Senior Year

2022 - 5 - 13

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Senior Year review – Rebel Wilson fails Netflix high school comedy (The Guardian)

A miscast lead is one of many issues plaguing a broad and unfunny attempt to recapture the spirit of films like Never Been Kissed and Mean Girls.

Tonally, it’s all over the place, that aforementioned sap curdled together with Wilson’s trademark crudeness, an R-rated comedy that wants to be both sweet and salty, a balance it never manages to perfect. She might look 37 but she’s got the mind of a 17-year-old (there’s a knotty psychodrama that could have grown out of this premise) and so her every move must reflect this confusing discordance. It at least looks like the movies it desperately wants to be grouped together with, a quick tip-off to its origins, made by Paramount before being off-loaded to Netflix. British director Alex Hardcastle, best known for sitcom work, does an impressive job of fooling us into thinking we’re in safe hands with a slick and poppy aesthetic before the script, from Andrew Knauer, Arthur Pielli and actor Brandon Scott Jones, reminds us that we’re very much not, the loosely familiar framework of a sturdy studio comedy crumbling with every ill-advised decision made.

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Image courtesy of "IndieWire"

'Senior Year' Review: Rebel Wilson's 'Never Been Kissed' Knockoff ... (IndieWire)

The actress is sprightly as ever, but Alex Hardcastle's Netflix comedy will send audiences in search of the stuff it attempts to imitate.

Little in “Senior Year” will surprise, and the film chugs through its predictable beats with good humor, but there’s not much else to recommend it. “Senior Year” stalls out while trying to thread the needle between the old and the new, instead finding its biggest insights (and best laughs) in a well-trod truism: People don’t change. The film’s script — credited to co-star Brandon Scott Jones, plus Andrew Knauer and Arthur Pielli — does attempt to interrogate those bad old habits (a scene in which Holland’s adult Martha explains to Stephanie that she can’t say “gay” as a pejorative is handled nicely, and actually has dramatic payoff), while also taking aim at our increasingly “woke” modern world. Thanks to the kind of contrivances only available in soft but well-meaning comedies (her old BFF Martha, played by the winning Mary Holland, is now the school’s principal; no one seems freaked out by the possibility of an adult woman hanging with teens all day), grown-up Stephanie is allowed to complete the final month of her senior year at the old high school. It stands to reason that Stephanie Conway, the Aussie outcast at the center of Alex Hardcastle’s “ Senior Year” would have seen “Never Been Kissed.” Released in 1999 — almost exactly when Hardcastle’s film starts — Drew Barrymore’s high school rom-com followed a well-meaning, dorky kid as she embarks on a do-over after a humiliating teen experience. But, oh, Stephanie dreams of being popular too, eventually making it happen through sheer force of will (plus tons of tips from teen magazines of the day, a cute touch) and by 2002, she’s the the queen bee of her senior year.

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Image courtesy of "The New York Times"

'Senior Year' Review: Oops! She's Prom Queen Again. (The New York Times)

Rebel Wilson stars in a back-to-school comedy that gets its laughs and drama — strained as they sometimes are — from the ways high school experiences have ...

By the final act, its dialogue is so burdened by inspirational maxims about personal authenticity that it feels as though the script has been hijacked by yearbook quotes. The big joke is the radical vibe shift in youth culture from hierarchy to equality. Stephanie’s final pre-coma memory is of a basket toss that carried her 10 feet into the air, a height from which she could see her whole future: She would be prom queen, marry a hunky jock and spend the rest of her life in suburban bliss.

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Image courtesy of "Ready Steady Cut"

Senior Year (2022) review - Rebel Wilson is fun, the movie is not (Ready Steady Cut)

This review of the Netflix film Senior Year (2022) does not contain spoilers. The film will be released on May 13, 2022. A common trope done in comedy is.

This hurts Senior Year because it takes what could have been an outlandish and fun concept and makes it into something that only a small group of people will really take the time to appreciate. However, this film just can’t overcome the poor writing that could have used a little less “wokeness” and a little more heart. People who don’t fully understand the younger generations, and perceive them as a trend or a viral video. If Senior Year does anything right, it’s reminding us of what made Rebel Wilson so funny in the past. Rebel Wilson has been thriving as a character actor ever since her performance as Fat Amy in the Pitch Perfect trilogy. Senior Year tells the story of Stephanie (Rebel Wilson), a cheer captain and soon-to-be prom queen, who, after an accident during one of her cheer routines, finds herself in a coma.

