HipsterZOMBIEJoint Movie Review: Senior Year

Netflix’s newest comedy, Senior Year, stars the always funny Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect) as a girl who suffers are horrific cheerleading accident and is put into a coma for 20 years. When she wakes up she’s 38 but still has the mentality of a 17 year old from the late 90s/early 00s. When she wakes up she is determined to finish high school and chase after the elusive prom queen crown. What she doesn’t know however is she isn’t the only person who is woke in today’s modern age of social media, LGBTQA, virtue signaling, and political correctness gone crazy.

The film is directed by Alex Hardcastle (in his feature film directorial debut) from an original screenplay by Andrew Knauer, Arthur Pielli and Brandon Scott Jones.

The film also stars Sam Richardson, Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, Justin Hartley, Chris Parnell, Angourie Rice, Michael Cimino, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Scott Jones, and Alicia Silverstone in a cameo appearance.

In 1999 after a failed birthday at the local “cool” spot Rock N Bowl, 14-year-old Australian immigrant Stephanie Conway decides she wants to be one of “the populars”. She spends the next 4 years giving herself a makeover, becoming cheer squad captain, dating Blaine, and becoming one of the most popular girls by senior year.

In 2002, she plans on becoming prom queen, a stop on her way to being like Deanna Russo, an alumnus of her high school. She lives with her widowed father who she encourages to date, and is still friends with Seth, who secretly has a crush on her but is afraid to ask her to prom, and socially inept Martha. Stephanie and Tiffany have regular disagreements over prom preparations, who feels threatened by Stephanie taking the prom queen title. This leads to Tiffany convincing fellow cheerleaders to sabotage her landing at the end of their cheer performance, putting Stephanie into a coma.

20 years later in 2022, Stephanie wakes from her coma confused. Her dad and Martha, now principal at Harding High, take her home. On the way, driving past Deanna Russo’s house, Stephanie sees that the now married Tiffany and Blaine reside there. With reluctant support from her dad and Martha, Stephanie goes back to high school, where she learns that Seth is also the librarian and prom queen is no longer a competitive title. Additionally, Tiffany and Blaine’s daughter Bri is social media influencer Bri Luvs and is also the most popular girl at school. The cheerleaders are no longer the popular kids and are not allowed to dance or perform suggestive routines.

For fans of films like Bring It On, Never Been Kissed or Superbad, this film will be right up your alley. It’s not a family film per se as it is pretty crude with some of the dialogue and jokes, but for a group of friends or a date night film this is perfect. Especially for kids who remember 1999-2002 with its *NSYNC, Britney Spears, and fashion of that era.

Richardson and Wilson show some great chemistry here and I would love to see them star in another film together in the future.

In conclusion, Senior Year is great for the millennial generation and woke enough for Gen-Zers. HipsterZOMBIEJoint Experience recommends streaming it now on Netflix.