Last Updated on July 30, 2021
PLOT: A group of middle-aged female friends reunites for a boozy weekend in California’s Wine Country to celebrate one of their gang turning fifty.
REVIEW: Few formulas are as reliable about the “gang of friends reunited when they’re older” one. After all, it’s spawned such classics as THE BIG CHILL (how has there never been a sequel) and typically revolve around death, marriage, divorce, birthday and any combination therein. WINE COUNTRY fits nicely into that genre and certainly doesn’t break the mold, but it’s a likeable enough movie to watch thanks to a terrifically talented cast of real-life pals, mostly director/star Amy Poehler’s “Saturday Night Live” gang.
WINE COUNTRY never attempts to be anything more than mildly diverting, aiming for a laid-back comedic vibe with only light doses of drama. With another cast, it wouldn’t be anything to write home about. But, given the actresses shared history, they all feel lived-in and authentic, and it’s almost refreshing that nothing terribly life-changing happens over the course of their boozy weekend. This is a hang-out movie, but an utterly pleasant one.
Screen-time is equally distributed among the gang, with Poehler playing to type as the “type A” micro-manager/neurotic type. She’s the one who’s planned the weekend in the hopes of recapturing some of the fun they had in the good-old-days as waitresses at a pizza joint in Chicago. Of course, time flies and not everyone’s as interested in living in the past, including Ana Gasteyer’s lifestyle-guru, weighing a lucrative TV offer against the fact that this form itself is irrelevant (a not-so-subtle Netflix dig at OTA broadcasters), while Maya Rudolph’s harried mom is nervous about test results she took back in the city.
The group is rounded out by the great Rachel Dratch (her Debbie Downer remains a classic) playing against type of one of the least neurotic, most confident members of the group, while Paula Pell (a longtime SNL writer and the scribe behind SISTERS) is a lonelier member of the group looking for love, while the film’s writer, Emily Spivey is the shy, quiet one who just wants to get back home to her modest, happy life.
Everyone gets their moment to have fun with the material, especially once the wine starts flowing and the ladies get boozy. Tina Fey has a funny, extended cameo as the owner of the Napa spread they’ve rented, who memorably warns then, “anytime someone opens a sentence with the words, ‘can I just say something?’, move on.” Again- nothing huge happens. The ladies hang out, get drunk, have a few minor fights, make-up, and hang-out some more, but it’s likely not meant to be anything more than just a modest Sunday afternoon watch on Netflix. If the movie has a failing, it’s that tit really comes to life during a set-piece where they decimate millennial culture at an art-show that suggests an angrier, more cutting film that might have had a little more bite, but ultimately that’s not what this is and that’s ok.
In the end, fans of Poehler and company will no doubt see this pop up in their Netflix queues this weekend and give it a go. It’s hard not to imagine any of them not at least liking what they see. It’s a lightweight but sweet Netflix offering and the talent of everyone involved never allows it to be anything less than pleasant and totally watchable.
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