So, boom, it’s Saturday night and I had nothing to do. So what do I do? I message my best friend and we plan to sit on her couch, drink wine, and eat doughnuts like real adults. Usually, in these scenarios, I’m watching a movie with her and her boyfriend but he wasn’t in town this time. Oh, how I wish he was or we had watched this with a male friend of ours. I digress. After watching one of our regular shows, I decided to open Tubi. What you all don’t know is we have a friend who lives and dies but Tubi movies. She loves them and will tell us to watch whatever one she just finished. This time, I said to myself, “Let me open the Tubi app and see what’s good over there.” The Pass is what I found.
Now, at the time of me pressing play on the TV, I did not remember that I had seen Drew, Kandi, and Rob, if I recall correctly, post about this movie a year or so ago when it came out. It originally came out on Peacock and ended up on Tubi. Or maybe it aired on both. I don’t know but I found it on Tubi, so once you read this, head to Tubi to watch this. I’m going to try and keep some of the good stuff out of this review, and by good stuff I mean the mess.
Alright, “The Pass” stars Drew Sidora as Nina, who you may have seen in “Housewives of Atlanta and Rob Riley as Maurice. Nina and Mauricle have been married for 7 years and Etta, Nina’s mother played by Charmin Lee who most recently is in “Uglies,” hates their marriage. You see, Nina is a trust fund kid. Her dad died, and apparently was loaded, and left her a trust fund. Her mom is upset that she’s, one, married to Maurice who works for her and isn’t performing at the level she wants him to, and two, she works under Terra, Maurice’s best friend, as an interior decorator. Her mom believes that she could start her own decorating business instead of waiting to be partner under Terra. Etta likes nothing. She doesn’t like Maurice, her daughter’s job, her daughter’s friends…just nothing! Needless to say, Etta got on my nerves. She’s that helicopter mom, but I’m grown so now it’s giving creepy.
Moving right along. Maurice is facing financial issues with trying to impress Nina’s mom and Nina by upgrading her ring, but Etta gives his client to someone else so his commission check is nonexistent. His best friend Terra steps in to help buy the ring. Later, when he’s playing golf with his guys and commiserating with them, one of his friends mentions “a pass.” A pass is when a couple agrees to allow each other one night with another person outside of their marriage. In this case, they made rules like no five-star hotels, no sex in the house, no neighbors or people we know, etc. I have a friend who has an open marriage that works kind of like this. The main rule in this arrangement was no questions. It’s a one and done but the other shouldn’t really know if you used your pass or not.
We’ll guess how long that lasts? I will tell you. NOT LONG. For reference, I used to watch “Housewives of Atlanta” when Drew first came on the scene. This character is just Drew, but they want you to believe she’s acting. I’m sorry, Drew. Based on what I saw in the show, this is you in real life. This is why I believed her character was as “special” as she played her because there is no way that some of these things make sense to her. For example, after their anniversary party, her husband asks if she can take his coat to the cleaners. She goes through the pockets while on the phone with her nosy and intolerable mother and finds a condom in his jacket pocket. Now, I’m not always the first knife you pull out of the drawer, but I have never known a man to put a condom wrapper in his jacket pocket. That’s not a thing. As a viewer, even though I saw how it got there, I was like, “You think this is real? You think he put that there?” Later, Nina was upset because she broke the pass rules and got caught up. Yes, she used her pass and Maurice did not. The stripper he wanted to use his pass with never showed up to the club. That’s neither here nor there.
Here’s what got me and my best friend. The person Nina used her pass with (remember, I said I was going to try and keep some stuff from y’all) is loose! I’m all about sex positivity and body positivity and whatnot but this person is happy to just be out here. Nina does not like that. Here’s what me and my best friend were screaming on the couch….you are married, girl! You have a whole husband. Why are you concerned about who this person is now sleeping with? You aren’t even supposed to be in contact with this person anymore! This was supposed to be a one and done, but no, you went back over there. Stupid!
Now, last but not least, when you get to the end, there is a twist and that twist presents problems. As I started to write this a formulate my thoughts, I wondered about certain parts in the movie. Based on the very end of this film, a lot of what we saw in the movie wasn’t necessary. I really don’t want to give anything away but I feel like some of the time spent on those parts that didn’t add to the movie or didn’t need to be there could have been spent doing something else. Also, based on the end, if you wanted to keep those parts in, some people needed to go to make those scenes make sense later.
All in all, this was a mess. I’m not sure how this ended up on Peacock first and not Tubi, but Kandi is a boss and will always find a way to make that money! I am really proud of all that she’s been able to do and still does. Please watch this film and come back and comment once you see the end. PLEASE!
