Bad Moms will keep you giggling like you’re a kid again due to its simple, relatable premise — being a “perfect” mom is hard, so screw it and be a fun mom instead.
The film starts with the life of Amy (Mila Kunis), a hardworking mother of two, turning to shambles. From a cheating husband and a sick dog, to spilling every possible food and beverage onto herself and missing a meeting at work, Amy is not having the best day. But the final punch comes at the PTA meeting.
Amy is, of course, running late, but arrives just in time to be volunteered by PTA President and “perfect mom” Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) for a bake sale police force that will monitor the healthiness of treats at the fundraiser. Exhausted and fed-up, Amy’s response is to quit the PTA and become a — drumroll please — bad mom.
In the spirit of being bad, she walks out of the meeting and into a bar to drink away her terrible day, where she runs into the “slutty single mom” Carla (Kathryn Hahn). Shortly after an awkward yet adorable mess of a mom, Kiki (Kristen Bell), joins them, gushing over how brave Amy was to stand up to the PTA.
As the unlikely trio gets sloppily drunk on a school night, the three women toast to being “bad moms,” and the real fun begins.
Dropping her kids off at school in a red sports car, skipping work to see movies in the middle of the day, and bringing gas station bought donut holes to the bake sale, Amy becomes unrecognizable to her former, Type A self.
But as they say, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, and Gwendolyn decides to make Amy’s daughter suffer for her bad behavior. Aiming to seek revenge and shake up the system, Amy runs for PTA president against the long-reigning Gwendolyn.
All the actors in the film live up to expectations. Kunis is cool and relatable, Bell is quirky and cute, Applegate is fierce and frightening, and Jay Hernandez as the hot single father is, well, extremely hot. But no one, I repeat, no one, shines like Kathryn Hahn.
If a face doesn’t immediately pop into your head, you are not alone. Hahn has been in an impressive amount of your favorite comedies such as Step Brothers, How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days, We’re The Millers, Wanderlust, Our Idiot Brother, and the Anchorman movies, to name a “few.” Yet for whatever reason, Hahn’s roles, while consistently hilarious, have not earned her the praise she deserves.
That should all change after her role in Bad Moms — Hahn is almost single-handedly responsible for the big laughs this film brings to the screen. Her raunchy and over-the-top quips will have you red in the face, from laugher and embarrassment at her dirty humor.
The most memorable scene in the movie may be Hahn using Bell’s zip-up sweatshirt to demonstrate how an uncircumcised penis works — I know, I was shocked too. And somehow it manages to be even more obscene than it sounds.
It’s humor like this that is expected from writers and directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the same minds that brought us The Hangover trilogy. Bad Moms delivers for its intended audience.
Whether you are a mom, or have a mom (so everyone), there is something in this film that will evoke a laugh, a cringe, or a strong urge to tell your mother you love her.
