Film Review: Melissa McCarthy is the Charming ‘Life of the Party’

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CHICAGO – Melissa McCarthy is a comedic force to be reckoned with, able to wring laughs improbably out of the stingiest of material. She always manages to find the funny, which helps elevate everyone around her, and so she slips easily in the durable friendly constructs of the campus comedy in “Life Of The Party.”

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4.0/5.0
Rating: 4.0/5.0

McCarthy stars as Deanna, a Mom to a college age daughter, who has an affinity for bedazzled sweaters and a “Mom perm.” When her husband (Matt Walsh) decides he wants a divorce, Deanna decides to go back to school to get the degree she never quite finished. This is a fairly broad premise, complete with frat parties, sorority hazing, and hookups… and of course it has to be the same college her daughter attends. But McCarthy makes a real effort to come to things from a very human place. She’s relatable, and reflects a choice many homemakers had to make when they wanted to set off on their adult lives and family life got in the way of their dreams.

”Life of the Party” opens nationwide on May 11th. Featuring Melissa McCarthy, Gillian Jacobs, Debby Ryan, Julie Bowen, Stephen Root, Maya Rudolph, Christina Aguilera, Chris Parnell and Matt Walsh. Written by Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy. Directed by Ben Falcone. Rated “PG-13”

StarContinue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “Life of the Party”

LifeP1
Melissa McCarthy Matriculates in ‘Life of the Party’
Photo credit: Warner Bros

StarContinue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “Life of the Party”

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