I’m not exactly Chonda Pierce’s target audience by any means, but the comedian’s stand-up material had a pretty big presence in my childhood regardless. Her clean brand of humor and willingness to openly discuss struggles faced in her everyday life through a lens of faith made her a huge hit with Christian mothers back in the day, and growing up my own mom would regularly replay her CDs in the car on long trips. The woman is a holdover from that era when comics could get famous by being relatable and actually funny, as opposed to simply amassing a lot attention on Twitter through drama involving politics or whatever. It’s what allowed talents of her ilk to build loyal, lifelong followings while most of the names you’ll see featured in brief, 5-minute sets on Comedy Central or something largely never end up going anywhere. That down-to-earth, everywoman vibe she always brings to the stage carries over to this charming little southern-fried flick too. The story and much of the humor is just about a small-town waitress in her 50s trying to save her house whilst also contending with other natural life issues, and the packed theater I was in was primarily full of women around that same age range. No doubt those blue hairs in attendance found just as much to get emotionally invested with as they did to laugh at, as based on a conversation I had with one of Pierce’s more hardcore fans after the showing, the events that transpire here may have been inspired by some the star’s personal experiences. Which are situations much of the audience had likely been in themselves. No new ground is broke in the film’s exploration of things such as feeling left behind by the world’s constant advancement as it strives to keep up with the next generation or its surprisingly realistic portrayal of the woes of online dating, causing you to see a lot of the plot beats and even jokes coming from a mile away, but I still found myself thoroughly amused nonetheless. Overall, this won’t be winning any awards, yet is warm and cozy in a way we honestly don’t receive much anymore. It’s the kind of comfort food watch I was hoping to get from Adam Sandler this year, but he ultimately ended up missing the mark on with the underwhelming Murder Mystery 2. I went into this expecting another flat religious movie I wouldn’t be able to recommend and walked away pleasantly surprised that I instead couldn’t really classify this as a piece of Christian cinema at all. On top of being better acted and produced than anything Pure Flix has ever put out, there’s only the occasional passing reference to stuff like prayer at best and it’s done in a matter-of-fact, “this is who I am” sort of way completely devoid of any preaching or message that would make it less appealing to the secular or agnostic crowds. Resulting in the most fun I’ve had at the theater in what feels like quite some time.