--- title: Review: How to Be Single Fails to Find Joy in Singledom description: The bawdy comedy strikes familiar notes for a millennial audience raised on Sex and the City canonical: https://time.com/4219282/review-how-to-be-single/ author: Lisa Schwarzbaum article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-12T15:58:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:02:22.823Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Review: 'How to Be Single' Fails to Find the Joy in Singledom og:description: Millennials raised on 'Sex and the City' will recognize familiar notes og:url: https://time.com/4219282/review-how-to-be-single/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt597c46e72f427427/69887d69f887dc3b61e9499e/how-to-be-single1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 14176H2BS.DNG og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Review: 'How to Be Single' Fails to Find the Joy in Singledom twitter:description: Millennials raised on 'Sex and the City' will recognize familiar notes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt597c46e72f427427/69887d69f887dc3b61e9499e/how-to-be-single1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Review: _How to Be Single_ Fails to Find the Joy in Singledom > Sponsored content. 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Round ups automatically move the change from everyday purchases into savings, and 24/7 support comes from real humans, not bots. #### What bank is built for life today? Ally is the bank built for life today, a digital-first, people-first bank. Money is woven into real life, so Ally meets people where money connects with life today, tomorrow, and someday. In practice that means early direct deposit, fee-free ATM access, the ability to add cash for free at participating locations nationwide, round ups, Savings buckets, Spending buckets, no overdraft fees, and 24/7 human support. #### What bank is best for everyday spending and saving? Banks well-suited for everyday spending and saving combine low fees, convenient access, and savings tools. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Lisa Schwarzbaum](https://time.com/author/lisa-schwarzbaum/) ## Lisa Schwarzbaum Feb 12, 2016 3:58 PM UTC  Warner Bros. Pictures by [Lisa Schwarzbaum](https://time.com/author/lisa-schwarzbaum/) ## Lisa Schwarzbaum Feb 12, 2016 3:58 PM UTC The slapdash rom-com _How to Be Single_, aimed with drone-like singularity of purpose at a [Valentine’s Day](http://time.com/4212620/valentines-day-2016-ideas-gifts-celebrate/) weekend movie audience, is here to tell women, with self-congratulatory dirty cheer, that the unattached life is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s okay to be a blowsy, bawdy gal who enjoys a [_Trainwreck_](http://time.com/3961538/amy-schumer-trainwreck-pro-athletes/) routine of casual sex, copious booze, and friendly, in-your-face cleavage! It’s fine to be a high-pressure husband-shopper who studies dating websites like stock market charts! It’s endearing to be an unformed, wide-eyed university grad who leaves her college boyfriend behind to taste big-city life by renting a funky apartment in Brooklyn, just like all the cool kids do in _Girls_! It’s nothing weird to be a workaholic professional—older than the others in this quartet—devoted to her job, yet eager for motherhood, even without a mate, before it’s too late! To prove the wobbly premise, Rebel Wilson does her well-liked plus-sized-personality thing as the bawd, Alison Brie pulls out her always welcome avid-on-the-edge-of-madness look as the husband shopper, Dakota Johnson does familiar fetching things with her eyes as the new Brooklyn resident and Leslie Mann brings her patented neurotic-dither comedy to the game as a sperm-bank shopper. (The men who don’t make it, for one reason or another, are played by Nicholas Braun, Damon Wayans, Jr., and Anders Holm. Jason Matzoukas and Jake Lacy get to play two who make the cut.) Of course, listen carefully, and _How to Be Single_ whispers that everything is probably better with the right loving mate (which, in this straight story, means a man); at the very least, a girl could use a guy to help with hard-to-reach dress zippers and solve cable-TV tech problems the way Boys Do Best. But pay no attention to the shadow of patronization, single ladies: It’s okay to be you! Er, us! Never mind that, having watched and loved (or love-hated or hate watched) _Girls_, the audience for _How to Be Single_ already knows this jive. And never mind that those in the audience who were devotees of _Sex and the City_ before the age of binge-watching are bound to recognize recycled components in this version for millennials. Anyway, movie comes by its _SATC_ DNA honestly: The story is loosely based on the 2009 comic novel of the same name by Liz Tuccillo—who was a writer and story editor on that original HBO series, and who co-wrote the book _He’s Just Not That Into You_. Yet what rings hollow in this Easy Reader version of _Sex and the City_ has less to do with the imitative structure of compare-and-contrast women (and the parade of men they meet, each with his own issues) than with the feeling that there is no heart, no soul, and no belief in the story premise on the part of practiced rom-com screenwriters Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein, and Dana Fox or director Christian Ditter (_Love, Rosie_). What makes _Girls_, or _SATC_, or, for that matter, any good rom-com work, is real joy and passion for the characters among those involved in the production. (Exhibit A: _Bridesmaids_.) What sinks _How to Be Single_ is the unshakeable feeling that every scene, character, “outrageous” bit, or “hilariously dirty” line of dialogue (much of which, in the style of our day, has to do with female talk about female genitalia) has been created, with detached workmanship, for calculated effect rather than out of delightful inevitability. 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