Senior Year Review: Rebel Wilson Finally Becomes the Prom Queen, 20 Years Later

Senior Year is the new comedy film released on Netflix on 13 May 2022, starring Rebel Wilson, Zoë Chao, Sam Richardson and Mary Holland. The film is directed by Alex Hardcastle and written by Andrew Knauer, Arthur Pielli and Brandon Scott Jones. The film has a runtime of about 1 hour 53 minutes and follows the story of a high school girl who wakes up 20 years later from a coma, after an accident.

Netflix describes the film as:

“A cheerleading stunt gone wrong landed her in a 20-year coma. Now she’s 37, newly awake and ready to live out her high school dream: becoming prom queen.”

-Senior Year Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-

It’s Never Too Late

The star of the film Stephanie Conway (played by Rebel Wilson as an adult), is a 17-year old high schooler who shifted from Australia to the USA and wants to be a part of the cool peeps at school. She forms a whole plan that would make her the most popular girl in the school with a hot boyfriend. She achieves it as well by becoming the cheerleader team captain and everything else follows.

But during one of the cheer performances, she falls flat on the ground while doing a stunt a few feet above the ground. When she gains consciousness, it’s 2022 already and she has lived the past 20 years on a hospital bed in a coma. Reality hits the fan when she realises how much the world has changed and how far she is from achieving the perfect life that she always dreamt of.

But as George Eliot said, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been” and Stephanie decides that she will take back everything that she wanted to be, especially being the ‘prom queen’. But even after 2 decades, will she be able to adjust to the new high school life with the Gen Z that actually cares for world peace & equality.

A Mix & Match imitation of inspiration

Senior Year right off the start seems like a do-over of a Mean Girl‘s plot where the new girl comes from a different country but the only difference is that she is not shy but a rebel who will take over the world if she wants to, I mean literally she is Rebel. Here the film looks like it tries to put some elements of the film Clueless as well, with the lead Alice Silverstone (Cher) also doing a cameo.

The film tries to do a lot of things but doesn’t do the right justice to the plot. Assuming someone wakes up from a coma after 20 years, they will be so confused and dissociative with their new reality and contemporary environment. The character in the film is initially shocked by her appearance but overall soon becomes one with the present.

The chaos and confusion could have brought in a lot of humour with watching someone trying to adapt to Twitter and all the unbelievable things in today’s date. The writers could have played with this theme alone, but confusing Lady Gaga with Madonna is not enough to make it. Highlighting the absurdity in little things could have been much better than the typical R rated comedy Rebel is known for.

Summing Up: Not Up To The Expectations

Senior Year on Netflix, starring Rebel Wilson who is also one of the producers, had created much hype around its release but unfortunately, it does not live up to the expectations. There’s nothing new per se in this high school comedy that is manufactured out of the decades-old hit-making machine that hasn’t been upgraded since. It has all the resources and a stellar lead to make it a blockbuster but somehow in trying to be everything it ends up with nothing memorable.

The film ends up with a phoney character that doesn’t care about anything else in the world than being a prom queen and somehow, still is likeable and becomes an inspiration.

Senior Year is streaming on Netflix.

Also Read: MaveriX Review: Simple Kids Show That Belongs in The 2000s