''The Female Brain'' is a 2017 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Whitney Cummings Whitney Cummings (born September 4, 1982) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, director, producer, investor and podcaster. A native of Washington, DC, Cummings pursued a comedy career in Los Angeles after graduating from the Univer ...

and written by

Neal Brennan Neal Brennan (born October 19, 1973) is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, and podcaster. He is best known for co-creating and co-writing the Comedy Central series ''Chappelle's Show'' (2003–2006) with Dave Chappelle and for his N ...

and Cummings. It is based on the 2006 book '' The Female Brain'' by

Louann Brizendine Louann Brizendine (born December 30, 1952) is an American scientist, a neuropsychiatrist who is both a researcher and a clinician and professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is the author of three books: '' The Female ...

. The film stars Cummings,

Sofía Vergara Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (; born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian and American actress and model. She was the highest paid actress in American television from 2013 to 2020.

Toby Kebbell Tobias Alistair Patrick Kebbell''Births, Marriages & Deaths: Toby is married to Arielle Wyatt. They got married in 2020 and they have one child together. Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 9 July 1982) is an English ...

James Marsden James Paul Marsden (born September 18, 1973) is an American actor, singer, and former model. Marsden began his acting career guest starring in the television shows '' Saved by the Bell: The New Class'' (1993), '' Touched by an Angel'' (1995), ' ...

Deon Cole Deon Anthony Cole (born January 9, 1972) is an American comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He is best known for his role in the sitcom ''Black-ish'' (2014–2022), which earned him nominations for two NAACP Image Awards and two SAG Awards. On Ju ...

Lucy Punch Lucy Punch (born 30 December 1977) is a British actress. She has appeared in the films '' Ella Enchanted'', ''Hot Fuzz'', ''You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger'', '' Dinner for Schmucks,'' and ''Into the Woods''. She is also known for her role as ...

Beanie Feldstein Elizabeth Greer "Beanie" Feldstein (born June 29, 1993) is an American actress. She first gained recognition for her starring roles in the comedy film '' Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising'' (2016), the comedy-drama film '' Lady Bird'' (2017), and the ...

and

Cecily Strong Cecily Legler Strong (born February 8, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and producer. Strong is most notable for being a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2012 to 2022. She is also the longest-tenured female cast member in the s ...

. It had its world premiere at the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

on June 17, 2017. It was released on February 9, 2018, by

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...

Plot

Stoic and uptight, university neurologist Julia Brizendine (Whitney Cummings) compares the female and male brain. She thinks she can outsmart her emotions, much to her assistant Abby’s (Beanie Feldstein) exasperation. She is divorced and living with her parents and Abby self-medicates. Realtor Lisa Hampton (Sofia Vergara) and her husband of 12 years, Steven (Deon Cole) have a son Tyler. Fearing their relationship has grown dull, Lisa tries to spice things up by going on a date and getting high. Nothing works so they consider separation. Perfectionist Lexi Mercer (Lucy Punch), fusses over her boyfriend of 2–3 years, Adam Simmons (James Marsden). Friends with Steven, he is fine with how he looks and won't straighten his hair as she wants. They break up when Lexi insists examining a tumor on his back, which turns out to be benign. Zoe Green-Basker (Cecily Strong), a sales manager at an advertising company, resents gender stereotyping. She is close to starting her own firm with higher ideals. She and her pro basketball athlete husband Greg (Blake Griffin) have been married for one year. At home from an injury, Greg commits to renovating the bathroom himself. It does not go well. As part of her study, Brizendine scans the brains of test subjects. One day, a patient named Kevin Avery (Toby Kebbell) flirts with her before entering the MRI machine. Brizendine is flustered, despite what she’s been telling herself. The scan registers no empathy in his brain, so she dismisses him in her mind. He asks her on a date the next day, and he talks her into it. After, she swiftly initiates sex thinking that this is what he wants, but Kevin turns her down, saying he wants something deeper. Brizendine moves into a new house and Kevin offers to fix an electrical wire. Again convinced her studies tell her what he wants, she makes it transactional, offering to pay him. Then when Kevin stops by her campus office because she won’t return his texts, Brizendine tells him off and says she is fine without him. He says her testing is flawed because of her bias. Lexi visits her parents one weekend and realizes her mother fusses over her the same as she has done to Adam. She goes back to Adam’s, who is surprised to see her with no makeup. She apologizes for trying to change him and wants to start over. Greg is surprised to find a contractor working on the bathroom renovation and they get into a physical fight. Zoe, at home midday, stops the fight and says it was supposed to be a surprise. Then, Zoe states she has quit her job and she wants Greg invest in her new company. Brizendine herself goes in for a brain scan. Her brain reacts to the stimuli, and she realizes she can’t control it. She admits that female and male brains are different, and that showing emotions is not a sign of weakness, giving a TED talk about it. Realizing she does love Kevin, she finds him at work and says that even if her heart broke, it would be worth it to love him.

