Last night /Film‘s Peter Sciretta caught Paul Feig‘s Bridesmaids (Universal, 5.13) as part of a double-feature presentation following a 10 pm showing of Greg Mottola‘s Paul. Sciretta says that while Feig’s film might technically be called a chick flick or romantic comedy, it “reaches levels of hilarity and heart that these types of films haven’t reached in over a decade.”

Sciretta also says (and this is significant, I think) that last night’s film- and tech-geek crowd, which he guesstimates was at least 80% male, “walked out praising [this] Judd Apatow-produced chick flick over Paul, the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost nerd-serviced sci-fi alien comedy,” which by any measure would have to called “a major achievement.”

Written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, Bridesmaids is about feuding bridesmaids played by Wiig and Rose Byrne (Damages). Maya Rudolph plays the bride. Melissa McCarthy, Jon Hamm, Matt Lucas, Ellie Kemper, Dianne Wiestand, the late Jill Clayburgh and Chris O’Dowd costar.

“Wiig delivers a career-best performance that proves she can do much more [than] sketch comedy and funny characters. I’d be shocked if Wiig isn’t nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical at next year’s Golden Globes (a la Emma Stone/Easy A). McCarthy also kills in every scene she’s in.

Bridesmaids “takes the Apatow formula and applies it to a film populated by funny women,” Sciretta notes. “I’m sure it will be criticized for being misogynistic, even though it is much less so than his other films, on top of being much, much less misandristic than most romantic comedies.

“I’ve also heard a couple complaints that it’s overly long, [but this] might be due to the movie not having begun until a half-hour past midnight.

“The movie has some great set pieces, the centerpiece of which is not afraid to mix women with potty humor, and does so not just for the gross-out laughs, but at the service the story and in a way which escalates to a brilliant crescendo.”