Leigh, a former valedictorian “most likely to succeed” quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home. Her parents are worried about her and her old friends can’t believe she’s washed up in Connecticut with no prospects. To make things worse, Leigh’s only ambition is to get work as a lifeguard where she starts a relationship with a troubled teenager more than a decade her junior.
Leigh (Kristen Bell) is reliving her adolescence, but it doesn’t seem to be making her any happier. She’s too young for a midlife crisis, but that’s essentially what this is, an existential reckoning. She’s depressed and lost; she went after everything she was supposed to but is finding adulthood to be not all it’s cracked up to be. Of course, none of her friends seem all that happy either. What magic ingredient is missing?
Personally, I found it hard to sympathize with Leigh. Kristen Bell tries her best as the lifeguard on duty to show that she is swimming and not merely floating, but she’s working against a strong current. The character comes off as whiny, and – dare I say it – entitled. There isn’t much drama, or even story here. It’s not even that titillating despite Leigh’s insistence on statutory-raping her way to grow-up-dom. I love Kristen Bell but I can’t really be an apologist for this film. I barely muddled my way through it. The end, which is supposed to justify the means, feels jarring and forced. The whole thing tries too hard to be edgy and hip and not hard enough to be a solid, sensical story. And I refuse to watch movies in a world where that’s too much to ask.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Tubularsock isn’t going off to buy a ticket BUT the lie we have been told to live really doesn’t end well for so many, have you noticed?
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Drat. I love Kristen Bell, so this is disappointing.😞
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Yeah me too. This one’s already a few years old so I think it was barely a blip and we can go back to our normal lives.
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Have you ever seen Laggies? This sounds generally like that – a shit adult who has been afforded every privilege in life and then still wants everybody to feel sorry for them. Ugh.
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I have not…and it sounds like I shouldn’t!
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This sounds like something Tina Fey rejected as being even worse than the rest of the crap she’s been spewing for the last few years.
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Do you think you took the movie a little seriously? Great review overall though, some nice thoughts!
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Yeah, well, it was meant to be. It’s not a comedy, oddly enough.
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I saw this years ago and remember being a bit confused on whether or not I liked it. I liked that it was different, but the entire thing about excusing sex with a minor was gross.
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Yeah, and they slap indie songs on it like bandaids to cover up lack of story or plot.
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Yeah – I think I’ll ignore this one.
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Everyone else did!
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I believe this is called a quarter life crisis. And yes, it’s a thing. At least, that’s what I read. (I’m 20 years too old for one. I guess it’s time for my mid life crisis or something.) Or, maybe it’s that return of Saturn thing.
Anyway, I’ll skip.
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I know what a quarter-life crisis is, I just don’t think a 30 year old can have them…unless we’re living to 120 now?
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sounds dreadful!
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