Cast

as Julia Brizendine *

Sofía Vergara Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (; born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian and American actress and model. She was the highest paid actress in American television from 2013 to 2020.

as Lisa *

as Kevin *

as Adam Simmons *

as Lexi Mercer *

as Abby *

as Zoe *

Blake Griffin Blake Austin Griffin (born March 16, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Oklahoma Sooners, when he was named the consensu ...

as Greg *

as Steven *

Marlo Thomas Margaret Julia "Marlo" Thomas (born November 21, 1937) is an American actress, producer, author, and social activist. She is best known for starring on the sitcom ''That Girl'' (1966–1971) and her children's franchise '' Free to Be... You and ...

as Lynne Brizendine *

Jane Seymour Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was List of English consorts, Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their Wives of Henry VIII, marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen followi ...

as Cheryl Mercer *

Will Sasso Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

as Dennis *

Ben Platt Benjamin Schiff Platt (born September 24, 1993) is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He began his acting career in musical theater as a child and appeared in productions of ''The Sound of Music'' (2006) and ''The Book of Mormon'' (201 ...

as Joel *Adam Shapiro as Hank *

Adam Korson Adam Korson is a Canadian actor, best known for his lead role as Harry in the Canadian television sitcom ''Seed''. Early life and education Originally from Thornhill, Ontario, Korson attended York University for a year before transferring to R ...

as Jimmy *

Phil Hendrie Philip Stephen Hendrie (born September 1, 1952) is an American radio personality and actor. He is widely known for his voiceover talent throughout the radio and film industry. He came to prominence in the 1990s hosting ''The Phil Hendrie Show'', a ...

as Bill *

as Marco *

Alysia Reiner Alysia Reiner is an American actress. She is best known for playing Natalie "Fig" Figueroa in the Netflix comedy drama series '' Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as part of the ...

as Erin *

Angel Parker Angel Parker is an American actress. Since 2000 she has appeared in numerous films, TV series and has done voice acting on video games. Her most notable credits include ''Criminal Minds'' (2008), '' ER'' (2008-2009), Marvel’s ''Runaways'' (2017 ...

as Jennifer *

Xosha Roquemore Xosha Kai Roquemore ( ; born December 11, 1984) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Jo Ann in '' Precious'' and Tamra in ''The Mindy Project''. Early life and education Roquemore was born in 1984 in Los Angeles, and is name ...

as Maggie *Gwen Hollander as Rebecca *

Rebeka Montoya Rebeka Montoya is an American actress. Montoya is known for her recurring role as Delores Padilla in the ABC daytime soap opera, ''General Hospital'', from 2011 to 2012. In 2014 she joined the cast of ABC comedy-drama series, '' Mistresses'', as ...

as Lola *

Andrew Schulz Andrew Cameron Schulz (born October 30, 1983) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, television producer and podcaster. In addition to his stand-up, he is known for his work on MTV2's ''Guy Code'' (and its two spinoffs),

as Andi *Lisa Linke as Emily *Jaylin Fletcher as Ty *Vinoj Zacharia as Bashir *Rachel LaForce as Lindsay *Beejay Hunter as Zachary

Production

On May 23, 2016, it was announced

would direct the film, with filming set to begin in July 2016.

Release

The film premiered at the

on June 17, 2017. In November 2017,

acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film and set it for a February 9, 2018, release.

Critical reception

, the film holds a 35% approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 20 reviews with an average rating of 4.19/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 41 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Female Brain, The 2017 films American comedy films 2017 comedy films IFC Films films 2017 directorial debut films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films