Movie Review: Support the Girls

Support the Girls **** / *****

Directed by: Andrew Bujalski.

Written by: Andrew Bujalski.

Starring: Regina Hall (Lisa), Haley Lu Richardson (Maci), Shayna McHayle (Danyelle), Dylan Gelula (Jennelle), Zoe Graham (Taylor), Ann McCaskey (Reagan), Elizabeth Trieu (Yejin), Krista Hayes (Donnette), Victor Isaac Perez (Isaac), Jesse Marshall (Officer Vollmer), Luis Olmeda (Officer Dominguez), Jermichael Grey (McKray), John Elvis (Jay), Lea DeLaria (Bobo), Lindsay Anne Kent (Neveah), Sam Stinson (Chris), Jonny Mars (Mark), Steve Zapata (Arturo), Nicole Onyeje (Nika), James Le Gros (Cubby), AJ Michalka (Krista), Dennis Moore (Dennis), Jana Kramer (Shaina), Brooklyn Decker (Kara). 

 

How often do we see really nice, really empathetic people on screen, and just allowed for a short period of time to be in their presence? Lisa, played in a wonderful performance by Regina Hall, is one such character, and Support the Girls follows her over the course of one long day – and part of another – and the film generously just allows the character to show just how genuinely nice she is – and also how all that niceness is wearing a bit thin for her. Lisa is the General Manager of Double Whammies, a Texas “family” bar that specializes in “boobs, brews and big screens” – so, yes, it’s essentially Hooters. It follows her from the beginning of the day to the end – a day that would test anyone’s patience, but implies that really, this is every day for Lisa. We also know, right from the start, that the cheerful face she puts on every day is at least partly a façade – before we see her do anything else, we see her in a rare moment alone – crying in her car. But then she gets out, gets up and puts on that happy face. She will spend the rest of the movie treating everyone with genuine respect, genuine empathy – she cares about her girls, her customers, her husband, even her asshole boss. Perhaps she cares too much – which is why she’s crying in that car.

 

Support the Girls is one of those movies that doesn’t really have much a plot. It doesn’t need one. In a way, I guess, you could compare it to Kevin Smith’s Clerks – one really long day in the service industry – but while writer/director Andrew Bujalski has clearly made a comedy here, it’s not one with jokes per se. It’s one where the comedy comes out of the human beings at the heart of the movie, the somewhat absurd situation they all find themselves in – which, of course, is there lives.

 

It would be easy to make either an exploitive or trashy film about a place like Double Whammies. The waitresses are treated like eye candy at best, meat at worse, by the customers – and even their boss. Late in the film, Lisa will interview for a job at another place just like it – a corporate chain – who describes them as replaceable commodities – there are always attractive, young girls looking for work, who don’t mind be ogled (at best) by men. Lisa is the only person in the film (aside from the one female regular) who treats these women with respect – like they are individual people. Which of course they are. A few of them start to stand out – bubbly Maci (Haley Lu Richardson, who I am starting to think could be become one of the biggest stars in the world if she wants to). Maci has no delusions about what she does, but she’s so happy about it just the same. Danyelle (Shanya McHayle), a single mother, ever the realist, knows exactly why she’s there – she’s smart and capable enough that the owner thinks of replacing Lisa with her – but perhaps too smart to take that job if Lisa weren’t around. They work there because of Lisa.

 

Hall has always been a great actress – although she hasn’t always gotten the best roles. This is the best I’ve ever seen her in a film – playing a woman who is juggling 100 things at once, putting everyone else first, and is finally being worn down by it. Throughout the film, she will be letdown by various people, but she just keeps moving forward – right to the end, a cathartic scene of screaming, that gives way to laughter and tears. She is at the heart of this big hearted movie, which isn’t at all what I would have expected – but is so much more.