Let’s go back and fix things. Movies have built on that premise for years. Countless sci-fi films. Comedies like Back to School and 21 Jump Street. (The Stephen Chow franchise Fight Back to School may be the funniest example.) Half of the road trip movies are journeys to the past to reconcile or avenge. In a way, even a comedy like No Hard Feelings forces it star to confront mistakes in her past.
And now there’s The Re-Education of Molly Singer, a Lionsgate comedy dumped onto digital and on-demand platforms September 29. Starring Britt Robertson as Molly, a self-destructive young lawyer working, or avoiding work, at a firm run by Brenda (Jaime Pressly), it’s the work of horror director Andy Palmer (Camp Cold Brook) and writers Todd Friedman and Kevin Haskins.
Bright, broad, and only intermittently witty, Re-Education is like a community college version of No Hard Feelings. After Molly loses an important case, Brenda fires her, then offers her a job coaching her socially maladjusted son Elliott (Ty Simpkins) through his freshman year at college.
Molly drags along her buddy Ollie (Nico Santos), gets a room in a converted firehouse, and reverts to the same drunken partying that got her fired. She also sort of fixes up Elliott with Lindsay (Good Trouble star Cierra Ramirez), gets him into a fraternity, does something or other with her life and dreams and goals, and successfully defends herself against charges of kidnapping.
This last plot twist hinges on a pervert who’s been taping everything at the firehouse, and a sort of slapstick chase to get the evidence to court on time. It’s the sort of writing you’d find on the old Nickelodeon series Victorious, which made me wonder: who wants to watch this?
Really, what is the audience for Re-Education? It’s shot like a TV sitcom or a Beach Blanket Bingo movie, it’s filled with worn-out stereotypes (dumb jock, horny cougar, gay buddy), it tackles issues of absolutely no interest to college students, and it’s almost never, ever funny.
Robertson puts in a committed performance, leaning on her character’s grating personality even as it makes her less sympathetic. So does, surprisingly, Pressly, who is quick and efficient. Everyone else seems to be playing a version of a role copied from some other teen-oriented comedy.
Slapdash, visually dull, with a nondescript soundtrack, The Re-Education of Molly Singer falls short on so many levels it doesn’t even qualify as fluff.
Credits
Director: Andy Palmer. Writers: Todd Friedman, Kevin Haskins. Cast: Britt Robertson, Ty Simpkins. Nico Santos, Cierra Ramirez, Holland Roden, Wendie Malick, Jaime Pressly. Photo: Britt Robertson, Ty Simpkins, Cierra Ramirez. Courtesy Lionsgate.
In theaters, on digital and on demand: September 29, 2023
