Arriving on the heels of a decade of better-than-expected American teen sex comedies such as the Bad Neighbours films and Superbad, Kay Cannon's Blockers may be the most surprisingly resonant and heartfelt of these offerings in quite some time.
Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz and John Cena have a strange but appealing chemistry as three parents who attempt to run interference after they discover their teenage daughters have constructed a "sex pact" to lose their virginity on prom night.
From there, Blockers sticks to the tried and true structure of the "one wild night" narrative that leads to all sorts of high jinks as the parents chase their children from one party to the next.
But Blockers manages to stand out by weaving elements of a raunchy, R-rated knee-slapper into a poignant coming-of-age story. The three leads each capture a recognisable trait of parents struggling to come to terms with their children's own blossoming independence, in relatable and often cringeworthy ways.
Mann plays her part as a reflection on her roles in various Judd Apatow vehicles, while Cena sends up his wrestler-turned-actor image in several laugh-out-loud sequences. Most notably, Barinholtz twists his deadbeat dad into something damaged and heartbreaking, an impressive feat for a high-wire sex comedy.
