Review “Senior Year” Fails Despite Potential

Cheerleader Stephanie “Steph” Conway (Angourie Rice) falls into a 20 year coma, after Tiffany (Zoë Chao) sabotages a stunt, before her senior prom. After her awakening, 37 year old Steph (Rebel Wilson) returns to high school to claim the title of prom queen.

I want to like Senior Year so bad, but it just gives me the ick. Rebel Wilson knows how to bring her characters to life, and her chemistry with her fellow cast members is unmatched. The idea of a 37 year old, who is still mentally 17, waking up after a 20 year coma in a completely new world has comedic potential.

However, every single new Netflix movie feels like a copy and paste of the previous one. They’re taking every opportunity to throw in anything that is politically correct. Normally, I would not mind, but every single thing I have watched on Netflix has shoved it down viewers throats.

Adult Steph makes crude sex references around 16/17 year high school students, which is kind of disgusting. She tells the now-cheerleaders that the only way to get popular is to “let guys in the back door”, to which the one gay character replies “oh god, I must be really popular then,” which brings me to my next point.

I’m glad that there are more LGBTQ+ characters in today’s media, but they’re always the stereotype of their sexuality or race. Yaz (Joshua Colley) is portrayed as a hyperfeminine gay man, which there is nothing wrong with, but it is an over used stereotype. I always see hyperfeminine gay men, but rarely masculine or androgynous. Other sexualities are rare too, and the ones that aren’t, are sexualized or toxic.

Senior Year is supposed to be corny, but it’s to the point where it’s just bad. There are so many uncomfortable and sexual scenes by older Steph, mostly with minors. The insults between Tiffany make no sense. Plus, Tiffany’s ongoing rivalry with Steph even after 20 years. Also, Martha (Mary Holland) takes more time to explain why Steph cannot say slurs or use the term “super gay” as an insult than she does explaining how technology works. Although that scene was supposed to be comedic (and a chance to throw in a politically correct theme), it just rubbed me the wrong way.

This movie had so much potential to be amazing, but, like every other new Netflix movie, it turned out to be a major disappointment.