It's Ariana Grande's turn to Fock things up in the Focker-In-Law trailer

Ben Stiller might be the disapproving father-in-law this time, but he's still playing the obvious butt of the franchise's jokes.

It's Ariana Grande's turn to Fock things up in the Focker-In-Law trailer

In hindsight, it becomes increasingly clear that Ben Stiller’s Greg Focker is the true villain of the Fockers franchise of films. (Now about to enter its fourth installment, somehow, courtesy of this Thanksgiving’s Focker-In-Law.) Sure, his father-in-law Jack (Robert De Niro) can be a little overbearing, and asks inappropriate questions about who can, or can’t, be milked. But just look at the way Greg treats his prospective daughter-in-law, Olivia “I Am Played By Ariana Grande” Jones, in the trailer for the new film. Like, what the Fock, Greg?

The trailer shows Olivia being subjected to Jack’s standard interrogation methods, but clearly with a lighter touch; meanwhile, we find out that Greg has become completely overbearing as a dad, to a character now somehow old enough to be played by The Righteous Gemstones and Superman‘s Skyler Gisondo. (Beanie Feldstein is also in the mix, ensuring we have a full range of people saying “What the hell, Greg?” at various points in the movie.) Greg’s fatherly protectiveness blossoms into a new generation of rivalry between a Focker and an incoming family member—except that Greg is pretty clearly outmatched by Olivia’s FBI hostage negotiator background (and Grande’s decently strong comedy chops) this time around. And also, a dog is there, attacking him, because that is what the people have come to see.

Meanwhile, we are forced to contend with the fact that it has been 16 entire human years since Little Fockers arrived in theaters, where it did numbers that would be frankly shocking if a studio comedy managed to pull them now. (More than $300 million off of a $100 million budget; people were really into movie characters whose last name sounds like “Fuck” back in 2010.) As for whether Focker-In-Law can match it, well, we’ll have to wait until November 25 of this year to find out.

 
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