'Queenpins' Review
R: Language throughout
Runtime: 1 Hr and 47 Minutes
Production Companies: AGC Studios, Red Hour Productions, Marquee Entertainment
Distributor: STXfilms
Directors: Aron Gaudet, Gita Pullapilly
Writer: Aron Gaudet, Gita Pullapilly
Cast: Kristen Bell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Paul Walter Hauser, Bebe Rexha, Vince Vaughn
Release Date: September 10, 2021
In Theaters
A bored and frustrated suburban homemaker, Connie (Kristen Bell) and her best pal JoJo (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), a vlogger with dreams, turn a hobby into a multi-million dollar counterfeit coupon caper. After firing off a letter to the conglomerate behind a box of cereal gone stale, and receiving an apology along with dozens of freebies, the duo hatch an illegal coupon club scheme that scams millions from mega-corporations and delivers deals to legions of fellow coupon clippers. On the trail to total coupon dominance, a hapless Loss Prevention Officer (Paul Walter Hauser) from the local supermarket chain joins forces with a determined U.S. Postal Inspector (Vince Vaughn) in hot pursuit of these newly-minted “Queenpins” of pink collar crime.
STXfilms, y’all are doing this poor movie dirty. Ever so often you get a hidden gem of a film masked with a bad trailer and an even worse poster that makes you think, “Wow, this is sure to be a disaster.” Queenpins reminds you to not judge all movies by their marketing campaigns, for there’s more to it than meets the eye.
The narrative is told from the perspective of Connie Kaminski (Kristen Bell), a former Olympic winner turned housewife who has been taking nothing but L’s in life, ranging from having a miscarriage to having an absent husband (Joel McHale) who works for the IRS (which is an L in of itself), and feels just about invisible to society. So, she devotes a lot of time to her hobby: coupon saving. Her husband sees it as an addiction, but her banal lifestyle is established so well that it’s displayed as her way of creating peace of mind. Granted, she gives grocery store employees hell with her coupons and while going full white woman on them, but the film perfectly displays the joy of coupon saving. Who doesn't love paying less for the stuff we need in life? Then, you have her best friend/neighbor JoJo (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), a vlogger who lives at home with her mom and dreams of success. The film sets up their motivation for coupon scamming so organically that by the time they hatch their plan, the ride becomes an engaging one to follow.
Given that this is the fourth time Kristen Bell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste have worked together (after House of Lies, The Good Place, and the Veronica Mars reboot), it’s needless to say that their chemistry is the main source of power in this buddy crime flick. Bell delivers a good performance exhibiting Connie’s rise to confidence and power. However, Kirby Howell-Baptiste stole the whole show. For starters, she’s an English actress, and much like every Black actor from way over yonder, she does an incredible American accent. She even nails the frustrated “uh” suffix… You know how people go “no-UHH” when they’re in an argument they don’t even want to be a part of. Apart from that, Howell-Baptiste is genuinely hilarious and is given the best dialogue throughout the film.
While the two suburban women are creating their illegal coupon business, the film establishes a dual plot with Ken Miller (Paul Walter Hauser), a socially inept but scarily committed Loss Prevention Officer of a local supermarket who decides to investigate the rise of illegal coupons that’s costing cooperations a hell of a lot of money. His claims and findings lead him to be paired with U.S. Postal Inspector Simon Kilmurry (Vince Vaughn) and the two go to crack the case. As far as comedy goes, the best laugh mileage comes from this ongoing storyline. The dynamic between Hauser and Vaughn is full of charm, wit, and utterly outrageous chaos where Vaughn is the cynical straight man to Hauser’s obsessive and unrelenting determination.
Writer/directors Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly’s screenplay is full of comedic moments, but STX shouldn’t have positioned this to look like a raunchy comedy… because it’s not. You look at that trailer and tell me they didn’t try to make Queenpins look like a Bad Moms-meets-Hustlers type movie. This is a straight-up crime film with a comedic backbone to it. When it leans into drama and you observe the lead’s path from a character standpoint, it thoroughly works as far as development and execution go.
Now, if we’re talking about the comedy angle… it’s mediocre at best. The humor stems from the characters’ motivations, their dynamic with their partner, and the situation they get too deep into. The film plays everything so straightforward that the comedy is merely chuckle-worthy, but Gaudet and Pullapilly's direction is earnest. You naturally get invested and don’t care about the humor, even when jokes fall flat.
The opposing plotlines have minor pacing issues where Connie and JoJo’s coupon crimes are full of high energy while Ken and Simon’s investigation is much slower. It’s like you have both the tortoise and the hare sharing a feature.There are areas of the film that could’ve been more streamlined as far as pacing goes but it never for a moment takes you out due to its charm and rise of tension.
I adore Paul Walter Hauser and his performances recently, but I think I’m over him portraying the obnoxious or inept loser who obsesses with upholding the law. He’s been doing these kinds of roles for a while now with films like Richard Jewell, I, Tonya. The only reason it works in Queenpins is that everyone outside of Ken calls him out for his unnecessarily obsessive behavior, primarily Simon and he is only a Postal Inspector. Since this is his third time doing this, it feels pretty schticky at this point and he definitely deserves more than this typecasting.
On the surface, Queenpins may seem like a cheap studio comedy but in reality, it’s a sweet crime flick about wanting more than a banal life after feeling invisible for so long. Just like clippings of coupons themselves, there’s so much joyful value to this movie than you could even imagine. Speaking of value, if you don’t see this in theaters, it apparently hits Paramount+ on September 30, which is such a steal. In another timeline, this would’ve been the crowdpleaser of the season. Man, STX should’ve been more confident with this movie’s campaign.
