“Senior Year” is the new high school comedy coming to Netflix. In addition to some funny moments, there are also passages that make you think.
In 1999, Stephanie Conway (Angourie Rice) was an outsider. She moved to the USA from Australia and had one wish: she finally wanted to be cool. And she made a plan for it. By the time she graduated in 2002, she finally wanted to be popular. She used a lot of makeup, became the captain of the cheerleading squad and had a handsome boyfriend. But she overlooked who her real friends were: namely the bookworm Seth (Zaire Adams) and the gentle Martha (Molly Brown). She treated them both badly, cracking jokes at their expense to make others think she was cool. She was in a close race with her rival Tiffany (Zoe Chao) to be the prom queen.
It then happened at a cheerleading dance competition: a figure went wrong and Stephanie fell off the top of the pyramid. It wasn’t until 20 years later that she (now: Rebel Wilson) woke up from her coma in the hospital. She realizes that she is now 37 years old. Her body may have aged, but her biggest wish is still: she really wants to be prom queen.
She wants to pick up right where she left off and complete her senior year in the same high school. Rebel Wilson becomes a walking time capsule that describes a USB stick as a “computer tampon”. Getting back into school life is a complicated endeavor considering Martha is now the headmistress, Seth is the school librarian, and Tiffany’s daughter is the school’s most popular child. But things have changed — the cheerleaders have gone uncool, the popular girl has tens of thousands of Instagram followers, and there’s no more prom queen competition.
“Senior Year” is very reminiscent of the comedy “30 overnight” and the Netflix series “15 again”. It wants to be a feel-good film that you can watch after an annoying day. It also shows how different youth are today compared to the 90’s and 90’s. There used to be bad internet and thick tube screens, but even that was enough to make us happy. Today most youngsters have Instagram and TikTok. “Senior Year” also makes you think a bit and makes you think about your own youth.
