Hollywood Reviews and Movie Trivia

"Strangers With Candy" is a prequel to the critically acclaimed Comedy Channel TV series featuring Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris), about a 46 year-old ex-junkie, ex-con that returns to school save her father and scores a C+...

I may be one of the few who hadn't seen the TV series, which ran from 99' to 2001. So when I sat down to see "Strangers With Candy", I had no idea what to expect. After the basic premise was established in the first few moments, I virtually laughed out loud when the character, a 47-year-old ex-con junkie, wanted to save her comatose father by going back to school!

The cast and writers (Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Dinello) of the original series pulled together this film adaptation, which is actually a prequel, and starts when Jerri, a self-professed "junkie jack-in-the-box", is released from prison. During the hilarious opening segment, Jerri's experiences in prison reminded me of the stereotypical women's prison films of the 70's. Jerri has spent 32 years behind bars. When she arrives, Jerri is shocked to discover that her mother died some time ago and her father, who has remarried, lies helpless in a coma. When the doctor (Ian Holm) notices a reaction from her dad when Jerri talks to him, suggests that Jerri do something good to bring her father out of the coma. Jerri decides to "pick up from where she left off" and impress her father into waking from his condition. Her dad always wanted her to finish school so Jerri decides to finish, not college as I had expected, but high school! Jerri soon discovers that high school isn't all that different from prison and that to succeed in things like the school science fair, it's best to recruit her own click, or in this case, lots of other misfits and outcasts in the school.

"Strangers With Candy" is full of offensive stereotypes and silly in-jokes. The characters in Jerri's life are just as off-the-wall as she is. There's the gambling-addicted, appropriately named Principal Blackman (Gregory Hollimon), and the flamboyantly gay art teacher Mr. Jellineck (co-screenwriter and first-time director Paul Dinello). There's great cameos by Matthew Broderick as the egotistical P.T. Barnum style genius of regional science fairs and his wife Sarah Jessica Parker, as a horny grief counselor with a tip jar, add to the movie's zaniness. Two actors make it work. Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert. Colbert (recently from "Daily Show") as Mr. Noblet plays bisexual science teacher who teaches from the Bible, who recently found God. And, Amy Sedaris, with her twisted sideways grin, distinctive overbite and disturbingly hyperactive sex drive (for both males and females!), is so goofy and twisted that you easily forget what an attractive woman she is.

"Strangers With Candy" is off-the-wall, irreverent, and has a lot of funny moments. I wondered how did I miss the original series when it was on. If this is the prequel, the series must have been hilarious...

Grade: C+