Movie when the bough breaks
![movie when the bough breaks movie when the bough breaks](https://canvas-bridge.tubitv.com/OertZiDBxCq0IFycu9rOpWmAuI4=/400x574/smart/img.adrise.tv/6c290c28-ecf6-4db1-b909-bc9eba0fa802.png)
Hall deserves to glo up, Shondaland-style, not to get a downgrade like this.Īn earlier version of this piece incorrectly identified Marlon Wayans as Regina Hall’s boyfriend in Scary Movie.
![movie when the bough breaks movie when the bough breaks](https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/when-the-bough-breaks-2016/When-the-Bough-Breaks-2016.jpg)
Give us a When the Bough Breaks with smarter direction. Now, give us drama that makes use of that talent. Her spontaneous foolery during the press rounds for About Last Night was alone comparable to anything in those movies - funnier and more shocking than much of what passes for improv nowadays. Hall’s advantage over these actresses is that she’s a raucous comic talent - she could have done Bridesmaids or Ghostbusters. That could be her dramatic lane, rather than playing it straight: Her career has already set her up for the kind of knowingly over-the-top acting being perfected on television by the likes of Viola Davis, Kerry Washington, and, on American Horror Story, Angela Bassett.
#Movie when the bough breaks movie
And it’s the difference between this movie and the version I’d run to see: the Regina Hall parody, with bigger hair, more self-awareness, and less actual giving a fuck. A sense of humor is the difference between a camp-friendly movie like Fatal Attraction and, well, most other movies of its kind. I’d settle for Lee Daniels, even sometime around the moment Nicole Kidman pees on Zac Efron in The Paperboy, Daniels proved himself worthy of projects like this.Īctually, I can’t think of too many other movies of this bent that can take a joke, which isn’t to say seriousness is any better. Someone oddball enough to see that a scene wherein a crazed pregnant woman beats a grown man’s ass is something worth milking for every bit of naughty irony it can offer. A black Brian De Palma, maybe, or a cinematic Shonda Rhimes. You feel the movie wanting to be that (typically) profitable black middlebrow thriller - like last year’s successful The Perfect Guy - and it gets there, box-office–wise, but with material just lively enough to make you wish someone a little more perverse had gotten their hands on it. (Colorblind casting is great but once everyone’s hired, and you’ve earned your so-called brownie points, can’t I get at least one name changed to Darius or Keisha?) The Taylors, played by Hall and Morris Chestnut, get tangled up with a crazed twentysomething who signs up to be their surrogate mom and then, you know, does what her archetype does. Where does that leave you? When the Bough Breaks is about respectable upper-middle-class blacks with nondescript names like “John Taylor” and “Todd Decker” who keep Lana Del Rey on vinyl. It’s too earnest to enjoy making fun of, but someone ought to, and you can’t depend on it to make fun of itself. That’s sort of the problem with this tier of movie. You’re just the uterus.” There’s a cat named Miss Havisham - what I’m saying is, it’s plain-bad camp, teetering on the edge of self-aware but never quite getting there. There’s a woman who murmurs self-help mantras to herself after killing a guy (“I am happy.
![movie when the bough breaks movie when the bough breaks](https://i2.wp.com/www.lelavictoria.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img_9265.jpg)
It’s a “crazy bitch” plot with Extra Pulp: surrogate mama drama, cat-murder, Michael K. But When the Bough Breaks is bad for not daring to be worse it’s bad for trying to wipe its hands clean of the dirt that might have made it halfway exciting to watch. Plenty of greatly enjoyable movies are ultimately bad as a Gravity defender, I make peace with this truth daily. When the bough broke, the cradle rocked, and all we have to show for it is this? Nevermind that it’s bad. So, good for her for landing a starring role - a breakthrough dramatic turn, no less - in this weekend’s no. Or you might know her from any of the other 40-and-change roles she’s had in profitable, if frequently terrible, movies over the years. Maybe you also know her from the black romantic comedy About Last Night, where she and Kevin Hart rock-paper-scissor’d over who’d get to be on bottom (read: who’d get to just, you know, lie there) during sex. You’re most likely to know her as Brenda, from the Scary Movie franchise: Brenda whose down-low boyfriend (Shawn Wayans) got ear-fucked at a movie theater glory hole Brenda who yapped so loudly in a theater screening Shakespeare in Love that the angry white suburbanites stabbed her to death. Not long ago, The Washington Post called her “the best actress you don’t know,” comparing her wild comedic antics to those of the great Lucille Ball. Ring a bell? You’d recognize her if you saw her.