The Stand In (2020)
Directed by Jamie Babbit
When ordered to serve a year in rehab, actress Candy hires her on-set stand-in to take her place. The unassuming woman flips the script and steals her identity, career and boyfriend in this hilarious comedy about trading places.
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What critics compared The Stand In to
At one point, the film decides to drive home the underlying inspiration, Mankiewicz’s All About Eve (1950), in an off-the-cuff reference to the refurbished Candy Black all aglow like Marilyn Monroe in the Bette Davis classic—but while the leading ladies from the referenced footnote are also arguably unlikeable, Davis and Anne Baxter fashioned a compelling statement about women in the performing arts whereas The Stand In ends up feeling like some of the empty-headed Melissa McCarthy-style physicality primed comedies of nonsensicality it’s paying homage to.
The Stand In should be a by-the-numbers twist on All About Eve , an evil twin kind of comedy caper.
On paper, it’s a decent, even hilarious-sounding premise: a “Trading Places”-meets-“All About Eve” comedy of sorts that switches around the lives of a megastar and her stand-in, to dissect fan entitlement, class divergence, the supposed shallowness of the film industry and all the female-specific struggles they culminate in.
Despite Drew Barrymore’s efforts, But I’m a Cheerleader director Jamie Babbit delivers an out-of-touch showbiz satire.
When it comes to good decisions, the brass behind “The Stand In” made quite a few, from casting a bonafide mega-star like Drew Barrymore to play a fictional one, Candy Black, to snapping up a talented director like Jamie Babbit (“But I’m a Cheerleader,” “Silicon Valley”) to helm it.
Director Jamie Babbit ( But I’m a Cheerleader ) is a good filmmaker, and her comedic sensibilities are second to none.
Credit director Jamie Babbit (“But I’m a Cheerleader”; nearly half of TV’s “Russian Doll”) with balancing those elements and keeping it fairly funny.
Although director Jamie Babbit ( But I’m a Cheerleader ) brings some visual flair to the lackluster material, it never remains grounded enough to manage consistent laughs or charm.
Conceived by a promising team — director Jamie Babbit, who made a wholehearted contribution to the LGBTQ canon with her 1999 debut “But I’m A Cheerleader” and “Four Lions” scribe Sam Bain — “The Stand In” poses as a Hollywood send-up with something to say on female rivalry and cost of stardom, only to come out on an end that feels toothless and curiously dated.