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Image courtesy of "What's on Netflix"

Senior Year Netflix Soundtrack: List of Every Song Featured (What's on Netflix)

Rebel Wilson's first global Netflix Original movie has just touched down on Netflix and sees the actress play a cheerleader waking up 20 years after falling ...

- Fallin – Joshua Radin - The Bad Touch – The Bloodhound Gang The show features some huge bangers in the music department so let’s walk you through every song featured throughout Netflix’s Senior Year.

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Image courtesy of "Forbes"

Rebel Wilson And 'Senior Year' Cast Discuss Their New Netflix Film ... (Forbes)

The comedy actress and producer discusses her growth in Hollywood over the past decade and the benefits of premiering her film on video streaming over a ...

She was so wonderful from the second I met her, she recognized the fact that I was the youngest on-set and that it was a little bit difficult and a little bit intimidating. With Senior Year skipping a theatrical release and going the increasingly trending route of premiering on video streaming, Rebel says of her comedy’s Netflix release, “To me, to release a comedy, it’s like the best platform because this movie will go wide in 200 countries on the same day and will be seen by millions and millions. “I remember like when I got in Bridesmaids, my goal was to just to come to Hollywood and get in one American movie. She made sure that it felt like summer camp when we were in Atlanta. We would go to movies and baseball games and dinners and she corralled us all and was such a great leader.” “My opinion of social media is I think I thank my parents for this, but I got onto social media very late, at least comparatively to a lot of my friends. I was like God, if I could just get in one, then people in Australia will think I’m legit as an actress and then Bridesmaids was such a huge hit. I think honestly, if you’re just like posting things that you love and make you happy and you want to share with the world, that’s all you really can do. “Most people don’t know I have a law degree and so, I kind of use some of the business side of things in the producing and it’s a different set of skills to acting. I couldn’t imagine - I mean, someone getting bullied at school is worse enough but then if you’re getting bullied through your phone as well, things like that, it can be really awful and just a whole other set of issues.” Being a part of the younger generation on social media himself, Joshua tells me, “I definitely have experienced times where I’m like Oh no, I didn’t get enough ‘Likes’ on this picture or my engagement is going down or something like that - it’s so stupid. I just rock up on-set and say funny stuff, but the producing - there’s a lot of work behind the scenes and a movie like this takes years to come together and put together and to bring in the whole team of talented people. There are so many differences between 2022 and 2002 culturally and in society and as a comic premise, that is going to be pretty good.”

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Image courtesy of "Variety"

'Senior Year' Review: An Overstuffed but Amiable Comedy Trip Back ... (Variety)

Spare parts of high school comedies from “Peggy Sue Got Married” to “Mean Girls” and beyond have been torn asunder, then sewn back together to create ...

The real laughs are almost all incidental ones sporting a feel of improvisation, with Holland, Richardson, Hartley and Chris Parnell (as the heroine’s widowed father) particularly adept at such business. Nor does veteran TV director Hardcastle lend proceedings the kind of high style that might accentuate the script’s more absurdist notes, despite decently colorful design contributions. The cheer squad still exists, but under Martha’s coaching, it’s quite a different entity, doing little routines about global warming and inclusiveness. Alas, an acrobatic not-quite-accident orchestrated by the aforementioned rival at a pep rally ends all this social perfection with a splat. After absorbing the shock of being a mental teenager in a 37-year-old body, Steph decides she’ll finish everything — including the 12th grade — she’d started in a different epoch, on the exact same terms. Nonetheless, if Alex Hardcastle’s effortfully high-spirited Netflix feature isn’t exactly good, it’s still good enough to provide reasonable throwaway fun, thanks much less to the material than to a cast that elevates it when they can.

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Image courtesy of "The Detroit News"

'Senior Year' review: Rebel Wilson high school comedy flunks out (The Detroit News)

Netflix comedy has nothing to say about 2002 or now, other than that both exist. Adam Graham. Detroit News Film Critic. Talk about senioritis. "Senior Year ...

When she awakens — the coma and its aftereffects are taken about as seriously as they would be in an "SNL" sketch — she's played by Rebel Wilson, and she's keen to pick up right where she left off. Otherwise "Senior Year" is as vapid as its lead character. Otherwise this dreadful fish out of water story is about as fresh as an episode of "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment," one of the few 2002 properties the movie doesn't mention by name.

