Warner Bros. | 2009 | 84 mins | Rated R
In the midst of financial problems, Warner Brothers was forced to close its independent picture wing Warner Independent. Some pictures on its slate found new studio homes, most notably Slumdog Millionaire, which was picked up by Fox Searchlight, released in theaters, became a big hit and went home with the Best Picture Oscar. Others like Spring Breakdown starring Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch and Parker Posey. The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival but was unable to find a distributor. As a result, Warner Brothers recently released the film straight to video. However, unlike most straight to video fare, Spring Breakdown is well worth checking out.
Gayle (Amy Poehler), Becky (Parker Posey) and Judi (Rachel Dratch), are three thirty-somethings who’ve been best friends since college. They’ve always wanted to be cool but they suffer from a terminal case of geekdom. Gayle is a guide dog trainer who can’t get a date with a blind client (Will Arnett); Judi is about to marry William (SNL’s Seth Meyers), who is clearly gay; and Becky, a certified cat lady, works as the mousy office manager for tough talking, gun-toting Texas Senator Kay Bee Hartman (Jane Lynch, in a role clearly modeled on Kay Bailey Hutchison).
A scandal has removed the Vice President from office and Senator Hartman is at the top of the short list to take over the position. The only problem is, Hartman is worried that her college-age daughter Ashley (Amber Tamblyn) will “pull a Bush twins” over spring break and embarrass the Senator. As a precaution, she sends Becky to Padre Island with orders to keep her little girl under the radar. Becky decides to bring Gayle and Judi along for the kind of booze-and-boys trip they never had when they were nerdy college co-eds.
The film plays out a bit like “Revenge of the Nerds for girls” but the talented cast elevates well treaded material into solid laughs. Posey, Dratch and Poehler make their rather pathetic characters hilarious, which makes you somehow want to root for them to find their inner cool.
The best addition to this wacky crew is Missy Pyle, as an over-the-hill party girl named Charlene. Completely out of control and permanently stuck in her late teens, Pyle steals every scene she’s in, with one bit of craziness after another.
Spring Breakdown isn’t a comedy classic and some of the jokes are as stale as week-old donuts but it will make you laugh. The film is layered with gags, witty satire and goofy satire. Think of it as kind of a Judd Apatow style flick for females and you’re bound to have fun.
The anamorphic widescreen transfer is as good as one should expect from a new release. The colors are bright and the image sharp. There are no compression issues or any other of the digital problems that occasionally hamper discs.
Warner Bros. has mixed Spring Breakdown’s English soundtrack in 5.1, and added a 5.1 French dub. The sound is pretty good, with the music filling the speakers during the regular dance or nightclub scenes, and with occasional splashes of effects. It’s fairly standard.
There are subtitle options in French, Spanish, and English for the deaf and hearing impaired.
Spring Breakdown has limited special features:
• Audio Commentary: Director/writer Ryan Shiraki and actress/writer Rachel Dratch do a non-informative job here. Skip it.
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