The Little Hours

The nunsploitation film seems to be making an odd comeback recently — with even Paul Verhoeven catching the fever and announcing his lesbian nun movie Blessed Virgin — and nothing looks more promising than a ton of comedy greats banding together to make a raunchy, hysterical version of Bocaccio’s The Decameron, replete with clergy members throwing around f-bombs and nuns throwing around turnips.

The first — red band and incredibly NSFW — trailer for The Little Hours ticks off so many of the right boxes: Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie as foul-mouthed, promiscuous nuns. John C. Reilly, merely existing because that’s really all that we require of him. Fred Armisen’s off-kilter humor, Dave Franco (the superior Franco), Nick Offerman, and Molly Shannon — all participating in a raunchy take on those stoic Euro masterpieces from the ’70s. (Despite the fact that The Devils already exists.)

One of the apostles (I think it was Peter) once said that casting John C. Reilly covers over a multitude of sins. The Little Hours is basically a one-joke sketch — medieval nuns swearing like sailors — stretched out to feature length, but whenever the film starts to run out of gas or repeat itself a little too much, there’s Reilly, its rock and redeemer, turning watery jokes into a potent brew.