One-Liners: Millennials uprising

THE BRONZE (B+) - This tale of a washed-up gymnast -- a bronze-medal winner for Team USA in 2004 who is back home 12 years later in her tiny Ohio hometown, terrorizing her single father and the townsfolk as a nasty, bitter spoiled brat -- is raunchy, guilty fun.

Melissa Rauch (Bernadette from TV's "Big Bang Theory") stars in this labor of love that she co-wrote with her husband, Winston. She plays the pointedly pony-tailed Hope Ann Gregory, still skating by on her Olympic achievement. Never seen without her baggy stars-and-stripes track suit, she trades on her fading celebrity for free meals at Sbarro and her own parking spot downtown, where she idles her whale of a late-model Buick while she shoplifts scrunchies at the mall.

She mistreats her dad, Stan the mailman (a delightfully dumpy Gary Cole), worse than a misbehaving pet. (She also steals mail from his truck.) She viciously denigrates an old classmate, the son of the owner of the local gym that she used to train at, calling him Twitchy because of a facial tic that is exacerbated by her mere presence. That would be Ben (Thomas Middleditch from HBO's "Silicon Valley"), who still crushes on Hope and lamely attempts to woo her.

Rauch revels in the role. Her version of Hope comes across as a character that has been faithfully workshopped for years with an improv troupe. Rauch thoroughly inhabits the role and shows no fear in spewing foul-mouthed insults through a lived-in Midwestern twang or exhibiting the dark corners of her character, such as an early scene in which Hope masturbates while watching a tape of her medal-winning performance. (She theatrically sticks the landing, so to speak.) A late bout of ridiculously wild gymnastic sex rivals the famous puppet porn scene of "Team America: World Police."

The plot turns on Hope's estrangement from her stern former Eastern-bloc coach who lures Hope into coaching the town's newest phenom, Maggie (Haley Lu Richardson), who might have what it takes to win gold. Hope's first instinct is to sabotage the perky little teen (Richardson is infectiously giddy in the role) to protect her own legacy; but will the ice queen's facade melt under the influence of Stan, Ben and innocent Maggie?

Some parts don't quite work. Middleditch lapses in and out of his idea of an Ohio accent, sounding more like dose Chicagah Superfans. Hunky Sebastian Stan is a bit overbroad as Hope's male rival, Lance Tucker, who vies for the right to ride Maggie's train to potential superstardom. SNL's Cecily Strong feels misused as Maggie's working-class mom.

But Rauch sells this from beginning to end, and a late reveal of the reason why Hope could no longer compete by the 2008 games is perfectly executed. "The Bronze" is almost too laugh-out-loud funny to be merely a guilty pleasure.

LOLO (B-minus) - It's hard to deem a Julie Delpy movie a waste of time.

As a writer/director, she is known mostly for her modern takes on classic Woody Allen, "2 Days in Paris" (easily her best effort) and its companion piece, "2 Days in New York." She has occasionally skirted the line between clever and cloying, and her latest, "Lolo," is the most uneven of her efforts.

Delpy plays Violette, a hip fashionista who falls for a pedestrian computer programmer whom she meets while on vacation with a pal in the resort town of Biarritz. After their whirlwind week, Jean-Rene moves near Paris to pursue their romance. The sticking point is Violette's young-adult son, Eloi (aka Lolo), who takes an instant dislike to Jean-Rene and sets out to sabotage the relationship. It's apparent early on that this is Lolo's modus operandi -- a way of keeping his mom to himself.

Well, that's not so apparent to Violette -- and that's just one of the flaws in Delpy's rickety narrative. If that plot description reminded you of "Cyrus" -- the 2010 dark comedy with Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill as the creepy mother and son -- you're not far off. "Lolo," however, doesn't have the edge that the earlier Duplass brothers offering brought to the proceedings.

Instead, Delpy plays it soccer-mom saucy, especially when Violette banters with her bawdy bestie, Ariane (Karin Viard, "Delicatessen," "Polisse"), like a couple of frat boys. In the opening scene, the two are chilling in a whirlpool, and Violette complains about getting a "pussy massage." Ariane insists that Violette seriously needs to get laid. When there's a character reveal about Jean-Rene, Ariane cracks, "He was in deep cover, your muff-diver."

The movie is both charming and confounding. It is loose-limbed but in a way that sometimes feels lazy. In his sabotage efforts, Lolo actually sneaks itching powder into Jean-Rene's clothes drawer -- a gag probably not seen since the Three Stooges' heyday. Is that some sort of French homage?

Still, the film has a pleasing arc, and Delpy and Viard play together like a poor man's Edina and Patsy. Delpy is an earnest storyteller, and she provides an interesting female voice in the world of relationship cinema. It's really difficult to say no to her.

BONUS TRACKS
Delpy opens her film with some kitschy animation scored to Andy Williams' "Music to Watch Girls By," and she shuts it down with Etta James' muscular workout "Plum Nuts." Here they are: