Senior Year

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Senior Year is a comedy film following popular cheer captain, Stephanie, who falls into a twenty year coma after a serious cheerleading accident. When she wakes up and discovers herself now an adult, Stephanie is adamant she will return to high school and become the prom queen she was destined to be. This film works best when it really leans into how camp the concept can be; gags like Mr T not being as big of a celebrity as he was or seeing popularity on social media being compared to popular social cliques in high school. Beyond this I really enjoyed the way this soundtrack celebrated the 90s and often used this type of music for comedic effect.

 

Zoe Chao, who played Tiffany, was perfect as the classic high school bully all grown up; I love how scathing Chao presented her role and the real bitter emotions she let steadily rise to the surface over the course of the feature. Justin Hartley, who played Blaine, really felt like the bored ex-jock who missed his glory days; seeing Hartley portray a figure dissatisfied with himself and his marriage while crushing on his old high schoo, girlfriend was well performed. Jade Bender, who played Brie Loves, was one of the more out there yet creative characters in the cast; Bender's over the top take on an influencer who is nice on the surface but less so on the inside was quite unique. Avantika and Joshua Colley, who played Janet and Yaz respectively, were really vibrant personalities for Wilson to play off as her high school friends; this pair struck some great comedic hemistry that served them well. Brandon Scott Jones, who played Mr T, was a real scene stealer throughout the movie; Jones and Wilson clearly play off one another well and their first scene together is one of the funniest the film has to offer.

However, the best performance came from Mary Holland, who played Martha. I've only seen Holland in a couple of features before this one, but she has such a knack with comedic roles while lending a tremendous amount of heart to them. Seeing Martha as an adult is fairly jarring at first but you come to see the joy she has at realising her friend is awake and back in her life. In her own way Holland plays Martha as being quite cautious and fearful of being made to feel like she did as a teenager all over again. It's a really thoughtful acting choice and one that almost immediately set her apart from the rest of the cast. I love how light and friendly Martha is, and how passionate she is about making all of her students feel equal. There is a dramatic moment in the film in which Martha comes out to Stephanie and I honestly found that to be some of the most convincing emotion that's delivered. Holland really makes you understand how lonely her character felt growing up, and the divide between her and the character of Stephanie as friends because of the secret she used to carry with her.

It has been an age since Rebel Wilson's last major film; a little over two years since she starred in the infamous Cats. It is disappointing to see her return so out of practice attached to one of the most shallow comedies of 2022. The film deals with themes of popularity and high school social dominance in a way that is very outdated by storytelling standards. Their way out of this? Well it's to take a cheer captain with questionable ambitions for popularity, put her in a coma and be as rude and crude as she likes in 2022. There is nothing creative about this idea, in fact if they wanted to get creative about it we would be watching a comedic take on a coming of age film. As it is most of this film is either younger Stephanie parodying the mannerisms of Rebel Wilson or Rebel Wilson parodying what she thinks a popular 90s teenager would sound like. The jokes often feel a bit cringeworthy and the dialogue leaves you scratching your head and questioning if anyone has ever really talked that way in their lives. Senior Year is obsessed with mocking people who stand for environmental causes, or promoting consent in relationships. It hates the fact you can't use the word retarded or gay as a joke or insult anymore. The girl who incites Stephanie's accident is never punished for that and there is a male character who comes off as quite predatory and even incestuous in one scene. It's a script that really lacks maturity and likeability; there aren't many roles you'd relate to and it just feels so out of touch with modern audiences. For some reason if the film ever feels like it's languishing a bit? It tosses out a half-assed musical number just for the hell of it. Alex Hardcastle has a visual style that lacks flavour, the shots tend to be uninspired and some are downright unflattering. The editing also cut quite awkwardly and set a very jarring pace. The score for Senior Year sounds as if it was made by an amateur; the villainous theme they started doing for Tiffany was absolutely generic and uninspired.

Rebel Wilson, who played Stephanie, really struggles as the lead for this film; Wilson never manages to convey much genuine emotion and a lot of her performance portraying a teenager feels like the worst kind of parody. Angourie Rice, who played Young Stephanie Conway, often comes across feeling like she's trying to capture Rebel Wilson and not actually portray Stephanie; Rice's line delivery is also pretty bad with a few scenes having a very steady yet emotionless tone. Molly Brown, Zaire Adams and Tyler Barnhardt, who played Young Martha Reiser, Young Seth Novacelik and Young Blaine Balboa respectively, are all rather forgettable as the young counterparts; they do little with Martha and Blaine while Adams and Rice really have no romantic chemistry to hint at. Sam Richardson, who played Seth, really tries with this character but it just doesn't fit him well; Richardson can be funny and charming but he crumples when any scene asks him to get too serious or diverse with his emotions. Ana Yi Puig, who played Young Tiffany Blanchette, gives the most stereotypical high school popular bully you'll ever see; her only guiding character point is her dislike of Rice's Steph which felt fairly unfounded. Chris Parnell, who played Jim Conway, tends to go all in on scenes he really doesn't have to at all; I found Parnell's ability to deliver a good comedic line extremely hit and miss. Jeremy Ray Taylor, who played Neil Chudd, felt like the awkward extra character in the friend group established between Wilson, Avantika and Colley; you often see him working hard to make his screen time count but he seldom achieves anything with these moments. Michael Cimino, who played Lance, is a rather weird character who only really exists for shock value; Cimino is here for comedy and doesn't play a role which would be fine if he'd managed to draw some laughs. Alicia Silverstone, who played Deanna Russo, was a cameo role that gave nothing to this film; hearing Silverstone really bang the film's theme over my head was one of the weakest scenes in the feature. Lucy Taylor, who played Lydia Conway, was this tragic figure that felt as if she'd wandered into the wrong script; the sad Mum with cancer part just didn't buy this film back any sort of dramatic credibility.

This film tries really hard to win you over, but there's no forgiving it for making me want to gag while listening to Celine Dion's 'Power Of Love'. I would give Senior Year a 3.5/10.