Michael's Movie Grade: B
A surprisingly really funny raunchy comedy.
This movie's premise is that a 32-year-old woman (Jennifer Lawerance) agrees to have sex with a socially awkward 19-year-old boy (Andrew Barth Feldman) to help bring him out of his shell, so that her parents will give her their car. A premise like this can either be creepy or really funny. Luckily for us it is really funny. Luckily co-writer and director, Gene Stupnitsky (Good Boys) knows how to make this type of comedy work. This movie may be loaded with very raunchy gags, but (like in Good Boys) the gags are not simply raunchy for the sake of being raunchy but come out of the characters and storyline. Because of this the humor comes off as truly funny, instead of just gross. I was surprised by just how much I (and the rest of the audience in the packed movie theater) laughed out loud watching this film. There were many times, when the laughter seemed to be coming almost constantly. Plus, as well as the raunchy humor, there is also some quite funny slapstick gags and delightful quirky character moments here that are just as funny as any of the raunchier moments. This movie also benefits from two great lead characters. When we first meet these characters they seem like simple stereotypes, but as we spend more time with them, we grow to like them more and more. By the end of this film, we actually really care about these characters. Both of them also grow up and mature quite a bit and this is done in a way that feels completely natural and believable. These character arcs also add quite a bit of heart to this film. Yet this heart (for the most part) does not take away from the humor and sometimes even adds to it.
It is true that we have seen much of what is done with this story before many times. Because of this the film can feel quite familiar at times. This is especially true, when towards the last act takes a bit of a more serious tone (though there are still some great comedic moments in that last act). While this more dramatic tone works because we care about the characters, it is during this part of the movie that the story beats can feel much too familiar. Another problem for this film is that our main character's best friends, feel a little bland and often aren't either as funny or as real as our two main characters. However in a comedy, problems like these can be overcome if a movie is funny enough and this one certainly is.
Despite some flaws, this is a delightful comedy and a truly fun time at the movies.
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