By Over the past few years I’ve grown increasingly tired of Melissa McCarthy’s shtick. I figured this was because I was tired of her, but it turns out she’s just been making mediocre movies. Her shtick still works when someone is actually making it work. Paul Feig makes it work.
In Spy, Melissa McCarthy reunites with him. Feig directed Bridesmaids and The Heat. That’s definitely some of McCarthy’s best work, although The Heat was right around when I was getting to be tired of her. In reuniting the two produce one of their best films, and it’s funny to boot.
Spy
Director: Paul Feig
Rated: R
Release Date: June 5, 2016
The amount of ways that Spy could have gone horribly, horribly wrong are pretty high. It’s a spy movie parody featuring an overweight woman full of crass humor. If this had come out with a different director we’d be looking at an insulting, pandering piece of comedic trash, but instead Feig makes Spy a clever and resoundingly unique experience capitalizing on McCarthy’s comedic skills and charm.
McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a CIA agent who spends her time behind the desk talking into Bradley Fine’s (Jude Law) earpiece as he goes on daring and dramatic missions. When Bradley is killed, however, Susan must go out into the field to hunt down Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne) and take revenge. Throw in a fantastically comical Jason Statham as a rogue CIA agent out for revenge, and you’ve got an amazing mix of comedic actors hamming it up while still offering a surprising amount of competent (and graphic) action sequences.
What Spy does best is completely invert what it “should” be doing. A cursory glance at the film would make you think it’s a bland spy film parody, but Spy isn’t a parody as much as it is a comedic spy film. Instead of mocking conventions with bad site gags and an inept spy as most spy parodies do it plays into them and then finds its comedy elsewhere. Instead of offering up tepid action sequences and fights it goes full bore as if it were actually an action movie. There are some sequences here that the steadily worsening Michael Bay could take some lessons from, especially since the film earns a hard R through violence.
It’s still the comedy that sells, and Spy‘s comedy just works. There are fat jokes, but they aren’t at the expense of McCarthy. The humor isn’t driven by her being a fish out of water as a spy, but instead through actual clever comedy. Feig and McCarthy have some of the best timing together and it shows throughout the movie, even in the beginning when things start off a bit slow. Once the obligatory gadget collecting scene rolls in you won’t be able to stop laughing. Once Jason Statham starts rattling off his nigh-impossible spy missions you’ll be on the floor.
Spy also offers a refreshingly female driven narrative for a genre that is obviously male obsessed. This should probably be expected from Feig, but the director once again delivers. In another instance of eschewing the norm Peggy doesn’t rely on any man to save her at any time. This doesn’t mean that the film ignores sex jokes or inappropriate behavior, but instead celebrates it as comedic. One of the things Feig’s comedies do best is tow the line between inappropriate and hilarious, something another film opening this weekend could have learned from.
You probably weren’t expecting such a glowing review of the film. McCarthy has felt tired in her last outings and the advertising for this one did nothing to make one think it was something special. Turns out the ads can be wrong and that McCarthy still has plenty of juice in her tank… as long as she’s taking on good projects.