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Image courtesy of "The A.V. Club"

Despite an A+ premise, Senior Year fails to graduate (The A.V. Club)

Rebel Wilson recycles her usual shtick in this retrograde raunch-com about a woman reclaiming her high school life.

While the kooky shenanigans and hijinks don’t yield much in the way of heart or humor, its snappy pace and the leading lady’s comedic prowess make it just worthy enough for your Netflix queue. Her teenage aspirations of one day owning the most picturesque house in town are quickly dashed when she discovers adult Tiffany (Zoe Chao) and Blaine (Justin Hartley) are married and living there. Her scenes with writer-actor Jones, who also co-starred with her in the aforementioned film, show off their pleasant rapport, yet sadly can’t save the picture. Her nuance also elevates the material, specifically in the third act, when the script calls on her to sell her character’s inevitable change from selfish to selfless. It doesn’t take long for Senior Year to lay out its outlandish premise, which is centered on a popular high schooler who awakens from a two-decade-long coma and, hoping to pick up right where she left off, strives to finish her senior year at the age of 37. Tragedy strikes when jealous class bully Tiffany (Ana Yi Puig) sabotages their show-stopping, Bring It On-esque cheer routine, landing the 17-year-old in a hospital bed, stuck in a coma.

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Image courtesy of "GoodHousekeeping.com"

'Senior Year' Star Rebel Wilson Causes Major Stir on Instagram ... (GoodHousekeeping.com)

In it, Rebel plays Stephanie Conway, a cheerleader who has been in a coma for 20 years. Once she wakes up, she decides she wants to go back to high school and ...

Once she wakes up, she decides she wants to go back to high school and redo her senior year. Of course, we weren't the only ones. "You look like a mermaid," said another.

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Image courtesy of "PINKVILLA"

Senior Year Review: Rebel Wilson's charm isn't enough to save this ... (PINKVILLA)

Rebel Wilson's 37-year-old Stephanie goes back to school in this light-hearted drama. Read Pinkvilla's review of the film below.

All in all, Rebel Wilson's Senior Year is the kind of film you put on when you want to watch something that's light-hearted and fun. It's a film that assures a happy ending and what more could you ask for during a time when everything around the world seems quite uncertain. Although it's a tad unkind to see all the good changes that Martha (Mary Holland) has brought into the school thanks to her own experience. Circumstances are different now with Conways' school friends, have changed considerably, with Martha (Mary Holland) becoming Harding High’s principal, Seth (Sam Richardson) working as a librarian, and the reigning student Brie (Jade Bender) is the daughter of her high-school nemesis Tiffany (Zoe Chao) and ex Blaine (Justin Hartley). Will the changing world finally make Stephanie realise that life isn't all that exciting if you chase being popular all your life is what is left to see. Following her 14th birthday, Stephanie decides to give her life a massive turnaround and channels all her energy into becoming the most popular girl in her school by becoming the cheer captain. It takes the whole genre's worth of cliches to come together to bring a film like Senior Year. With a concept that's borrowed from the likes of Drew Barrymore's Never Been Kissed, the refurbished version starring Rebel Wilson has little novelty to offer.

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Image courtesy of "INSIDER"

'Senior Year': Worst moments in the new Netflix movie (INSIDER)

The streamer's latest original comedy, starring Rebel Wilson and Justin Hartley, has some awkward moments and hard-to-watch scenes.

Prom and graduation both include lengthy choreographed dances that definitely could've been trimmed or cut to keep the movie from being nearly two hours long. But Janet eventually tells her that if she wants anything to happen at the school, she'll have to win over Bri, Tiffany's daughter. Blaine is with Tiffany by the time Stephanie wakes up from her coma, and the couple is married with a daughter. Now that she's graduated, Stephanie is interested in going to college and tells the guidance counselor that she'll do anything to get in while making sexual gestures. When Blaine makes a final, desperate attempt to win Stephanie back at the prom, he mentions that he has "a naughty thing for prom queens." Stephanie calls Tiffany the "buttroids" on her butt and Tiffany replies by calling her a "koala-ass." Everything Stephanie does and says in the movie theater is uncomfortable to witness. Even after Martha calls out how inappropriate the interactions between Stephanie and the students are, Stephanie continues to act exactly the same. During their cheer routine at the school pep rally, right when Stephanie goes up in a big basket-toss stunt, Tiffany apparently convinces their teammates to let her fall to the ground. On the way to school, Stephanie slams on the breaks, causing Seth to hit his head on the dashboard. In their next scene, Stephanie is sitting on Blaine's lap as they make out and loudly discuss their plans to have sex at prom — all of which is happening in the middle of class. She makes fun of Stephanie and her "freak show" friends for hanging out at the Rock 'N' Bowl. But Tiffany is also there, and it's already been described as a "cool" hangout spot.

