By default, any movie starring Rebel Wilson, Sam Richardson, Zoë Chao, Chris Parnell, Mary Holland, Justin Hartley (and even Alicia Silverstone in a tiny cameo) should be good. Or at least decent. That’s a powerhouse lineup right there. Their talent and charisma alone should be able to carry any movie. So I guess that makes Senior Year an impressive feat, in that it nearly squanders every ounce of talent this cast has.
Angourie Rice plays the 17-year-old version of Stephanie Conway, Australian transplant and high school outcast. After a birthday-party-gone-wrong, she dedicates all her time to becoming one of the popular kids, with the goal of being crowned prom queen her senior year. She eventually becomes cheer captain and starts dating the cool and popular Blaine. As with any movie set during high school, Stephanie has a rival in fellow cheerleader Tiffany, who just so happens to be Blaine’s ex-girlfriend (duh). In an attempt to undermine Stephanie, Tiffany convinces two other cheerleaders to sabotage her during a cheer routine. But it goes dangerously wrong, resulting in Stephanie going into a coma for the next 20 years.
When Stephanie wakes up (now played by Rebel Wilson), she goes back to high school to try to claim the storybook ending she so desperately wanted. But upon returning to school, she has to contend with a changed dynamic, including Tiffany’s daughter – and famous influencer – Bri now being the new Queen Bee Stephanie has to contend with.
And from there, Senior Year continues in about…exactly the way you think it would. It’s incredibly predictable. It hits all the tropes you expect from a movie like this. The only thing it held back on was an area it could have gotten lots of humor from: the fish out of water trope.
There are a few jokes in that area, but it was shockingly light. And even when it does go there, Senior Year glosses over those moments instantly. Stephanie is surprised by the advancement of cell phones and doesn’t understand that flat screen TVs are supposed to be flat. But think about how much the world changed from 2002 to 2022. There were plenty of opportunities to get some easy laughs, and they just didn’t even go for it. Instead they opt for jokes like Stephanie – upon waking up from her coma – not understanding that she’s looking at herself in a mirror. Sure, I can buy that she wouldn’t recognize herself after a 20 year coma. But she knows how mirrors work.
And to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with being predictable. Certain genres – romantic comedies, teen comedies – thrive on the formula. They all hit mostly the same beats; it usually comes down to how charming the cast is and how well the jokes work, or in this case, don’t. Most of the jokes completely miss. And those that do hit succeed mostly by the talent of those actors delivering them. In lesser hands, they would have been even worse.
Then there’s how the movie deals with Stephanie being 37 but, as a doctor literally points out, is still mentally and emotionally 17. Her actions and maturity go back and forth between reasonable for a teenager and what you would expect out of a full grown adult. I could be wrong here, but I’m pretty sure a teenager who was in a coma for 20 years would wake up from that coma effectively still a teenager. Another wasted opportunity.
I’m feeling in a ranty mood, so I’m going to hit (hopefully quickly) on three things that really bugged me that I might have been able to look past in a stronger movie:
- Stephanie’s accident was intentional, and obviously so. Like, at the very least they could be charged with assault. And the cheerleaders responsible seemingly face no repercussions.
- The movie opens with a flash forward scene that serves absolutely no purpose and adds exactly nothing to the story. When it finally gets to that point in the movie, I didn’t even realize that’s what it was at first. This is something that I typically hate, and it so rarely works (X is a recent example that actually pulls it off effectively).
- The graduation. This is a *huge* pet peeve. In any graduation, the names are announced in alphabetical order. But so often, movies just ignore that and go through the main characters in quick succession, regardless of their last names. Senior Year might have the most egregious example in recent memory. They go from Lance Harrison to Bri Balbo to Stephanie Conway. And Stephanie Conway is the last name called! Am I making a big deal out of something small and inconsequential? Yes, but that’s what you get when you fail to build up any goodwill in the rest of the movie.
But to avoid being completely negative, Senior Year isn’t a *complete* failure. The aforementioned cast is able to grind out a few solid laughs. And if the release of this movie helps get more people to watch Apple TV+’s The Afterparty starring Richardson and Chao, then I guess it’s worth it. There’s also a killer soundtrack for anyone who grew up in the late 90s/2000s, along with some other fun nostalgia. But those points aren’t nearly enough to save it from itself.
Probably more than anything, Senior Year serves to remind viewers that the entire main cast is too talented for a movie like this and have other, much better projects we should just go watch instead. In addition to The Afterparty, Sam Richardson is arguably the funniest character on Veep, which also features a short, great recurring role from Holland. You can also check out Holland in the movie Happiest Season on Hulu. Go watch any of those instead of Senior Year.
Score: 40/100
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