MOVIE OF THE WEEK October 1, 2021: STOP AND GO

Time has moved differently since March 2020, often slowing to a glacial crawl. For that reason, the charming road comedy Stop and Go — which is set during the early days of Covid-19 — already feels quaintly nostalgic. Remember when we doused everything in Lysol? And changed clothes after coming back from the store? And were terrified our loved ones would catch Covid and die? (Hmm. Maybe things haven’t changed so much since lockdown started after all.)

The film centers on Millennial sisters Jamie (Whitney Call, who also co-wrote the film) and Blake (Mallory Everton, who co-wrote with Call and co-directed with Stephen Meek). In the blink of an eye, they go from celebrating Jamie’s 30th birthday with a host of friends — all singing, coughing, and generally being in each other’s faces (the horror!) — to huddling together inside their house in Albuquerque, terrified of what the news is telling them about the novel coronavirus and the rapidly snowballing pandemic. A story about the especially dangerous conditions at nursing homes spurs them to brave the outside world and drive to Washington to pick up their beloved Nana (Anne Sward Hansen).

Since this is a road movie, the sisters face obstacles on their way; since this is a Covid road movie, those obstacles involve newly fraught situations like touching gas pump handles, getting within six feet of strangers, arguing with a pandemic-denying relative (“the tickets for my cruise were SO cheap!”), and figuring out how to take a three-day trip without using a public bathroom. Along the way, they have quippy exchanges and sing-alongs, dance in the desert, and try to navigate Blake’s connection with a Tinder date she met right before the world shut down.

It’s a very familiar plot structure, but Call and Everton’s charisma and chemistry make Stop and Go feel fresh. The dialogue they penned for themselves is snappy and smart, and they clearly love working together. That last point becomes even clearer when the movie’s credits roll over endearing home-video footage of Call and Everton as tweens/young teens filming comic bits and sketches. You realize just how long they’ve been working toward an achievement like making their very own movie — here’s hoping they make many more. — Betsy Bozdech

Team #MOTW’s comments:

Sherin Nicole A pair of sisters, who are thankfully free of resentment and genuinely adore one another, go on a wacky cross-country drive to save their grandmother from a COVID-19 outbreak at a questionable nursing home. Written by its stars, Whitney Call and Mallory Everton, Stop and Go is filled with an all-white squad of awkward characters who nevertheless avoid cliches. The trip is unpredictable and eventful. The pacing is fast. Yet I constantly pondered: Is this funny? Am I meant to be laughing? And if those are the questions you’re asking yourself, you probably already know the answers.

Nell Minow: Whitney Call and Mallory Everton are irresistibly charming in this comedy that evokes the uncertainty and panic of the early days of the COVID-19 shutdown and the endless pleasures of spending time with those who are home to us. Sharing their road trip as they effortlessly riff off of each other and unquestioningly support each other makes this the kind of journey that leaves us wanting to spend more time with them.

Susan Wloszczyna: It takes some mega moxie to put the pedal to the metal for a road-trip comedy set during the scary early days of the COVID-19 outbreak. But somehow Stop and Go, whose unfortunate too-on-the nose original title was Recovery, delivers just enough relatable amusement and zesty fun thanks to its leading ladies and screenwriters, Whitney Call and Mallory Everton, who co-directs with Stephen Meek. Read full review.

Pam Grady: Jamie (Whitney Call) and Blake (Mallory Everton) are roommates as well as sisters, so when the world locks down for COVID in March 2020, they are prepared to weather it in isolation together—until they get word that their grandmother’s nursing home is infested with the disease. Then what starts out as parody of the early days of pandemic when obsessive sanitizing and paranoia of even the most benign human exchanges went hand in hand transforms into a road trip as the women frantically race from New Mexico to Washington to rescue Nana (Anne Sward Hansen). No COVID tropes go unremarked upon as these chatty siblings brave germ-infested gas pumps, face down a hostile biker, and FaceTime with oblivious older sister Erin (Julia Jolley), who is away ignoring the sick and dying while trying to enjoy a cruise. Call and Everton, friends since childhood, wrote the screenplay (Everton co-directs with Stephen Meek) and it is their comfortable, easygoing chemistry that lights this comic exploration of our recent past.

Leslie Combemale Stop and Go (originally called Recovery) will ring true to most women who have a close relationship with either a sibling or a sister of the heart. What makes the film most interesting, even from this close distance to the early days of the pandemic, is that the jokes and observations specific to that time are very on point and will get funnier as we hopefully get more distance between ourselves and the pandemic. Though we’ll be dealing with it for the foreseeable future, Stop and Go will make (vaccinated) viewers feel like things are getting better from the horrors of 2020 and early 2021.

Jennifer Merin Stop and Go is a quirky and amusing drama about two gals who just wanna have fun, even though there is a a pandemic raging on and limiting their social lives to…each other. Whitney Call and Mallory Everton, who co-wrote the script (Everton also co-directed with Stephen Meeks), star as sisters Jamie and Blake who are BFFs and share a penchant for humorous riffing on all sorts of issues and burst into popular songs as a way of coping with life’s circumstances — even the most serious kind. The sisters find themselves taking an unexpected road trip to rescue their beloved grandmother from a nursing home where she is in danger of being exposed to COVID. They face and overcome a number of pandemic-related challenges along the way. This cinematic bit of pandemic-related silliness is releasing just in the nick of time to entertain moviegoers who are up for a little levity.

Loren King It looks like the ongoing pandemic has spawned a new genre, the COVID comedy. Stop and Go, created by Mallory Everton and Stephen Meek, stars Everton and Whitney Call as two sisters, Blake and Jamie, who are hunkered down in quarantine in March 2020 during the early days of the pandemic. The two stars are likable, with their deliberately dorky, self-deprecating banter. Screen appeal is a necessity since they carry the film. When their Nana needs to be sprung from a COVID-plagued nursing home — although Nana seems much too young and able to be in a nursing home but—Blake and Jamie nervously pack up the car and hit the road. Much of the film is set in the car during the long drive punctuated by desolate pit stops where the sisters avoid contact with anyone else. Even when their running sardonic banter resorts to dick and fart jokes, they never trivialize COVID or dismiss the scariness or deadliness of their circumstances. Stop and Go nails much of the bleak state of mind of the past year when gallows humor is both a coping mechanism and a balm.

Sandie Angulo Chen: After a few scenes of watching Stop and Go, the thought occurred to me that it was like Broad City without the raunchy jokes. That’s because the writer-stars Whitney Call and Mallory Everton are old friends from Studio C, Brigham Young University’s sketch-comedy troupe – explaining the lack of cursing or overtly sexual commentary (although just enough suggestive materials to not make it feel aimed specifically at an LDS crowd). The actor-filmmakers have a natural chemistry playing sisters and roommates Blake and Jamie, who must take a middle-of-Covid quarantine road trip from New Mexico to Washington State to pick up their grandmother from a senior home experiencing a scary outbreak. It’s clear how comfortable Call and Everton are with one another and with improvising (especially the scenes in the car). Not a lot happens in the movie (which is on point for the pandemic setting), but the charming performers are easy to cheer for and to laugh with, and sometimes that’s more than enough in a comedy.