Bad Moms (2016)

Directed by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore. Starring Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Christina Applegate, David Walton, Jay Hernandez, Annie Mumolo, Jada Pinkett Smith, Oona Lawrence, Emjay Laurence, Clark Duke. [R]

As the title suggests, it’s a moms-behaving-badly picture where harried suburbanite Kunis struggles to be as good a working mom as possible (without any help from her no-account schlub of a husband) until she learns to stop caring so much and just “go with the flow.” A few amusing jokes get through (“I’m pretty sure my brother-in-law just joined ISIS…and he’s a Jew,” naming a little blonde girl “Gandhi,” the “pep talk” to get Kunis to stop watching 12 Years a Slave and show up to the PTA election), but far too much here is lazy, lowest-common-denominator humor, content to simply coast on the ladies-are-just-as-inappropriate-as-the-fellas “gimmick.” Its commentary on being a modern mom is just a sloppy essay built out of clichés, and the script ignores a lot of opportunities to actually observe motherhood since the kids are shooed off-screen for long periods of time to make room for the standard-issue debauchery and rudeness. The “funniest” bit is when the filmmakers throw on a little Garrett Kato troubadouring and try to make the audience feel (seriously). And talk about unearned: the credits show the main actresses laughing and chatting with their real-life moms as if something real and meaningful had taken place in the previous ninety-plus minutes. Wanda Sykes and Martha Stewart cameo, the latter as herself. Followed by a sequel: A Bad Moms Christmas.

34/100