good Boys, and some others take risks, and pay off. Molly Singer just wants to be a late 90’s teen comedy, but flipping the genders so no one is offended.
It isn’t a bad film, but in a year with a film with almost the exact same premise, it just feels unnecessary. The narration is good for the movie, since the film does have a fiar amount of dialog. It’s a wannabe raunchy comedy, but it has jokes that play too safe, so there really isn’t anything too complicated to describe. no over the top physical comedy or visual jokes that really stand out, and the track does a good job of flying right through.
If you liked No Hard Feelings, you might like this. The cast is charming enough, but this film just has no education to pass along.
Final Grade: C+
