The House Bunny
There was a time where Anna Farris was the hottest ticket in comedy movies. Starting off in the Scary Movie franchise back when it was genuinely funny (and now should die a death,) Farris rose to prominence even starring in a Friends episode and Sofia Coppola’s phenomenal Lost in Translation. For a while, her wide eyed, dumb blond (and brunette) and high pitched shtick worked. Lately, it just hasn’t. With Farris appearing in movies such as Movie 43, it got old really quickly in a pattern I am calling the Melissa McCarthy slide. I’m not blaming Farris herself, I feel it’s one of those cases where she is being fed tonnes of scripts and none of them break her out of the mould. It doesn’t help that Chris Pratt, her husband, is currently rocking up everyone’s attention Guardians of the Galaxy style.
Here is one of those movies where it works. House Bunny is the old school college comedy with a bunny tail for a twist. Shelley Darlington has been ugly all her life and then she bloomed into a glorious and sexy Playboy bunny. When she is usurped from the mansion because of her age, she finds herself stumbling upon the raggedy sorority that is on the verge of being disbanded. There, she finds a rag tag bunch of ladies who range from metal chicks to indie smart girls and it is up to Shelley to bring them up to feminine levels. But can she battle her own issues too?
Why is the Bad?
There is a group of misfits. They are introduced to an uncouth leader. They have to battle through some problems and face the closure of their club. They are the underdogs against the popular, prissy and evil group. They win, at the last minute. Now, comment below with at least ten films that are like that. What could genuinely break the formulaic script that is so generic? I honestly don’t know. We’ve seen it before: they win, they lose, they learn. Maybe MAYBE instead of giving the girls an amazing make over, they could have been taught to get a band of people promoting their own talents. You know. That’s INSANELY DIFFERENT. It’s fucking annoying when the only person who is told that they are fine the way they are is a pretty dumb blonde. Yawn.
Why is it Good?
The combination of Farris, Emma Stone and Kat Dennings is glorious but it’s Farris whose shtick I mentioned before lights up the entire film. Working on every kind of level, Shelley is a sweet endearing character who never asks the girls, maliciously, to make up change. Believing she is really helping the girls and having this massive heart that makes Hugh Hefner want to curl up and eat ice cream when she is gone, warms your cockles. With Stone and Dennings coming up the rear and supporting Farris’ lead, The House Bunny has a lot of soul.
Grab your girlfriends. Round them up. Get the nearest tub of ice cream, throw on your jammies and seriously enjoy yourself. Sure, it relies too much on the same tropes and there is a random part for All American Rejects Tyson Ritter. But it has some sense of difference. Even if it’s left dangling in the wind.