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Image courtesy of "Cinema Blend"

Senior Year Cast: Where You've Seen The Actors Before (Cinema Blend)

Rebel Wilson (Stephanie Conway) · Angourie Rice (Young Stephanie Conway) · Justin Hartley (Blaine) · Zoë Chao (Tiffany) · Mary Holland (Martha) · Sam Richardson ( ...

In the past couple of years, Avantika has landed roles on shows like Mira, Royal Detective and Diary of a Future President, as well as the Disney Channel original movieSpin. But, since there’s a chance we could ruin some of those surprises for anyone who has yet to watch the new film as part of the 2022 Netflix movie schedule, we’ll play it safe for now. If the stars properly align, he will talk about For Love Of The Game being the best baseball movie of all time. This includes shows like Walk the Prank, Dog Days, and the Training Day film-to-TV adaptation that featured the late Bill Paxton. Over the years, Cimino has also worked on film projects like Shangri-La Suite, Annabelle Comes Home, and Centurion XII. Over the years, Richardson has given memorable performances on shows like Veep, Detroiters, Champaign ILL, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, Ted Lasso, and most recently The Afterparty, to just name a few of his many small-screen roles. Going back to 2016, Hartley has portrayed Kevin Pearson on This Is Us, racking up a pair of Screen Actors Guild Awards alongside his incredible costars in the process. Well, no need to grab your old yearbook in an attempt to jog your memory as we have put together a rundown of the Senior Year cast, including all of their major movie and TV roles, that hopefully helps you remember where you’ve seen them before. His film work includes Hot Rod, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, 21 Jump Street, Sisters, and several dozen others. Her film credits include Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Golden Arm, and Between Two Ferns: The Movie. Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past decade or so, you’ll instantly recognize Wilson from her star-making performances in the Pitch Perfect franchise. Over the years, Bender has appeared in one-off roles on a number TV shows including Warren the Ape and The Player, as well as a brief recurring spot on Major Crimes. During that same stretch of time, Bender has popped up in movies like Bad Night, A Cowgirl’s Story, and the made for TV movie, Night School. Next up is Zoë Chao who appears in the Senior Year cast as Tiffany, Stephanie’s bitter high school rival who went on to become prom queen and marry her high school boyfriend while Stephanie was in a coma following the traumatic accident two decades earlier.

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Image courtesy of "Roger Ebert"

Senior Year movie review & film summary (2022) | Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert)

“Senior Year” takes two high-concept premises—the going-back-to-high-school movie and the waking-up-from-a-coma movie—and slams them together in an ...

Is “Senior Year” mocking this cultural shift as a bad thing, as performative “wokeness,” to borrow a reductive phrase? This is the era in which everyone gets a trophy, and people love you if you post on social media about how passionate you are about environment. And if “Senior Year” is trying to say anything at all about how different things are for young people now, it’s not doing so with much force or clarity. (Holland in particular has terrific comic timing.) Justin Hartley shows up as the hunky, grown-up version of her high school boyfriend, who’s now married to mean-girl Tiffany (Zoë Chao). It’s a strong supporting cast, which makes it frustrating that they don’t get much to play beyond a couple of character traits. That’s been the perky, blonde Stephanie’s obsessive quest since she moved to the United States from Australia as an awkward 14-year-old. It’s a decent vehicle for the bawdy charms of Rebel Wilson, who continues to establish herself as an appealing comic lead beyond being a reliably irreverent sidekick.

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Image courtesy of "Decider"

Rebel Wilson Transforms Into Britney Spears For “Crazy” Dance ... (Decider)

The best scene in Senior Year on Netflix is Rebel Wilson performing Britney Spears' song 'Crazy.' Watch the full Senior Year dance scene here.

