Using alcohol as a type of liquid courage, I asked my editors if I could just make my “Wine Country” review consist entirely of the Tyra Banks gif where she screams, “I was rooting for you. We were all rooting for you! How dare you!?” but they rejected my proposal flat out. Apparently, it’s not great for SEO, but it is the aptest reaction to the utterly disappointing directorial debut of Amy Poehler. Stacked with talent, “Wine Country,” a Netflix comedy, stars Poehler and fellow “Saturday Night Live” vet Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Paula Pell, Emily Spivey, and Tina Fey. With this kind of deep creative bench, making an unfunny movie seems virtually impossible, but succeed they all do, nonetheless, at making a dreadfully flat film. This was not the time to be overachievers, ladies.
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It’s not that “Wine Country” is entirely without laughs. With this many funny women in a movie together, there are bound to be good jokes— and there are—but many of them don’t land or don’t land as hard as they’re trying to. Bits feel improvised (which makes sense given the improv backgrounds of the actresses), but not in that spontaneous way that the best off-the-cuff moments can be. Instead, these tossed-off jokes feel like they belong in an outtakes montage in the credits. They hopefully don’t represent the best work that that this group can muster, because we’ve all seen them bring a funny A-game before.
With a script from Spivey and ‘SNL’ writer Liz Cackowski, there’s not much of a plot in “Wine Country”— and there doesn’t need to be. To celebrate the 50th birthday of Rebecca (Dratch), Abby (Poehler) organizes a trip to Napa for her and her friends, who met decades ago while working at a Chicago pizza shop. They’re joined at a gorgeous house by successful workaholic Catherine (Gasteyer), raunchy lesbian Val (Pell), antisocial pal Jenny (Spivey), and worn-out mom Naomi (Rudolph). The house’s owner, Tammy (Fey), pops by to check in on them, and the jack-of-all-trades helper, Devon (Jason Schwartzman), shows up to cook and drive for the group. As the weekend progresses, rifts between the old friends re-open as they follow Abby’s organized-to-the-minute itinerary of winery tours, a tarot card reader (Cherry Jones), singalongs, and shopping. Meanwhile, the problems of the outside world aren’t going away, despite the copious amounts of wine and their friendship.
“Wine Country” attempts to get serious about the women’s various issues in their lives, ranging from bad husbands to health scares, but these ideas feel as forced and hamfisted as some of the less-successful jokes. I appreciate that they’re trying to make the comedy about more than laughs, but it feels inauthentic in most cases. Poehler’s direction doesn’t really help; it’s generally serviceable, but there are some odd shots and framing choices that distract from the dialogue.
Though she’s among the lesser-known names in the cast, Pell is the indisputable MVP. Nearly every line she offers gets a laugh, and her delivery and timing are perfect. She’s had some small parts in the past, but her work as a writer has gotten more attention, including ‘SNL,’ “30 Rock,” and “Sisters.” “Wine Country” may not work in a lot of ways, but hopefully it will serve to get her in front of the camera more in the future.
What’s most painful is that “Wine Country” isn’t as funny as just having brunch with this talented bunch would be— and trust me, I have imagined this dream scenario down to the type of pancakes I’d order. You absolutely want to hang out with these charming, amusing women off-screen, but the time spent with their on-screen counterparts isn’t nearly as fun as you’d hope. If you’re halfway through a bottle of wine and browsing Netflix some evening, you’re better off downing the whole thing to drown your disappointment-sorrow and watching these stars in “Mean Girls” or “Sisters” for the fifth time instead. [C-]