Natasha Lyonne, Judi Greer, and Aubrey Plaza all play their parts terrifically, but the promising character driven film hits an awful trope early on. Bad enough that some tasteless humor is introduced in the form of ableist jokes and making light of sex offenders, the tastelessness becomes too much to bear when an innocent (albeit disgusting) man is accused of rape by a woman who's just ashamed of pursuing sex with him. I realize this is a fiction, but the perpetuation of these kinds of fictions just make living in our rape culture all that much harder. Jessica St. Clair of Playing House and one of the nerdy scientists from Better Off Ted were promising, but didn't offset that horrible plot point.

"Siblings can really sink each other." Not words commonly heard or realized often, but perhaps ones that can be true given particular circumstances. It's a theme that rings factual throughout this film, however unrealistic the scenarios.Addicted to Fresno follows two sisters in Shannon (Judy Greer), a seemingly recovered sex addict who has very little moral compass, and Martha (Natasha Lyonne), an eternal optimist who is always going over the top to help her sister with her issues and devotes very little attention to her own well-being. The two work as maids at a local hotel in their hometown of Fresno--a city where not much happens and the people there hate it yet can't seem to get out. Shannon's antics come to a nadir when she accidentally kills a man. She and her sister attempt to escape the mess, which will prove to either help or harm their already rocky relationship.It's definitely an anti-sibling movie--or at least it wants to be. I think mainly it strives to show us that the world is not as black and white as we have been brought up believing. Society tells us that as long as we hold on to family we'll be okay in the end. But sometimes they're the ones holding us back.The small town trope plays on the whole "being held back" theme. The girls are two complete opposite personalities, yet they both manage to become complacent in a city that doesn't offer much for either of them.The film is never hilarious, but does a good job of keeping the tone jovial throughout with some black comedy nuances and some enjoyable sequences thrown in, like a 13-year-old bar mitzvah boy performing a highly vulgar song filled with Jewish puns in front of his gasping relatives.We get some nice scenes from the supporting cast as well, including Fred Armisen as Gerald, the owner of a pet cemetery, who doesn't get nearly enough screen time, and Aubrey Plaza as Kelly, Martha's personal trainer, who gets plenty of screen time but is mostly underutilized. Solid scenes from Molly Shannon, Malcolm Barrett, and Kumail Nanjiani are mostly what make this film watchable. The timing of the two leads compliments their chemistry very well, but they are given very little in terms of laughable material. I understand that it's supposed to be somewhat of a black comedy, but it never fully commits. It's not obvious enough and most people may just chalk it up to being unfunny. The storyline is intriguing enough and I like most of the decisions that it happens to make, but if we're going to be sitting down to view a comedy we need to know what we're watching.Although a little uneven in terms of comedic tone, the laughs are there if you know where to find them. The story is one that hasn't really been told in quite this fashion before and the themes are relatable regardless of the impractical lengths of which it chooses to showcase them by. It helps that both characters are deep enough to attach ourselves to. It's not a terrible film by any means, it just speaks to a very specific crowd. And since its role as a comedy wears a bit thin, we may be tempted to dismiss the story as merely trivial.Twizard Rating: 74 **Review can also be found at http://movies.mxdwn.com/reviews/movie-review-addicted-to-fresno/

I was looking forward to seeing Addicted to Fresno. The cast was the thing that caught my eye the most.This movie was not well done. The plot was a sad attempt for the folks who created "But I'm a Cheerleader" to reignite the flame. Natasha Lyonne was quite disappointing but Judy Greer was the one that held the movie together.I came way feeling that the way this film was created it was to just gather a bunch of funny actors and it would automatically be quality. This was not the situation. The director must have let the cast walk all over her.This movie is not worth the time it took to watch it.

This low budget tale follows two sisters - one a lesbian seeking a soulmate, the other a sex addict seeking the nearest convenient penis - as they plot to get rid of the body of a scumbag the addict accidentally kills.More than half the script is delicious, sharp and lively (and filthy) with more than a few pretty good laughs. Unfortunately, the story runs out of steam too early and what's left is padding in scenes like selling a cartload of stolen purple dildoes at a lesbian softball league dinner. (It sounds funnier on the page than it turns out on screen.) Same goes for a completely lame Bar Mitzvah party with celebrant crooning a filthy rap song - obviously much to the chagrin of parents and Bubbee.A lowlight is a padded scene finding Greer teaching how to perform fellatio on a purple dildo.Kudos to the venerable Judy Greer - the sex addict here - who evidently can powerlift off the page the text of any script thrown at her. Natasha Lyonne is also quite good and holds her own in battling cinematic sibling Greer.There are Saturday Night Live alums present - Fred Armisen and Molly Shannon - but they are no reason to tune in (along with the rest of the flaccid, and in some cases awful, cast).Another misstep is the addition of a neither-here-nor-there LGBT agenda which doesn't mix well with the main story. The inclusion of a mentally challenged character was a risk, yet it tracks cheap and exploitative. The ending has a tacked on feel. It's at once aw-shucks corny, inane and unsatisfactory.No great shakes; a bit of fun with two good actors doing pretty damn good in a familiar story. Be forewarned: it'll disappear from memory fairly quickly.