Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
If you’re into comedy, you know who Kathryn Hahn is. She’s not obscure. She works a LOT. And as one of the most reliably hilarious comedic actresses working today, odds are she’s made an impact on you at least once. But after yet another movie, in this case the Mila Kunis suburban-mommy revenge fantasy Bad Moms, where Kathryn Hahn steals scenes and grabs all the best reviews (“absolutely riotous”! “a foul-mouthed force of nature”!), it’s probably time to face facts: we’re somehow still undervaluing her. Kathryn Hahn should be one of the two or three most famous comedic actresses working today.
The evidence is plentiful. After spending How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days egging on Kate Hudson in her fraudulent courtship of Matthew McConaughey, and the briefest of scenes in Anchorman, Hahn had her true breakthrough role in Step Brothers, playing the unhinged and horny Alice. As would become her custom, Hahn took a character who might normally have been rather pathetic and managed to both sell Alice’s moments of humanity (you really feel for her in that “Sweet Child O’ Mine” scene!) while also cranking up the insanity levels to the point where she’s fully in control of her scenes.
After a detour into drama with the DiCaprio/Winslet shouting film Revolutionary Road (in which Hahn is excellent, it should be noted), not to mention six seasons on NBC’s Crossing Jordan, Hahn got cast in what probably seemed on paper like a great idea: the James L. Brooks-directed How Do You Know. What a fantastic opportunity, to make a movie with the director of Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News, starring Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson, about … you know, love and stuff. Softball. White-collar crime. Stuff like that. Okay, so the movie turns out to be a disaster, BUT Hahn’s performance as Rudd’s secretary is the one thing in the whole movie that manages to recall the funny/heartfelt quality that Brooks’ movies usually provide.
After that, Hahn started killing it in ensemble comedies like Our Idiot Brother and Wanderlust — both, incidentally, co-starring Rudd, with whom she would also star on Parks and Recreation, where she played his cutthroat (yet thoroughly polite and cool) campaign manager. The phrase “I would watch an entire show about [x minor character]” gets thrown around a lot lately, but holy CRAP would I watch an entire show about Jennifer Barkley.
By this point, she was in the Club, that secret comedy society that gets you cast in every large-ensemble David Wain film or Adult Swim series with frequent guest stars. Kroll Show? Yes. Girls? Yes. Bob’s Burgers? Obviously. She’s made three movies with Jason Bateman, has her fourth movie with Adam Scott in post-production, and somehow found the time to play the mom in an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Oh, and of course Transparent. Hahn had starred in Jill Soloway’s underseen indie film Afternoon Delight, as a sad wife and mother who gets caught up in the life of a stripper. The Sundance hype dissipated when the movie returned to ground elevation, but the relationship with Soloway netter Hahn the role of rabbi Raquel, who has been probably the most likeable character over the show’s two seasons.
And so here we are. Kathryn Hahn wresting Bad Moms out of the hands of leading actresses like Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell, demanding recognition and doing what she always does: being the best, funniest thing within a three-mile radius. We all need to recognize.
Where to stream the best of Kathryn Hahn:
How to Lose a Guy in 1o Days
Anchorman: The Legend of Run Burgundy
Step Brothers
Revolutionary Road
How Do You Know
Our Idiot Brother
Wanderlust
Afternoon Delight
Parks and Recreation
This Is Where I Leave You
The D Train
The Visit
The Family Fang
Transparent
