This damn movie has no right to be as good as it is. In fact, I’d written it off as an annoying movie about an annoying character that was desperately unfunny within the first half hour. But the damn movie just… gets good. It takes that annoying character and introduces characters we do like and then has the audacity – the sheer audacity – to start making us like the lead too. I’m annoyed. And annoyed that I’m so annoyed because every movie has the right to be good.

Afterlife of the Party is about a vacuous, self-centered party girl who dies stupidly and winds up in one of those Hollywood afterlives where she has to straighten up the lives of people she left behind. Chiefly, her best friend, her dad, and the mother who abandoned her.

I’ve seen the bones of this movie done before and figured I was too jaded and cynical to fall for the old tricks. And, like I said, the movie has a bad first act… I kind of hated the lead character! But she starts to help her best friend get with the cute next door neighbor and their romance is super charming, awkward, and adorable.

So I said, “fine movie. You want to hang an unnecessary afterlife movie over the much better romantic comedy taking place between these two other characters? Fine. I’ll put up with it and raise your rating slightly. But I’m not going to like the main character and I’ll just have to suffer the pointless afterlife plot.”

And then the damn movie follows up with the mom and dad and suddenly the main character is changing and I start to care about her too. Because the film is deeper than I thought it was going to be and, dammit movie, stop being better than it should be! It’s not fair.

As you can see, I’m having an existential crisis over a dumb Netflix movie. A movie that I kind of think is legitimately moving, heart-felt, and honest. And I’m surprised – shocked – that I came away liking it. How dare you!

Score: 82