Universal Pictures
I’ve never had a sister, but I always wanted one when I was a little girl. You know, someone to have tea parties with and to share in the fun of class sleepovers. What I got instead were two much younger brothers, and that’s not quite the same thing. There was nobody to share a glorious ‘80s decorated room with Michael J. Fox and Jem & the Holograms posters with, or to help me co-host outrageously fun house parties. As if I could pull off a house party. I can’t decide if I should feel slighted or lucky about this after having watched Sisters, the latest comedy from Universal Pictures starring SNL alumni Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Bobby Moynihan and Rachel Dratch, with a screenplay written by longtime SNL writer Paula Pell.
While I’ve been reading mixed reviews of Sisters, I’m here to say I enjoyed it. It’s basically the female equivalent of Step Brothers in that it features two dysfunctional adult sisters (Fey and Poehler) who decide to take a trip down memory lane by throwing one last house party after they find out their parents (James Brolin and Dianne Wiest) are selling their family home in Florida.
While it’s probably not going to be nominated for an Oscar any time soon, if you’re looking to watch a movie that will make you laugh at its crudity and feel so much better about your own life in comparison, then it’s a good choice. And let’s face it: it’s an alternative choice to that other movie that was released on the same weekend that is currently crushing all known movie records in existence (and justifiably so). Once you’ve seen that one, you have to pass the time watching something else and it might as well be Sisters. But it’s probably not a good idea to take the kids, as it features a lot of blatant references to things like sex and drugs.
What I liked most about it was the overload on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia, especially the sisters’ shared childhood room, which was pretty much left intact by their parents as this time capsule forever preserving the beautiful awkwardness of adolescence in all of its finest glory. Their old heartthrob posters, their hideous middle school retainers and outfits, their toys and collectibles and even their old diaries were all preserved. I wish I could go back and revisit my old bedroom. If only …
While on the surface they may seem as different as night and day, deep down sisters Maura (Poehler) and Kate Ellis (Fey) are actually a lot alike. Both place a high emphasis on family and being there for one another. Both sisters have issues with being a responsible grown-up and cultivating meaningful relationships with significant others and/or children. While Maura seems to have herself put together more than her sister Kate, she is a lonely divorcee looking for love and seeking some kind of meaning to her life other than her nursing career and her lovingly misguided attempts at helping people. Poehler portrays the sunshiny, blonde, goody-two-shoes sister extremely well, while Fey portrays the black sheep of the family – the brunette fuck-up of a sister who can’t hold down a job or a place of residency for herself and her teen-aged daughter – also extremely well. It’s hard to say who comes out as being the funnier sister, as they both made me laugh for very different reasons. Fey and Poehler have an amazing rapport with one another in everything they do, and Sisters is no exception.
And it’s also fun to see their roles reversed. After reading aloud some “soul-searching revelations” from their high school diaries, the sisters decide to reverse their roles during their “final party on Ellis Island,” with Maura finally getting to see what it’s like to be the drunk, sloppy one while Kate is forced to be the “party mom” taking care of everyone and ensuring nobody drives home drunk or does too much damage to the house. Trust me, she fails miserably at it. That house is beyond trashed by the end of the movie to the surprise of no one.
Rounding out the cast of SNL alumni are WWE star John Cena as an extremely buff drug dealer, Greta Lee as Korean manicurist/professional party girl Hae-Won, John Leguizamo as Dave who serves as a painful reminder of Fey’s high school glory days, and MADtv alumnus Ike Barinholtz as James, the handsome “guy next door” who provides “an equally awkward in an adorable way” love interest for Poehler. But is there anybody who’s really as awkward at pick-up lines and dating in general as these two? Their scenes are among my favorites though, especially the make-out scene in the attic and the one involving him coming to her aid in the swimming pool.
At times, Sisters emerges as hilarious and at the top of the gross-out, party-going genre. At other times, it feels a little forced with a few of the jokes falling a little flat. However, all in all, it was oddly refreshing to see a female-centric crude comedy done surprisingly well in all of its raunchiness (if you’re not too snobby to be able to appreciate that sort of genre for what it is, that is).
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