IN BAD MOMS, Amy (Mila Kunis) is a working mother of two who, out of exhaustion, rejects the perfect-mom paradigm. She joins forces with single-mom Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and stay-at-home naĂŻf Kiki (Kristen Bell, whose hair is perpetually limp and sad, just like her) to reclaim âbadâ parenting. But since Bad Moms is a film about women made by the men who wrote The Hangover, itâs motherhood through bro-colored glasses: Drinking sequences, the word âvagina,â and blunt-force impact are mined for laughs, and just as modern moms are hamstrung by a lack of paid maternity leave and gender double standards, the filmâs potential for revenge-flick fun or bawdy escapism is curbed through shallow sentimentality.
Hahn and Bell deliver the filmâs funniest lines, though sometimes we watch Kunis laugh at their jokes (this way we know what they said was funny). Similarly, many scenes are bolstered with loud, girl-power anthems by Demi Lovato and Icona Pop, so we know that the women are Being Empowered.
When Amy attests, âItâs impossible to be a âgood momâââas she does several times throughout the filmâsheâs not wrong. Thanks to the decline of affordable housing, the increase in childcare costs, racism, sexismâI can keep goingâmodern moms truly have the deck stacked against them. Bad Momsâ real disservice isnât its college humor, itâs that these issues are paid lip serviceâAmyâs antagonized by her clueless boss, slacker husband, and a power-hungry PTA mom, but not by the wage gap, the second shift, or cuts to public education. These are issues that canât be solved by binge drinking and Demi Lovato, though Iâm sure many have tried.
Itâs not all disappointing: There are moments such as Kiki standing up to her controlling husband, and Amy telling off her son lest he become âanother entitled white male,â and a Wanda Sykes cameo. Like Vitaminwater or Kind bars, Bad Moms isnât as good for you as it thinks it is, but itâs not entirely awful to consume.
