This is the first movie this year that I’ve given 5 stars. (I guess that’s a review spoiler alert, as critics usually put their ratings at the end.) I couldn’t have imagined that being in my early ‘50s, I’d have such a joyous experience watching a coming of age film about a bunch of 12-year-old girls. Yet it’s so adorable, charming, and filled with pathos as well as humor. And it does something that’s very rare in comedies – they make all the characters believable. The grandmother (Kathy Bates) wants to guilt trip her daughter-in-law (Rachel McAdams) into not moving away, but she never does sneaky things to sabotage her son’s new job or anything dumb like that. There’s a new teacher, who stumbles a bit upon first meeting the students, but he’s not a bumbling idiot. He’s a sweet guy and turns out to be a great teacher. And there’s the group of girls (all terrific). The one that’s the bossy, bullying blonde of the bunch – isn’t so mean that you wonder why these other girls even hang out with her. This is the type of movie that should be shown to filmmakers who make horrible teen comedies. All the credit in the world goes to writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig, who also knocked it out of the park with The Edge of Seventeen (Woody Harrelson, Hailee Steinfeld) seven years ago (she better start making more movies, damn it!)
This is a period piece (no pun intended), sending audiences back to a more nostalgic time in 1970 (adapted from a Judy Blume novel), with summer camps, men mowing their yards, and… you’ll get a lot of needle drops. (Are You There Filmmakers? It’s Me, Josh…stop playing “Spirit in the Sky” already!!) It was nice to see a mom listening to Joan Baez sing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and a dad groovin’ to “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” They played one of my favorites – “Groove Me” by King Floyd, as well as “This Magic Moment,” “Son of a Preacher Man” (although that belongs to Pulp Fiction), and more.
Similar to the start of the great animated movie Inside Out, Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) comes home from summer camp all excited, except that she sees boxes everywhere. The parents say they’ll explain why later, but grandma blurts out, “You guys are moving!”
Unlike the girl in Inside Out, she quickly makes friends. The blonde girl next door (“From the much bigger house”) quickly becomes her buddy, but gives her a list of rules she’ll have to follow to be in her “club.”
There’s a new teacher who gives the students writing assignments, and Margaret’s is about religion, since she mentioned previously how she hated religious holidays (her dad is Jewish, her mom Christian, but neither of them practice). So you get the humorous bits you’d expect when she goes to Synagogue with grandma, and can’t understand a word they’re saying. It’s also humorous that whenever there’s a problem in her life, she’ll ask God for a helping hand. That could be for a training bra, or for a guy to like her.
There’s a nerdy kid in class. There’s the tall girl who looks like a young woman, and has a reputation. There are backstories we find out that are sad.
There were fun scenes where we got to see trips to visit grandma in New York, where they might be seeing the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, or The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway (who doesn’t love Gilbert & Sullivan? This is the coolest grandmother ever). It’s also nice that again, when she gets angry about things, the way she handles them feels realistic. It’s not her being a clueless old lady. She also has a few cute jokes.
There’s a dance scene at the end that was as sweet as the dance scene in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, where the kid that’s a loner finally comes out of his shell.
I also enjoyed seeing Benny Safdie as the dad. After he and his brother blew me away with their movie Good Time, where he had a great part, he parlayed that into a nice acting career.
This is currently the best movie I’ve seen so far this year. It’s perfect for the whole family (assuming the kids are at least 12 or older, as some of the subject matter isn’t for the young ones).
5 stars.