Bachelorette

Directed by Leslye Headland

(R)

**

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The three friends at the heart of this “enticingly malicious” comedy redefine the “mean” in mean girls, said Mary Pols in Time. Invited to serve as bridesmaids to a plus-size peer they secretly ridiculed back in school, this cruel, crass, hard-partying, and selfish trio proceed to wreak havoc on virtually every aspect of the festivities. Isla Fisher and Lizzy Caplan are each “gleefully nasty,” but “the best reason to see Bachelorette” is a wonderfully icy Kirsten Dunst in the Queen Bee role. Filmmaker Leslye Headland will be accused of “trying to ride Bridesmaids’ coattails,” said Connie Ogle in The Miami Herald. But her take on bad-girl behavior was written years ago, and its ending is considerably less maudlin. “The fact that Headland is able to provide glimpses of our worst selves amid all the raunchy humor is surprising and impressive.” Unfortunately, there’s less gut-busting hilarity in Headland’s film than in Bridesmaids, said Chloe Angyal in TheAtlantic.com. Perhaps “it’s just hard for us to laugh” at the ugly antics of three unlikable young women “when we can’t say for sure that they’re going to be okay.”