The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)

Jack and I shared a number of belly laughs with actors whom we like, acting up, which we like, in beautiful settings, which we like, in this movie with serious pacing problems. How can you go wrong with Kristen Bell and Allison Janney, backed up by Ben Platt and Isaach de Bankolé, the latter in a pivotal role? Well, I guess you can, but we did enjoy some of it.

Usually I begin the post with a line about the plot, but the title says it all. Claire Scanlon directs from a script by Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin and Wendy Molyneux, based on the 2017 novel by Grant Ginder.

Tom Howe's 26 minute score can be streamed on Apple Music music and plenty of good songs are listed here.

Janney was last blogged for To Leslie, de Bankolé for Black Panther, and Howe for Polite Society. After I wrote about Bell for Bad Moms, she starred in fifty episodes of The Good Place and eight of The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, among many. Platt is best known to me for starring in Dear Evan Hansen on stage and and the 2021 movie (we saw it on Broadway but missed the movie), as well as the title role in fifteen episodes of The Politician. He was apparently in Ricki and the Flash as well as Pitch Perfect and its sequel.

This is Scanlon's second feature after dozens of TV series directing gigs, including many of our/my favorites, including The Office, The Last Man on Earth, Fresh Off the Boat, Black-ish, GLOW, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and one of The Good Place, and it's the feature screenwriting debut of the Molyneux sisters.

Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences are hating, too, averaging 32 and 40%, respectively. Told ya. We watched it on Amazon Prime Video with our subscription June 20.