DIRECTOR: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
CAST: Camila Mendes, Maya Hawke, Rish Shah, Sophie Turner, Austin Abrams, Eliza Bennett, Alisha Boe, Talia Ryder, Paris Berelc, Jonathan Daviss, Maia Reficco, Ava Capri, Sarah Michelle Gellar
RUNNING TIME: 118 mins
CERTIFICATE: 15
BASICALLY…: Two high school students (Mendes and Hawke) decide to take vengeance on each other’s tormentors…
NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
Netflix’s long line of teen movies – among them Work It, Tall Girl, that awful gender-swapped She’s All That remake, and the Kissing Booth and To All The Boys trilogies – have certainly attracted the right type of audience, but let’s face it: they’re nowhere near as memorable or as instantly iconic as the types of adolescent-centric films from the 90s and early 2000s. People to this day still quote Clueless and Mean Girls, but could they recite a single line of dialogue from any of the Kissing Booth movies? They know who Stifler and McLovin are, but would they even be able to recite off the top of their heads the lead’s name in Tall Girl? Props to you if you can, but it’s still unlikely all the same.
It is, therefore, a bit of a surprise to see Netflix attempt to emulate one of those iconic teen movies we would have gotten about twenty or thirty years ago with Do Revenge, a movie that models nearly everything from its raging soundtrack to its fashion sense after stuff that was once popular in 1997 or 2004. It is also, at least in comparison with the much fluffier teen fare that the streamer’s been putting out, a slight cut above the rest in sheer entertainment value – but even still, it lacks the truly sharp edge that really could have made this a real stand-out in the category.
The movie, directed and co-written by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (who previously worked with Netflix on her debut feature Someone Great), is set at a posh high school for affluent teens, where queen bee Drea (Camila Mendes) has successfully climbed the social hierarchy and gained a Yale scholarship. However, her status is crushed when an intimate video, intended only for her boyfriend and popular student president Max (Austin Abrams), is shared around the school, leaving Drea to vow revenge on her former lover. Her path soon crosses with new transfer student Eleanor (Maya Hawke), who herself has had to deal with being cast out by her peers after rumours spread about her forcibly coming onto a girl, and the two strike up a cunning plan: they will each ensure that each other’s enemies are given what’s coming to them, without anyone suspecting them of collaborating.
Unfortunately for the viewer, their revenge plan never gets as extreme or even as dark as something like in Heathers or Cruel Intentions (the latter clearly being a major influence on this film, to a point to where Sarah Michelle Gellar even has a small role as the school’s headmaster). Of course, not every teen movie like this needs to start dropping bodies at a moment’s notice, but for something that labels itself as a “dark teen comedy”, you’d think that something, well, darker should happen instead of a relatively tame series of pranks this side of John Tucker Must Die, ones that even Bart Simpson would roll his eyes at. The movie as a whole is surprisingly safe in that regard, with things mostly going the way you’d expect (save for one or two twists which do, at least for a short amount of time, up the ante), and is therefore missing the kind of edge that it desperately wants to have, which it tries obtaining by throwing out the C-word once or twice, but as well all know things aren’t automatically pushing the envelope just by adding some coarse language now and then.
While it disappointingly refuses to go all the way in its supposed darkness, Do Revenge manages to score some decent points in many other areas. The acting, for one, is solid; Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke are really good in this, even if their characters sometimes feel like rehashed versions of their respective roles in Riverdale and Stranger Things (not to mention the fact that, like most other “teens” in this movie, they are clearly way older than their characters are supposed to be), and they just about nail the sly tone that Robinson and co-writer Celeste Ballard are aiming for. Said script is also filled with some fun moments that look like they were just as joyous to film, and the visual style manages to pay sweet tribute to 90s teen classics like Clueless, albeit with a noticeable Instagram filter over it. It is an entertaining film to watch, particularly when certain twists come into play later on which give some actors a slew of particularly enjoyable acting tics to play around with.
It’s ideal viewing for anyone, even teens, who’s a bit fed up with the sugary, lovey-dovey teen movies that Netflix has been churning out, and want something with a bit more teeth – but not too much teeth, mind. After all, it’s 2022; it may be called Do Revenge, but there mustn’t be a lot of doing actual revenge in this supposedly dark teen comedy. Or, at least, that’s what the overprotective parent must think.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Do Revenge is an entertaining teen comedy that glides on its fun twists and strong lead performances by Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke, but it lacks the truly sharp edge that it craves by playing its revenge angle too safe and keeping the shenanigans relatively tame, denying it the title of successor to actual dark teen movies like Heathers and Cruel Intentions.
