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'Blockers' mixes gross-out humor with bursts of inspired lunacy

“Blockers” - ★ ★ ½

In “Blockers,” Leslie Mann plays Lisa, the single mom of high school senior Julie (Kathryn Newton), a vivacious teenager who, as the movie opens, announces a newfound goal of losing her virginity on prom night.

Julie's best friends Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon) quickly warm to the plan, agreeing that they'll take the leap together — or at least at the same time. When Lisa spies the trio's texts, she and the other girls' dads — played by John Cena and Ike Barinholtz — embark on an anxiety-fueled, hysterically pitched mission to scuttle the young women's plans, invading prom night like a battalion of helicopter parents humming “Ride of the Valkyries.”

As a burlesque of parental angst and sex panic, “Blockers” possesses sharply observed moments of inspired lunacy. Produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, this combination of satire and slapstick also includes the requisite number of dumb, gross and otherwise icky sight gags.

Mann, a gifted comedian given a gratifying showcase for her talents, makes the most of a role that presents the broadly comedic twin of “Lady Bird,” which also centered on a mom dealing with impending separation.

Directed by newcomer Kay Cannon from a script by Brian Kehoe and Jim Kehoe, “Blockers” suffers from ungainly, choppy pacing. There are more than a few stretches when nothing much happens save for getting one group of people to the next backdrop for a sex joke or sight gag (frequently at the expense of a freewheeling couple played by Gina Gershon and Gary Cole).

Still, the underlying values of “Blockers” are refreshingly healthy and affirming, proclaimed not only by Kayla's levelheaded mom (Sarayu Blue) — in a fiery speech about the double standards and the dubious politics of policing female sexuality — but by the girls themselves.

Smart, self-aware, comfortable with asking for what they want — and, more important, with refusing what they don't want — these teen feminists feel like avatars of an age when the term “me too” will have more to do with pleasure-with than power-over. Together they emerge as admirable examples of autonomy, confidence and self-respect, never more so than when their clueless parents are running amok.

• • •

Starring: Leslie Mann, John Cena, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Newton

Directed by: Kay Cannon

Other: A Universal Pictures release. Rated R for sexual situations, language, drug material, teen partying and nudity. 102 minutes

Three friends (Gideon Adlon, Kathryn Newton and Geraldine Viswanathan) make plans for prom night in "Blockers." Courtesy of Universal Pictures
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