A few weeks ago, we got a preview of Amy Poehler’s Netflix film, Wine Country, when she and Maya Rudolph appeared in Vanity Fair to talk work and friendship. Now, we have a trailer for Wine Country, and it looks as funny and adorable as you’d expect. Poehler and Rudolph are joined by an all-star SNL reunion including Rachel Dratch, Paula Pell, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, and Liz Cackowski (who, like Paula Pell, was a writer on SNL. Cackowski also co-wrote Wine Country with another fellow SNL writer, Emily Spivey). They star as a group of friends reuniting for a milestone birthday party in, you guessed it, wine country. So, Sideways for funny ladies.
The emphasis is on comedy, because we know these women as powerhouses of comedy over the last twenty years. But do I detect a slight dramatic edge? I was sort of thinking this would be a hangout comedy, but now I think it might have a more serious streak than that, mostly because of the hint of Longstanding Drama Finally Being Acknowledged. Not opposed to that, but I always get a little nervous when marketing deviates too far from what the thing actually is. Audiences don’t like it—being mislead by marketing is one of the top reasons audiences turn on movies and TV shows. So while I won’t be surprised to find Wine Country has a little more heft to it than the logline suggests, I hope this isn’t a case of going in thinking something is funny and coming out sad. I’ve already been betrayed by one movie set in wine country that looked great and then turned out to be completely different—and awful— once seen in full. Destination Wedding set the wine country movie bar really low. Please let Wine Country at least be better than Destination Wedding.
