Mark Reviews Movies: BARB & STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 6, 2021

It's difficult to describe the particular, peculiar energy of Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar. It's absurd, although too straightforward in its assorted storylines to be absurdist. It's cheerful, although the plot about an evil mastermind trying to kill thousands of innocent people might not make it seem that way. Even though it freely riffs on spy movies and musicals and romantic comedies, the film is neither a parody nor a satire, because it possesses no specific motif or target for its humor.

The only underlying conceit one can gleam from this is that it's a chance for screenwriters/stars Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig to have fun—as much as they want and any way they want to. They're clearly having a blast, coming up with as many silly ideas as possible, without any care if those ideas make sense or if anyone will get onboard with such comedic anarchy.

You either go along with the film's albino villain, trying to avenge her misery on a beach filled with people by way of genetically modified killer mosquitoes, and its random song-and-dance numbers, within a swanky hotel and featuring a henchman describing exactly what he's doing to a growing number of seagulls, and its protagonists, with their thick Nebraskan accents and jovially naïve dispositions, or you don't. Mumolo and Wiig's approach, which just keeps laying on the wackiness until we really have no idea what might happen at any given moment, is both the film's point and the reason it's so easy to go along with the assorted, often random gags.

Mumolo and Wiig star as, respectively, Barb and Star, two 40-somethings who live in a small Nebraska town, where they spend their days chatting about anything and everything that comes to mind. Their first scene together is just that: the two sitting on a couch, drinking tea, and talking about things that only matter to them and only matter in the moment—although we get a good sense that they somehow have been having these exact thoughts separately and for a longer amount of time than anyone would willingly admit.

The two women don't just finish each other's sentences. One will bring up a completely different subject in the middle of a conversation, and the other, without missing a beat, just goes along, as if that's the only logical next step in the discussion. The obvious inspiration for this is the old agreement principle of improvisation. The exchanges between Barb and Star have those qualities of the spontaneous and the unexpected, but in the writing (or the on-the-spot improv) and the performances, that "Yes, and" principle actually tells us everything we need to know about these characters.

There's an amusing moment, after the two have been fired from their jobs at a furniture store (The reveal is that the couch is on the showroom floor and that they've been coming in on their days off just to chat on the same couch and that they've been having Thanksgiving dinners there, too), where Barb and Star commiserate about finding a new job. Barb can, Star points out, because she graduated high school. No, Barb says, she didn't, but Star did. They are of such a similar mind that their lives—or the lack of much of a life—bleed together in what has essentially become a collective mind.

Eventually, there's a plot—a couple in fact. They don't really matter, except as chances for Mumolo, Wiig, and director Josh Greenbaum (who does an admirable job giving this randomness some kind of shape and a distinct, bordering-on-garish look to accentuate the chipper tone) to give plenty of opportunities these characters and a bunch of weird ideas to play. The two women go on vacation—the first one either has ever had—to Florida. Barb, a widow, is scarred of just about everything, so she eventually goes on assorted adventures. Star, a divorcée, is convinced she's unlovable, so she eventually finds love with Edgar (Jamie Dornan). The women have to hide their escapades from each other, and it's a good thing they're both so gullible and trusting that neither notices they both come up with the same lie—about a friendly sea turtle—to hide their secrets.

The other plot involves the villainous Sharon (also Wiig), who operates out of a hidden lair, accessible by a hidden elevator behind a hidden door in an innocuous tree. Edgar is actually Sharon's right-hand man and emotionally manipulated "lover." He's in this beach resort town to plant a device that will attract the killer mosquitoes and enact Sharon's revenge on the place she believes wronged her (Her back story is a lengthy series of strangely unfortunate tragedies).

When he gets sidetracked by Star's allure, the villain calls in a top-secret operative (played by Damon Wayans Jr.), who knows what "secret" means but seems compelled to reveal every little detail about himself. Some other charmingly amusing characters include Yoyo (Reyn Doi), Sharon's child assistant who pilots a submarine made for a kid (All of the controls make silly sound effects), and an inspired cameo in the role of a wise, laid-back sage (Another wisdom-speaker takes the form of a talking crab with a somewhat-familiar voice).

There are many, many more gags. The jokes, after all, constitute the whole point of Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar. A good number of them are funny on their own, but the whole film is funnier because Mumolo and Wiig never let anything get in the way of a gag.

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