BEFORE: Chris Parnell carries over from "Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again". Mr. Parnell plays the "Dad" role in today's film, while Rebel Wilson plays the "Grad", it's a double salute to June's themes. And if there are some gay characters, it could be the perfect June film. Also, happy Celeb-birthday to Jeremy Ray Taylor, seen in both the "It" films and the "Goosebumps" franchise, and appearing in today's film. Geez, haven't had an actor's birthday line up with my films in quite a while, I must have done something right when I added the "Shazam!" sequel...
THE PLOT: 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.
AFTER: Damn, but the casting in this film is darn near perfect, they had to cast a pair of actors for just about every role, and those actors needed to look like the same person, just 20 years different in age. Sure, the Australian accent and sharing a wardrobe helps, but there's never any doubt that both Rebel Wilson and Angourie Rice are playing the same character. The last time I saw the double casting technique work this well, it was in the "It" movies, I think. It's also a bit of luck that Rebel Wilson lost a lot of weight, very publicly, and now she looks so much more fit than she did in the "Pitch Perfect" films, or even that "Night at the Museum" film. But when she takes over the character of Stephanie Conway from the younger actress, it's after 20 years in a coma, and those are 20 years where she wouldn't have worked out, being bedridden and unconscious and all. I think for someone in a coma they have to move their arms and legs every once in a while as a form of exercise, otherwise their muscles would just be useless, right? But still, she's not super-thin, and that works for the character here.
Her character was a cheerleading captain who was thrown up in the air and then didn't get caught, and so it was lights out with just one month to go before graduation. Twenty years later when she wakes up, she's 37 but she still has the mental age of a teen, and she's got the same goals in life - become prom queen, graduate high school, marry her boyfriend and have a perfect life. This would only be a problem if her boyfriend (who she stole from another girl) went back and married his ex, and they had a daughter who is now a high-school senior.
Stephanie's former best friend Martha is now the high-school principal, and the boy she SHOULD have dated is now the school librarian, and what a coincidence, there's just one month left in the school year, so Stephanie sees this as a sign, she convinces Martha the principal to let her come back and attend school for one month, get her diploma and have the prom of her dreams. Uh, wait, there's another problem, the school no longer has an election for prom queen, it got eliminated years ago because the school decided to foster inclusion, not competition, also the whole queen/king thing was a reference to royalty and that's no longer fashionable since we live in a democracy, plus really, it's better this way since everyone gets to enjoy the prom without it turning into a giant popularity contest.
This is exactly where the film should find its comedy - the social differences between 2002 and 2022. Stephanie wants to re-join the cheerleading squad, but she learns that sexy dancing has been forbidden, the cheer squad is now gender-diverse and inclusive, short skirts have been replaced by long pants, and there's no cheer captain because every member is a cheer captain, with a rotating bi-partisan membership with veto power distributed in equal shares. Yeah, I'm maybe starting to agree with the Republicans who think that "wokeness" has taken all the sense out of our schools.
It also means something different to be "popular" in high school - in 2002 for Stephanie that mean being the cheer captain, getting it on with a jock and being accepted by all her fake friends, then ditching her real ones (though whether Stephanie was actually popular in 2002 is a matter for some debate, the character has extended fantasy sequences that don't necessarily seem to reflect other people's reality...). But in 2022, the "popular" kids are the ones with the most followers on Instagram, who don't even have to follow anyone back, and are getting endorsement money from brands to be "influencers" - the most successful in the school is Bri Loves (or is it "Luvs"?) and she really wants to spend the summer in Tibet while leaving daily messages about how bad racism and ageism are, you guys! Also, Gucci!
It shoudl come as no surprise that Bri Loves is the daughter of Stephanie's old rival, Tiffany, who's married to Blaine, her ex-boyfriend who now sells used Hummers on local TV. Stephanie thinks she can still get Blaine back - after all, he wouldn't have married Tiffany if she hadn't gone into her coma, right? So really, it should be Stephanie living in that house with Blaine, she should be married to Blaine and therefore be her...classmate's step-mother? OK, that's all a bit weird, but of course it takes Stephanie the whole film to realize that her high-school goals need to be adjusted, and she doesn't need to get Blaine back, not when she can form a better connection with Seth, who she probably should have dated in the first place. Well, we all live and learn...
Bri does petition to get the Prom Queen reinstated, so honestly the film is a bit unclear overall about whether the new ways are better than the old ways, or if the old ways should be brought back...I don't think you can bring the Prom Queen back without also bringing back sexism, racism, mean girls and corruption, so why not just leave it alone? Tiffany, Bri's mother, ends up rigging the whole election anyway (and who does THAT remind you of?) so somehow Bri gets 150% of the vote, and Stephanie gets nothing? But we SAW at least one person vote for Stephanie...Did this high school use the Dominion voting machines? Nah, can't be. Must have been the Jewish space lasers... Surprisingly, Bri does the right thing and withdraws from the race (as one SHOULD, are you listening, Donnie?) leaving Stephanie with the crown - only to find out that maybe this was another high-school dream that doesn't make sense for a 37-year old to pursue.
It's hardly a perfect film because the life lessons are so scatter-shot, and also it seems like maybe nobody has a great life after high school, which mathematically can't be possible. What happened to "It gets better?", are you telling me that was a load of malarkey? And even the people who do reach their goals here then promptly discover that there's no real feeling of accomplishment, they'd all built their castles out of sand, and the tide's coming in. So if you reach your goals and you're not happy, time to find new goals, I guess? But it all just seems so exhausting... Still, the film has a lot of heart and ultimately the life lessons are worth it, even if they took too long to be learned.
Also starring Rebel Wilson (last seen in "Cats"), Angourie Rice (last seen in "Spider-Man: Now Way Home"), Mary Holland (last seen in "Between Two Ferns: The Movie"), Molly Brown, Sam Richardson (last seen in "The Tomorrow War"), Zoe Chao (last seen in "The High Note"), Justin Hartley (last seen in "The Hunt"), Jade Bender, Avantika (last seen in "Moxie"), Joshua Colley, Jeremy Ray Taylor (last seen in "Geostorm"), Michael Cimino, Brandon Scott Jones (last seen in "Isn't It Romantic"), Tiffany Denise Hobbs (last seen in "The Trial of the Chicago 7"), Alicia Silverstone (last seen in "The Killing of a Sacred Deer"), Lucy Taylor, Merrick McCartha, Zaire Adams, Ana Yi Puig, Tyler Barnhardt, Vee Bhakta, Leonard R. Butler, James Millar, Alyssa Mae Clark, with a cameo from Steve Aoki.
RATING: 6 out of 10 uncancelled magazine subscriptions
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