Scrambled (2024)

By: Mike Ward on Tuesday, February 06

R Running Time: 97 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

After years in front of the camera, writer/director Leah McKendrick navigates directing and acting in her own movie with great instinct and a intriguing and often hilarious story to tell.
As great as McKendrick is as Nellie, the main character, her scenes with co-star Ego Nwodim from “Saturday Night Live” make me want to see them branch off and make more things together.
Insightful, honest, fearless at times, and often very funny, Scrambled tackles a lot of issues head on and attempts to balance comedy with drama to point out the expectations society places on women the older they become.

NO

But that balancing doesn’t always align - at times, the film feels like it veers from humor to drama to quickly and some scenes don’t quite line up next to each other seamlessly.
Common with debut films, Scrambled has some pacing issues, related to the above, but also with certain scenes staying too long and other scenes not long enough.
Definitely earns its R rating - McKendrick is rather fearless in what she is willing to depict on screen. If at all hesitant about more adult and mature topics, dealt with frank dialogue and nothing to hide, you may want to look at another movie option, no matter how entertaining Scrambled happens to be.

OUR REVIEW

Movies where main characters go on a journey of self-discovery can sometimes work exceedingly well and sometimes devolve into cliché. Luckily, for Leah McKendrick, Scrambled becomes a journey worth taking, as her character Nellie finds herself questioning her life’s choices at 34, amid pressure to have a baby and “grow up.”

Written from personal experiences, McKendrick boldly goes all in as lead actor, director and screenwriter, embodying Nellie with a growing sense of purpose as Scrambled moves from go-for-broke comedy to a thoughtful, introspective look at the complexities of being a woman in modern society. Not all the shifts are smoothly executed, but McKendrick has command on her material and delivers an effective and thoughtful film.

There’s comfort (and exhaustion) in supporting others at the expense of yourself, which Nellie exhibits in the opening moments as she prepares best friend Sheila (Ego Nwodim) minutes before she is to walk down the aisle. Sheila, in a full on panic, demands Nellie tell her it will be okay, asks her for something to take the edge off and wants Nellie to convince her that her soon-to-be husband is the last sexual partner she will ever have.

The jokes fly by with the humor eye-opening. Scrambled starts off hilariously strong.

Family dynamics paint a different picture. Nellie’s Dad (Clancy Brown) is made up of selfish, bombastic bluster, while Mom (Laura Cerón) is more reserved, caring, and doting. Her rich brother Jessie (Andrew Santino) is childish, says misogynistic things and flat out disrespectful and arrogant.

And so, Nellie plies her trade as an ETSY jeweler and decides to see if any of her previous ex-boyfriends may spark a renewed connection. At the same time, following the advice of a friend, who had a child in her 40s, she decides to freeze her eggs and swallows hard as she negotiates with Jessie to consider paying for the procedure.

Scrambled, at times feels fearless. McKendrick infuses her comedy with frank dialogue, a fair amount of sex scenes, and paints a crumbling world of artifice all around her. Every wedding or bridal shower or baby shower becomes increasingly hard to attend when her friends begin sharing how successful they are or how much they love their husbands. Nellie starts to feel minimized and left behind, ever the more resentful, which stirs up a whole host of emotions tied to a recent breakup with the love of her life, Sean (Harry Shum Jr.), now with a new girlfriend and making a new life of his own.

Where Scrambled is more uproarious in the first half, a more serious tone arrives in the second. McKendrick lets some scenes play on a little long or seems to repeat ideas and themes here and there, but we hear her. We see her. And as she develops more and more bruises and puncture wounds from the fertility shots she must take, we see and understand the deeper symbolic connection between her physical and emotional state.

McKendrick’s talent is unmistakable. An actor with a long list of credits to her name, this is a potential breakout for her in front of and behind the camera. She is clearly an honest and forthright storyteller, with great comedic timing. Her scenes with Nwodim, a true comedian best known from “Saturday Night Live,” are simply a joy to watch.

Most first film debuts struggle with pacing, which occurs here. With all the consternation and pain and hurtful comments her father and brother make to her along the way, McKendrick hastily ties everything up with a shiny, pretty bow. There’s a little bit of cinematic whiplash, but all things considered, those things can and should be forgiven.

Scrambled is thoughtful, at times raunchy and entertaining, but also quite engaging as an impressive directorial debut. Keep an eye on Leah McKendrick. As a storyteller, she has a lot of important things to say and great instincts in how to state them in an impactful, memorable way.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Leah McKendrick, Ego Nwodim, Andrew Santino, Clancy Brown, Laura Cerón, Adam Rodriguez, June Diane Raphael, Yvonne Strahovski, Vee Kumari, Feodor Chen, Harry Shum Jr.

Director: Leah McKendrick
Written by: Leah McKendrick
Release Date: February 2, 2024
Lionsgate

After years in front of the camera, writer/director Leah McKendrick navigates directing and acting in her own movie with great instinct and a intriguing and often hilarious story to tell.

As great as McKendrick is as Nellie, the main character, her scenes with co-star Ego Nwodim from “Saturday Night Live” make me want to see them branch off and make more things together.

Insightful, honest, fearless at times, and often very funny, Scrambled tackles a lot of issues head on and attempts to balance comedy with drama to point out the expectations society places on women the older they become.

But that balancing doesn’t always align - at times, the film feels like it veers from humor to drama to quickly and some scenes don’t quite line up next to each other seamlessly.

Common with debut films, Scrambled has some pacing issues, related to the above, but also with certain scenes staying too long and other scenes not long enough.