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Support the Girls

2/10

Stars: Regina Hall, Haley Lu Richardson, A J Michalka, James Le Gros, Jana Kramer, Kat Rogers, Sean Gallagher, Zoe Graham, Shayna McHayle, Lea DeLaria, Dylan Gelula

Director: Andrew Bujalski

I may have had an off night here but, quite apart from its many other deficiencies, I found this tale of one day at a Texas diner (which most critics seem to have enjoyed) enormously difficult to follow.

Lisa (the ever-reliable Hall) is the no-nonsense general manager of Double Whammies, a Hooters-style fast-food diner and sports bar that parades its waitresses in skimpy tops and short shorts (I know, I know, I should be enjoying this), although Hall warns them that too much touchy-feely with the customers is out.

There's lots of yelling and teeth-flashing from the girls, led by Maci (Richardson) and Danyelle (McHayle), although little of anyone's background, and, to our disappointment, Hall, who looks like being the film's most sympathetic character, soon proves just as hysterical as everyone else.

At any rate, the girls are holding an (illegal) 'car wash day' to raise funds for something or someone, which turns out to be a girl called Shaina (Kramer), but I didn't understand what she'd done, why she needed the money, or why Hall withdrew it when Shaina turned up with a boyfriend on crutches.

The money goes instead to a short-order cook just fired by Hall, though why he was dismissed was yet another mystery to me. Firmer direction might have helped, but the 'guidance' of Bujalski, whose previous film, Results, also failed to impress me, is just all over the place, never stopping long enough for us to gauge what's happening in any one scene.

The film ends with three of the waitresses yelling their lungs out from the top of a building before the merciful release of a black screen. It's just chaotic...or maybe I had an off night.

David Quinlan

USA 2018. UK Distributor: Bulldog Films. Colour by Cinelease.
90 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 24 Jun 2019