
“Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead,” directed nevertheless by Wade Allain-Marcus is also a remake of its 1991 original, saving a familiar story for a modern audience and, this time, focusing on a black family. The seventeen-year-old girl Tanya Crandell played by Simone Joy Jones seems excited for her time spent in Spain with her friends this summer. Nevertheless, things quickly turn south when her mother, who is played by Patricia Williams, gets passed over for a promotion by a younger, white male and suffers a mental breakdown which requires an extensive summer vacation whollops Tanya’s plans of spending a summer in Spain and leaves her angry at her home.
During this time however, Mrs. Crandell hires a babysitter Ms. Sturak played by June Squibb who is at least in her sixties, to look after the children including high school girl Tanya, Kenny, Tanya’s hippie teenager brother (Donielle T. Hensley Jr.), Tanya’s morbid young sister Melissa (Ayaamii Sledge), and their dorky younger brother Zack (Carter Young). Contrary to expectations, Ms. Sturak is not the kindly grandmother that everyone thought she was and instead replaces milk-and-cookies and soothing touches with nasty, overtly bigoted comments. This is what fueled the chaos when the siblings threw a party “Bible study” and caused all of the child’s alcohol, cigarettes, and queer-affiliated snuggling at home, which shocked the conservative babysitter.
Throughout the summer, the children must learn to fend for themselves and deal with burying a body.
It’s Tanya’s hands where the responsibility rests since she is the oldest and most reliable out of them all; after some thorough and shrewd Google searches and some intricate designs on Canva, the siblings manage to portray an adult 25-year-old version of their sister. Tanya uses her new disguise to get a job in a fashion company, Libra, whose CEO happens to be the fiercest woman ever, Rose (Nicole Richie). As Tanya tries to balance her summer filled with new office politics, being an adult, and a new love interest, “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” revolves around older siblings syndrome and how frustrating and empowering adulthood and autonomy can be.
Chuck Hayward, Neil Landau, and Tara Ison showcase their writing prowess with remarkable scripts, generously distributing witty lines among the ensemble cast. For example, when Tanya complains about how odd it is to pretend to work a mundane desk job nine to five, she raises two big questions: American culture, in which she tries to blend in, and any’s views, who manipulated her perception and creation of her character. Kidnapping and lying on non-fatal strangulation Kenny’s deep appreciation for weed and Melissa’s awe towards the history of violent crime provide the filmmaker with appealing comedic stereotypes to entertain with.
However, more than a few of these opportunities are wasted in performance. The joke, for example, is so poorly delivered that it takes several seconds to make sense, and only then can a laugh be gradually approached. This appears to be the issue most of the time with the performances; they seem so isolated and unnatural, like the entire cast is shouting to an empty audience dressed for a show. Although this strange separation of the characters in action does obfuscate certain parts, it does not quite obliterate the easily identifiable comic intermissions that run almost undistinguished.
Despite only having debuted but only in their first major role, Jones acquits herself quite well in the leading ladies’ shoes. She has quite an impressive range, from the short refers to the eldest sister’s short-temperedness to her gaining confidence as a person and a professional as the summer makes her step out of her comfort zone. The dynamics of the sibling ensemble are also generally believable in terms of how they come together at times and get on each other’s nerves. The siblings’ attempts at hurling sticks at themselves for comic relief are enjoyable as Hensley Jr. causes trouble for his other siblings.
Tanya’s on-and-off work relationship with Rose, and the early love developing with architect Bryan, and Miles Fowler, go on longer than those between the siblings, making “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” more of a portrait of the main character over the family. Richie’s performance is quite dull and flat, and one can only thank his cast for being such a testament to the cardboard cutout girlboss character that this version depicts in the shape of a classic millennial Miranda Priestly. Undermining this block is the fact that Tania and Bryan have been together for a long time. Tangerine and Brya have a lot of attraction, insecurities, and inhibitions that go along with young and poorly communicated relationships.
Nevertheless, this particular coupling has the least influence on the action of the film and this hint of possible attachment heightens the craving for magnetism in the core sibling interaction.
“Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” is fun and amusing, but eventually just misses its mark too much to be memorable. It has all the right components, sincerely provoking the viewer for a few laughs and genuine empathy for the heroes of the film. Still, it feels like a puzzle that has several pieces that do not completely fit in a weak teenage comedy and a coming-of-age film that does not have any lasting ability.
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