Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar – Film Review
Take a trip and break out of your shell with Barb and Star. From the girls who brought you Bridesmaids (co-stars and co-writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo) comes Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. Lifelong friends Barb and Star embark on the adventure of a lifetime when they decide to leave their small Midwestern town for the first time ever.
It’s honestly quite surprising that Josh Greenbaum’s Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is coming out in February, which for a lot of people, is typically considered to be such a cold and freezing month. The coming months mark the arrival of Spring and thus, the arrival of the hot weather and the sun. So, I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t wait for something like April or May to release this movie because Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is a delightfully joyous comedic riot and an excellent spring/summer movie.
Right now, the world is still terrible and it looks like it’s going to be that way for a little bit longer at least. But don’t worry – writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo know a great way to cheer you up. Their script work here is impeccable. Despite the fact that the film has a simple and goofy premise, the two find new and ingenious ways to make us laugh in every passing scene. Looking back on the film, I genuinely cannot think of one scene that was flat and uninteresting. Every moment here is meant to make you smile and laugh, and boy does it ever work.
Courtesy of Lionsgate
Wiig and Mumolo have fantastic chemistry here as two life-long best friends that quite literally do everything together. When they spend even just a few minutes away from each other, they begin to feel deeply uncomfortable, and they start to wonder what the other is doing at that moment. Nothing about their performances seems fake – this is pure, one-hundred-percent lightning in a bottle.
Something you have to realize going in is that Barb and Star is a ridiculous movie in every sense of the word. It’s a dose of pure, vibrant, fantastical escapism filled to the brim with silly, often over-the-top moments that aren’t going to be for everybody, and that’s okay. If you watch this movie and just found that it wasn’t for you, I can see why. But I, for one, found this goofy flick to be so zany and bonkers in all the best ways.
Where else can you find a scene in which Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo befriend a magical mermaid known as Trish? And where else can you find a scene in which these two actresses dance along to a wildly hilarious and inappropriate song by Richard Cheese? Nowhere else but Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. And that’s a beautiful thing.
Overall Grade: A-
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude sexual content, drug use, and some strong language
Cast: Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo, Jamie Dornan, Damon Wayans Jr., Michael Hitchcock, Kwame Patterson, Reyn Doi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Vanessa Bayer, Fortune Feimster
Directed by: Josh Greenbaum
Distributed by: Lionsgate
Release Date: February 12, 2021
Running Time: 107 minutes