You remember the middle class-but-actually-financially-strapped white suburban parent who was also a weed dealer. And the middle-class-but-actually-financially-strapped white suburban parent who was also a meth cook. (And perhaps recently you’ve caught the middle class white suburban parent…who’s also a zombie.) Now there’s a new crazy kind of white suburban parent on TV, who, despite the comforts of upper middle class suburbia, is going to extreme measures to afford astronomically expensive aspects of American life.
In the just-released trailer for The House, Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell play parents who think they’re doing okay enough financially to send their daughter to college — but realize they’ve mistaken their $401,000 in savings for the mere fact that they have a 401k, and that they’ve actually spent too much to afford it. And so they start doing illegal shit: Amy Poehler ends up with a flamethrower, the two accidentally chop off a guy’s finger(s) (Togetherness‘ Steve Zissis’ finger(s), specifically), and play some roulette while relishing their newfangled feelings of badassery.
Beyond thematically resembling those aforementioned series, it looks to be a very simple/common comedy premise (also not dissimilar to Poehler’s recent, and disappointing — given its awesome cast — Tina Fey collaboration, Sisters). The premise being: stuffy stock characters not associated with wild times wander into the unknown and have wild times, providing endless room for easily amusing visual juxtaposition. Oh, and speaking of which, this was co-written by Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien (and directed by Cohen), the duo behind Neighbors.
Thankfully, the stuffy stock characters are played by two people with superb comic abilities, and there are at least a couple of moments in the trailer that entice. (Poehler with a flamethrower, Jason Mantzoukas attempting to deliver a stereotypical mob-boss line about severed fingers while trying not to vomit.) The movie also has a pretty impressive co-starring cast, including Zissis, Mantzoukas,Michaela Watkins, Sam Richardson, Nick Kroll, and Lennon Parham.
Watch the trailer: