Life of the Party • The Next Reel

“They’re probably just looking at my smock. It tends to catch the light.”After collaborating on Tammy and The Boss, husband and wife team Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone proved that the third time’s a charm with Life of the Party. Of course, ‘charm’ may not be the most accurate word as the film was reviewed fairly poorly, but if it hadn’t been reviewed poorly, it wouldn’t fit into our current guilty pleasure series! Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we wrap up this year’s Guilty Pleasure series with Andy’s guilty pleasure, Falcone’s 2018 film Life of the Party. We talk about why Andy finds so much joy in this film and why he finds Melissa McCarthy to be such an enjoyable actress to watch. We chat about the reasons Melissa works so well in this film, despite the fact that this film is so full of film tropes. We look at the rest of the cast filling out the roles and how well they work in their parts (or don’t, in a few cases). We look at the ways the script works and some ways it feels a bit clunky. And we discuss how the writing shows some smarts in some areas that seem like they’re to go the typical direction only to have them go another.It’s not a perfect film and clearly isn’t liked by a great many people, but Andy loves it, and as it turns out so does Pete. We have a lot of fun talking about it on this week’s show, so check it out then tune in. The Next Reel – when the movie ends, our conversation begins.Join the conversation with movie lovers from around the world on The Next Reel’s Discord channel!Film SundriesThank you for supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast on Patreon!Watch this film: iTunes • Amazon • Hulu • YouTubeOriginal theatrical trailerOriginal poster artworkFlickchartLetterboxd The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and Movements | The Film Board | Movies We Like | The Next Reel | Sitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Web | Letterboxd | Flickchart | Instagram | Bluesky | YouTube | DiscordYour Hosts: Andy | PeteMerch Store | Audible