The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

Sisters

Sisters | Movie review
11 December 2015
Thomas Jordan
Avatar
Thomas Jordan
11 December 2015

Movie and show review

Thomas Jordan

Sisters

★★★★★

Release date

18th December 2015

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

If you’re thinking the innocent-house-party-goes-wrong storyline has already been milked, you’d be right. Sisters shamelessly ignores this critical fact, slapping it in the face with some often risqué but just about tasteful adult comedy from Mean Girls stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Whether this thin cloak of salacious laughs is enough to mask the film’s sincere lack of substance or wit is up to the viewer’s comedy threshold to decide.

The story follows the Ellis sisters on a journey back into their childhood as they revisit their parents’ house once more, before it is sold. Immature and lacking a secure adult life, Katie Ellis convinces her responsible divorcee sister Maura that they should hold one last party in the giant stripped-out mansion. After a slow start, the inevitable happens. Alcohol and drugs begin to flow freely and we are taken through the party-movie checklist of attempted police shutdowns and swimming pool mishaps.

There’s no denying that this blueprint works. Watching a good party makes you want to party, and seeing the familiar ingredients of all our favourite nights replicated in exaggerated form always carries a satisfying nostalgic haze. After an opening full of cringe-worthy jokes about bushes and sister-threesomes that accidentally reek of bad taste or even misogyny, there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments on offer. These tend to come from well-executed slapstick routines rather than a pithy script; Maura’s flirtation project, James, has a run-in with a ballerina doll and his backside that will be the climax of hilarity for some and the moment to walk out for others.

What plagues Sisters, though, is its inherent lack of narrative interest. Writer Paula Pell’s attempt to attach a soppy maternal side-story fails not only due to the lack of development but because of its irrelevance to the essential enjoyment of this sort of film – the party! Frustratingly, the script is precariously teetering along the tightrope of good comedy throughout, the result being that you’re never quite sure if you’re watching something funny enough to combat this fundamental issue with the prescribed party-movie recipe. Just about holding the story together is Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s sibling relationship. Their experience gives the pair a certain endearing charm that helps the film to stagger to its unnecessarily emotional ending.

Sisters, then, is no ground-breaking comedy. It’s a familiar formula – just make sure it’s a formula you enjoy before booking tickets.

★★★★★

TJ Jordan

Sisters is released nationwide on 18th December 2015.

Watch the trailer for Sisters here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Moxie

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Notturno

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

The Winter Lake

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Lucky

★★★★★
Jacob Kennedy
Read More

Justine

★★★★★
Abbie Grundy
Read More

Foster Boy

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More

Crazy About Her

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Bigfoot Family

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Judas and the Black Messiah

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Thomas Jordan

Sisters

★★★★★

Release date

18th December 2015

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Black Bear
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Celebrate International Women’s Day with a Bombay Sapphire Cocktails & Create masterclass
    Food & Drinks
  • Spotlight: Lauren Everet and Soup Kitchen London, striving for food security and social equality
    Food & Drinks
  • Bicep at Saatchi Gallery Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • “I am not the kind of actor who is really interested in mimicry”: Actor Tom Schilling on Fabian – Going to the Dogs
    Berlinale
  • William the Conqueror – Maverick Thinker
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Ski (Esquí)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Guzen to sozo)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Petite Maman
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Guzen to sozo)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Moxie
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Souad
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • We (Nous)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Bicep at Saatchi Gallery Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Wonder.land at the National Theatre | Theatre review
The Wasp at Trafalgar Studios | Theatre review