The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Queen Bees
Romance · Comedy · Drama · 2021
Helen is an independent widow who moves into the Pine Grove Senior Community and discovers it’s just like high school – full of cliques and flirtatious suitors. What she initially avoids leads her to exactly what she has been missing: new friendships and a chance at love again with newcomer Dan.
Movie details
Queen Bees
“A comedy about the young at heart.”
2021 Romance · Comedy · Drama 1h 41m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.0 / 10
Community rating
Helen is an independent widow who moves into the Pine Grove Senior Community and discovers it’s just like high school – full of cliques and flirtatious suitors. What she initially avoids leads her to exactly what she has been missing: new friendships and a chance at love again with newcomer Dan.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Queen Bees?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Smart People
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Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
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Jersey Girl
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The Baltimorons
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A newly sober man's Christmas Eve dental emergency leads to an unexpected romance with his older dentist as they explore Baltimore together.
Which Brings Me to You
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Two romantic burnouts, Jane and Will, are immediately drawn to each other at a mutual friend’s wedding. After a disastrous hookup in the coatroom, the two spend the next 24 hours together, trading candid confessions of messy histories and heartbreak, on the off chance that this fling might be the real thing.
Father of the Bride
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A father comes to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding through the prism of multiple relationships within a big, sprawling Cuban-American family.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Michael Lembeck
Written by
Harrison Powell · Donald Martin
Ellen Burstyn
Helen Wilson
James Caan
Dan
Ann-Margret
Margot Clark
Jane Curtin
Jane Poindexter
Christopher Lloyd
Arthur Lane
Loretta Devine
Sally
Elizabeth Mitchell
Laura Wilson Crane
Court is in session
Put Queen Bees on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.