Criticism of ‘Marvelous Disaster’, Hollywood serial for lovers of toxic romantic comedy

In the convulsive situation of the end of the last century, the virus, the new and vitriolic North American comedy, unexpectedly conquered locals and strangers, planting a seed of heterodoxy, impropriety and healthy frivolity in the heart of the ‘mainstream’ that, over the years, only germinated in the wave of conservatism, revisionism and closure with which we now suffer. This was also the second golden age of youth and university comedy, beyond Hughes, Deutch, Martha Coolidge and Savage Steve Holland, and to this subgenre belongs the most memorable film in Roger Kumble’s filmography, ´Cruel Intentions´ (1999). , fresh out of writing the funny and cafir ´Desmadre sobre ruedas´ (1995), still framed in the satirical tradition of the National Lampoon magazine. The film, a revision of the classic ´Les Liasons Dangereoses´ by Choderlos de LaClos, which updated the bite of the original with doses of the best 90s bad slime, today enjoys a well-deserved cult status. They deserve no less its amoral direct-to-video sequel and its next production, ‘The Sweetest Thing’ (2002), a romantic comedy that, despite ending up selling more or less the usual, had several moments to remember: a foul-mouthed musical number censored in the US, a home accident at the cost of the unfortunate combination of fellatio and piercing (splendid, brave Selma Blair, the director’s regular accomplice) and a visit to a laundromat to pick up a leopard-splattered thong of semen stains. How not to yearn for the irreverence of these titles?

Unfortunately, that ode in honor of the triumvirate formed by Cameron Díaz, Christina Applegate and the aforementioned Selma Blair, was released when both youth comedy and politically incorrect humor were beginning to gasp. Since then Kumble has done little more than survive, without forgetting his predilection for young people and romantic stories passed through the mix of more or less disruptive humor. From this stage it is worth highlighting the nice ´Just Friends´ (2005), with Anna Faris in his best moment and Ryan Reynolds dressed in a fatsuit, and his participation in the series ´Kath and Kim´ (2008) again with Selma and another superlative comedian emerged from the trenches of ´Saturday Night Live´, Molly Shannon.

For some time now, the adolescent cinema model has forgotten its burlesque and hardcore component (there is no bun oven or hormones) and has tirelessly focused on the romantic, from a soft, if not prudish, moral and epidermally conservative perspective. and a certain redemptive kitsch aura: the adaptations of Federico Moccia and Stephenie Meyer, the sagas of ´My first kiss´ and ´To all the boys I fell in love with´ (I have seen them all… any problem?)… until arriving at Anna Todd and the unspeakable saga ‘After’, with a more sexual tone but, in general terms, only redeemable from an ironic distance. Precisely Kumble directed the first sequel of the saga, ‘After. In a thousand pieces’ (2020), the only minimally dignified and passably funny of the, for now, successful tetralogy. Its own producers are the ones who now grant Kumble a double-edged carte blanche, or so, and we get this ‘Wonderful Disaster’, a project produced, directed and written by our friend based on a novel by Jamie McGuire. That is, an opportunity to, without straying from established margins or confusing your potential audience too much, get away with it and have a pirate time, making the enemies of toxic romanticism and the apologists of didactic entertainment nervous. Both will feel in the room as in the same guts of hell.

Beyond the valley of the flower girls

Taking into account its castrating circumstantial conditions, the result is a triumph. Nitroglycerin within the system. Watch the world burn from within. Kumble plays, distorts, deconstructs, deforms, tampers with the adolescent myths of now and always to serve something that his audience likes and at the same time that makes his essence and paraphernalia grotesque. ´Marvelous Disaster’ is the same to the ‘After’ saga as ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls’ (Meyer, 1970) to the Hollywood serial. To do so, he has two exceptional accomplices: Virginia Gardner, between candid and ‘bitchy’, heiress to Selma’s loco, a heroine with a hilarious past and more uterine fury than heart or empathy, and Dylan Sprouse, a machirulo cuñao with an easy punch and chest tablet that, after the inevitable give and take (reference to it happened one night included, modality 40 days and 40 nights), will soon become your human satisfyer. The ´sexploitation´ brand merges with the filogay spirit. The romantic verbiage with the crafty and arrogant self-parody. The film oscillates, happily and self-consciously, between the derisory, the imbecile and the insane with a good arsenal of scenes with no other dramatic purpose than to moisten the respectable and respectable’s underwear. Not content with this, Kumble recovers the Brian Austin Green from ´Sensation of living´ and gives us an unexpected climax in Las Vegas with a boxing fight included against an individual who looks like version 2.0, and again adorably gay, of the ´Machine´ from ´Murder in 8 mm´ (Schumacher, 1999). Whoever doesn’t want to understand the joke, shut up and don’t bother. Your problem if you are serious about such an outrageous feast. We are facing a guilty pleasure nothing guilty. A generous portion of good trash. Luxury trash. A mondo and lirondo nonsense. A wonderful disaster; well that.

For emotional onanists and communicants of the most toxic romcom

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DATA SHEET

Address: Roger Kumble Distribution: Virginia Gardner, Dylan Sprouse, Rob Estes, Libe Barer, Austin North Country: USA Year: 2023 Release date: 14–4-2023 Gender: Romance Script: Roger Kumble Duration: 105 minutes

Synopsis: Travis Maddox is exactly what Abby Abernathy needs and wants…to avoid in her freshman year of college. He spends his nights fighting underground boxing matches, and during the day he’s an exemplary student and campus charmer.