STACK J#165 Jul 2018

DVD & BD

FEATURE

beefing up the roles of the daughters and giving them specificity – when I got the script they were kind of interchangeable. The gay storyline was something I brought to the table. “Everyone involved did a lot of work to make a really funny movie that was also saying something and made you feel something. With the stuff that I write, like Pitch Perfect for example, I like things to be silly and ridiculous and dumb, but I also want you to feel something with an emotional underpinning. “We shot Blockers before the #TimesUp The DVD promises ‘Outrageous Unseen Bonus Content’. What can we expect? “There are tons of jokes that you haven’t seen that got cut, so there’s a whole lot of those, as well as some deleted scenes. Ike and John did some additional content, too, that’s really funny.”

John Cena with Geraldine Viswanathan and Miles Robbins

Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz, with John Cena (out of shot at lower end of hose)

young women, talk that way or think those things. Or they don’t want them to. “I’m ageing myself here, but I was in high school a long time ago,” she laughs. “I had the same girlfriends from kindergarten to senior high. There was always the same five of us around this cafeteria table, and we talked about everything, in the same way you see the best friends in Blockers talk to each other. We

himself, too, and being vulnerable like that. “We were both very happy when that scene was over, just because we felt it was an iconic scene that would be talked about, and we wanted to make sure we got it right. I never shot anything behind him,” she laughs, “only from the side, and we did it in one long take.” Cannon adds that the scene not only reverses the teenager/adult dynamic of the genre, but is also important in revealing the length that Mitchell will go to save his daughter. “At that point [the parents] have lost their minds. They could easily walk into the party and say, ‘you’re underage, you’re drinking, and we’re walking to the house and we’re taking our daughters and leaving.’ But they don’t do that, and [are caught up] in a night of madness!” Blockers also addresses the impact the internet and social media has on high schoolers today – the beleaguered parents learn of the girls’ pact after deciphering emojis on a carelessly open laptop – and Cannon agrees that when it comes to millennials, it’s a whole different ball game. “My daughter is four-and-a-half, and someone asked me when I would allow her to watch Blockers . With kids growing up so fast and technology changing so much, she will probably be watching it on a screen on her eyeballs when she’s 12 and I won’t know anything about it,” she laughs.

movement and #MeToo, but all these ideas were something I had been thinking about for a long time. The double standard, the idea of consent, young women in control of their sexuality, and all women having control over their bodies. All that was super important to me, and there were big conversations we were having well before these movements started to happen. The fact that the movie came out when it did was pretty amazing, actually.”

cursed and we talked about sex and made jokes. It’s new to an audience to see young women talk that way to each other, and what they’re talking about – but that’s how we talk. I think there’s this idea in society that we should be quiet and the objects of desire, as opposed to the ones who are going for it.” It’s de rigueur for a teen sex comedy to feature an iconic gross-out moment, and Blockers certainly doesn’t disappoint –

Everyone involved did a lot of work to make a really funny movie that was also saying something

although this time it involves one of the adults, with John Cena’s macho character indulging in some questionable behaviour at a party. Cannon says that the WWE superstar turned actor didn’t take much convincing when it came to shooting the risqué scene. “He’s used to being naked – he’s in the wrestling ring with very little on. He’s OK with making fun of

One of the best R-rated high school comedies of the eighties – Fast Times at Ridgemont High – was directed by Amy Heckerling, and Cannon believes the reason there hasn’t been more sex comedies directed by women in the ensuing decades is due to the aforementioned double standard. “I don’t think they think women, especially

• Blockers is out on July 11

What teen movies did you watch growing up? “For me it was the John Hughes era of The Breakfast Club , Pretty in Pink , Weird Science , Ferris Bueller’s Day Off … they influenced me a lot. I felt like they were speaking to me. Breakfast Club specifically – it’s not a crazy comedy per se, and I think people hadn’t really seen something like that before.”

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