Gillian Jacobs, Phoebe Robinson And Vanessa Bayer Make “Ibiza” Enjoyable Despite A Lazy Plot

by Erika W. Smith May 25, 2018

Erika W. Smith May 25, 2018

Here at BUST, we love a lady-led comedy, and the latest to fall on our radar is the Netflix movie Ibiza, starring Gillian Jacobs, Phoebe Robinson and Vanessa Bayer and directed by Alex Richanbach. The trio stars as BFFs who go on an impromptu vacation to Barcelona when neurotic publicist Harper (Jacobs) gets her first international work assignment and her best friends, delightfully weird dentist Nikki (Bayer) and pothead “freelancer” Leah (Robinson), decide to tag along.

Hey, you’re probably thinking, this movie is called Ibiza, not Barcelona! You are correct. On the women’s first night out in Barcelona, it’s love at first sight for Harper when she meets famous EDM DJ Leo (Richard Madden, much tanner than in Game of Thrones) at a club where he’s playing. After trying and failing to find Leo at a millionaire’s erotic afterparty that same night, the friends decide to follow Leo to Ibiza so that Harper can get that d—a feat that ends up involving more than a little adventure. Nikki and Leah have their own romances, too, but these are flings (and more believable than Harper and Leo’s romance)—Nikki with Harper’s Spanish colleague in Barcelona, and Leah with a British tourist in Ibiza.

The movie’s action is heavily driven by missed and deleted voicemails (the only texting in this movie is a bit of drunken bathtub sexting from Nikki), but if you don’t think too hard about the plot, you’ll end up laughing plenty—a testament to how funny Jacobs, Robinson and Bayer are. Ibiza is no Girls Trip, but it’s worth a watch. (3 / 5)