From top to bottom there's a wealth of comic talent all over Addicted to Fresno, most of it
from some of TV's finest programs. Orange
is the New Black, Arrested
Development, Parks
& Recreation, Playing
House, and many more are represented by the film's many key figures.
Despite so many funny folks all in one place, the film often feels like an
extended episode of a floundering sitcom on its last legs, desperately
struggling for relevancy. Director Jamie Babbit (Married, Gilmore Girls) and screenwriter Karey Dornetto indulge in
every bit of crass humor they can find without any of the smarts to back it up.
Sadly they waste the comedic gifts of Judy Greer, Natasha Lyonne, Aubrey Plaza,
and a great supporting cast with material as dreary as the titular city.
Babbit worked with Lyonne years ago on
the gay conversion comedy, But
I'm a Cheerleader, a film that has earned cult status within a certain
segment. It was a pretty ballsy film for its time, but there's nothing in Addicted to Fresno that will be remembered quite so
fondly. Lyonne plays Martha, an eternal optimist who has found a way to make
her rather dumpy life some like a ray of sunshine. Not only has she just been
dumped by her girlfriend, apparently so she can date men, Martha works as a
housekeeper in a crappy Fresno hotel. She's compelled to help out her sex
addict sister, Shannon (Greer), a registered sex offender just out of rehab, by
getting her a job on the staff, too. But Shannon, a sourpuss if there ever was
one, isn't so much on the whole recovery thing so she shags a random hotel
guest (John Daly), only to accidentally kill him after being caught by Martha.
Since Shannon already has strikes against her, the ladies decide to hide the
body, which becomes a labored Weekend at Bernie's-style exercise that goes
nowhere.
Babbit throws everything against the wall
she can think of, and gets some talented folks to try and make any of it work.
Aubrey Plaza struggles through an underwritten romance subplot with Lyonne's
character, while Greer gets one of her own with comedian Malcolm Barrett as a
poetry-writing co-worker. Neither of these developments accomplishes much but
to muddle already-sloppy attempts at forced hijinks. For instance, Martha and
Shannon try to get the body cremated, so they go to shady pet cemetery workers
(Fred Armisen and Alison Tolman) who instead just blackmail them. To get the
money to pay the bribe, the sisters try to rob a sex toy shop and come away
with bushels of colorful glowing dildos, which they proceed to try and sell to
lesbian softball players. None of it works, and we haven't even gotten to the
rappin' Jewish kid at his bat mitzvah, the siblings' mentally-challenged boss,
a nosey front desk clerk (Jessica St. Clair) or Shannon's being mistaken for a self-help
guru by the dead guy's sister (Molly Shannon). If all of this sounds like
madness then you'd be right, and the film's half-hearted efforts to show a
healthy sisterly bond get lost in all of that craziness.
Rating: 2 out of 5
