“Senior Year”, just another wasted-potential-film

By Alex Newcomb

June 10, 2022

If you’re looking for an original movie to watch, stay away from Netflix’s comedy Senior Year at all costs. Although it’s rated R, the only people who would find this movie amusing are eleven-year-olds. And if that’s not bad enough, not one moment of this movie is actually funny. Its recycled jokes and unrealistic representation of how high schoolers act make it painful to watch.

The movie begins with a flashback of Stephanie Conway’s (Rebel Wilson) high school experience as a teen. After being bullied, Stephanie joins the cheer team, in hopes of gaining popularity. She becomes the captain, taking her rival’s position and boyfriend. Stephanie and her new boyfriend, Blaine Balbo (Justin Hartley) plan an after-prom party, but all is ruined when she is dropped during a cheer stunt and put in a twenty-year coma.

When Stephanie wakes up, she tries to adapt to the new changes and decides to go back to High School to finish her senior year. She continues her rivalry with Tiffany (Zoë Chao) and works on winning Blaine back after discovering the two have married since. When she’s told prom queen no longer exists, she tries to become popular again and bring back old traditions.

We’ve all seen this type of movie many times before where the main character goes back to high school in hopes of reliving their experience.The plot and storyline were completely unoriginal and predictable. The only shock factor is how it was actually produced. The whole thing reminded me of a knockoff version of 17 Again, mixed with an overly cheesy drama-comedy.

If you thought the plot sounds bad, just wait until you hear the dialogue. It was clearly written from a 40-year-old’s perspective of teenagers and completely depicts younger generations as being overly sensitive and whiny. Once again another film is stereotyping teenagers as being attached to their phones, and rebellious towards any slightly inconvenient rules. We get it; it’s time to move on to something new.

If it’s not already obvious by now, I do not recommend watching Senior Year in the slightest. The overall idea of it seems cool, but the execution is terrible. If you’re looking to completely waste your time, wishing you had done something differently then this one's perfect. Save yourself the trouble, and watch a different movie. There are plenty of similar yet entertaining ones.