Movie Review: Do Your Worst
Do Your Worst is a coming-of-age comedy drama romance set in Jozi, centred on struggling actor and professional mess, Sondra. A typecast TV actor who’s still trying to get it all together, she finds herself staring down a lifetime of bad decisions. Do Your Worst taps into the same awkward love, life and everything else dimension of Bridget Jones’s Diary. Yet, it hinges on a see-sawing friendship, harking back to a fateful audition where things diverged with dire consequences. As a result, their chequered history rises to the surface along with the constant threat of mean-spirited and self-destructive behaviour.
A colourful and spunky comedy drama romance from director Samantha Nell, Do Your Worst flirts with bad taste as it attempts to ramp up laughs with a series of awkward moments, from sexual encounters to bad wax jobs. While this provocative and edgy style of comedy is progressive for South Africa, it’s an overcorrect, resulting in crass and overcooked comedy of a sexual nature.
Do Your Worst stars Shannon Esra in the lead role as Sondra with Kate Liquorish, Wayne Van Rooyen and Rea Rangaka in key supporting roles. While the actors are game, it’s more cringe than fun and while the movie title would suggest there’s a level of schadenfreude at play, there’s very little enjoyment seeing characters in the dumps getting a double dose of bad luck. To complicate matters, while possibly inspired by Bridget Jones’s Diary there’s not enough empathy for the characters who seem intent on taking things from bad to worse.
Besides Esra’s breezy presence and Van Rooyen’s charms, there’s really not much to endear the characters, each self-centred and impervious to the well-being of everyone around them. Esra is cute enough to get away with many indiscretions but as silly as things get, she remains aloof without enough relatable contact points along the way. Van Rooyen brings his natural charm to the film, probably the only grounded and sensible character among the lot as a kindhearted contractor.
“You rang?”
Do Your Worst is at its best between the garish bookends where the comedy drama takes on a sweeter tone, forgoing the over-the-top comedic moments and raunch for a shot at true love, whilst navigating the fall out from severe lapses in judgement. While there’s a degree of complexity to Sondra’s attempts to finally grow up and take control of her life, the character’s broken compass logic is a constant frustration. As realistic as the character may be, possibly based on a conglomerate of real people, there aren’t enough redeeming features to root for the self-interest and feather-in-the-wind disposition of Sondra’s quest.
While Do Your Worst has a decent movie bubbling beneath its rough exterior, it’s not enough to only see glimpses, making this an uncomfortable and bumpy ride. While the raunchy and hard-living attributes give Do Your Worst edge, the inconsistent tone and misguided characters maintain a buffer with its brash and divisive brand of comedy. Do Your Worst has ambition, possibly trying to tap into Sex and the City’s flair and style but comes up short.
The bottom line: Roughhewn