In a behind-the-scenes video released by Netflix, which you can watch above along with the full “Crazy” dance scene, Wilson said they rehearsed the number over the course of five days. “In a couple takes, our director Alex Hardcastle was like, ‘I thought for a second that was Britney.'” Equally impressive are the teen actors, some of whom, it turns out, are pretty amazing dancers. So it’s only fitting that Wilson’s character, Stephanie, would turn to Britney in a time of need. Much of Senior Year—the new Netflix comedy starring Rebel Wilson that began streaming today—is spent on nostalgia. But curiously, a lot of that nostalgia is for the year 1999, rather than 2002.

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Image courtesy of "Digital Mafia Talkies"

'Senior Year' Ending, Explained: Does Stephanie Conway Accepts ... (Digital Mafia Talkies)

"Senior Year" is a charming Netflix film that captures the true essence of Rebel Wilson's character off-screen. She expands the scope of life in this ...

Stephanie makes numerous mistakes along the way, taking most of the people who truly love her for granted, as she goes through the ups and downs of a teenager’s lifestyle and returns to school. Stephanie has a revelation and chooses to take a detour. It aids in the development of a certain level of motivation to look forward to dreaming and achieving every day, regardless of how many lemons are tossed at you. This makes her more aware of her friend’s needs, and she begins to see people’s thinking has changed in a more progressive manner. As her father and Martha, who is now the principal at the local high school, joyfully meet her and explain what her life is like today, she embarks on a new trip. Stephanie’s father is waiting for Seth to ask her out to the prom, and Seth always makes sure Stephanie is taken care of. Tiffany has a daughter named Bri with her husband, Blaine Balbo. Martha is the principal of the elementary school where she and Stephanie both attended. Martha gives Stephanie the keys to her parent’s lake house so she can host her birthday party, begging her not to break anything. Stephanie creates a video recording of the routine on a VCR cassette to save in the school archive so that future generations of the school might remember it and perform it to keep the tradition alive. Stephanie is a snobbish 17-year-old with poor grounding, and her best buddy Seth is now obsessing over her. Stephanie Conway’s mother succumbs to cancer after she and her family relocate to the United States from Australia. She sticks out at her school because of her distinct Australian accent. She wanted to make an impression as a 17-year-old and sought to figure out how to be the “popular” girl in 1999.

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Image courtesy of "Flickering Myth"

Senior Year (2022) - Movie Review (Flickering Myth)

Directed by Alex Hardcastle. Starring Rebel Wilson, Justin Hartley, Angourie Rice, Sam Richardson, Zoe Chao, Mary Holland, Chris Parnell, Jade Bender, Alicia ...

I would say Senior Year is most likely to crash and burn, but the film does that itself two minutes in. There’s also a moment where Senior Year flashes back to the teenage Stephanie, leading one to believe that the script will stick with both ages of the character, but it’s really for an emotionally manipulative sequence with her sick mother. What ensues is an onslaught of fish-out-of-water humor as Stephanie gets reacquainted with everyone in her past (the warm and polite Sam Richardson now plays Seth, Blaine is Justin Hartley, now married to Zoe Chao’s Tiffany, and Mary Holland is Martha), with everyone conveniently working for the school assisting with getting Stephanie reenrolled to finish her final month of high school. It’s hard to figure out what the screenwriters fail at more; scoring laughs through a grounded depiction of high school life or social media. In terms of comedy, the only kind thing there is to say about director Alex Hardcastle’s Senior Year is that star Rebel Wilson is not subjected to a barrage of bottom-of-the-barrel jokes about her figure. Except for Seth and Martha, these characters are irritating from the get-go, but once it becomes clear that Stephanie’s motivation for winning Prom Queen comes from a personal tragedy involving the death of her terminally ill mother, there is an undercurrent of shamelessly forced melodrama beneath all the selfish, gratingly annoying behavior.

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Image courtesy of "HELLO!"

Viewers all saying the same thing about Rebel Wilson's new Netflix ... (HELLO!)

Rebel Wilson's new movie Senior Year only landed on Netflix on Friday but has already skyrocketed to the streaming platform's top trending films.

She goes back to her high school and tries to assume her role as the star of her school. The official synopsis for the film reads: "She's the captain of the cheerleading squad, dating the quarterback and is well on her way to becoming the prom queen. Most of all, she is still set on winning the crown as prom queen." She has it all — until she falls off the top of the cheerleading pyramid and goes into a coma. The outfits." Give it a watch!"

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