I’m in my late 30s. This is relevant in a few ways. First, it means I am too old for the internet and should be executed. I accept my fate. But, more relevantly to this blog, it means that I grew up with a very specific type of teen coming-of-age movies. 10 Things I Hate About You, Clueless, She’s All That — there was a strange spate of teen movies loosely adapting classic literature around that time. And you know what? It was great. I loved it. So, when I heard about Do Revenge, Netflix’s new teen mashup of Mean Girls and Strangers on a Train, I was understandably intrigued.
Reader, I loved it.
“I don’t want to make her pay.”
Everything is looking up for Drea (Camila Mendes). She has incredible grades at a prestigious high school, a perfect boyfriend, and a ton of great friends. She’s on the fast track of the Ivy League, and then to a prestigious law career. But then, a private nude video she sent her boyfriend leaked. She blames him. And that’s when she learns that all her friends are really his friends. She’s just a poor scholarship kid who they let in the club.
Nothing is looking up for Eleanor (Maya Hawke). She’s a sad, gawky girl, damaged by a betrayal in her past. And now, she’s stuck transferring to the same preppy school that her former friend goes to.
Eleanor and Drea meet up by chance. But that chance blooms into a friendship. Drea can’t get near Max (Austin Abrams) or her former coterie. Eleanor can’t get near Carissa (Ava Capri). But could the two girls, with nothing else between them, swap? Could each take revenge for the other?
So begins an elaborate plan to do revenge on the people what wronged them both.
“I want to burn her to the ground.”
Teenagers are mean. Not universally or anything, but… teenagers are mean. Or maybe more accurately, teenagers are extreme. When I think back to high school, I know I said awful, cutting things to people without thought or consideration. I also know that I did thoughtful, generous things without thinking. My friendships were intense and passionate. My frustrations were life-consuming. It was kind of a lot.
Part of why I love the blending of classic literature with modern teen movies is because so much classic lit depends on what we see now as heightened emotion. The intensity of emotion can feel like melodrama in the wrong hands. But teenagers are melodramatic! The relationships are intense. Setbacks feel like the end of the world. You feel, not unjustly, like your entire future is riding on a series of small decisions that can avalanche into the future. Will I get into a good college? If not, what does that mean for my career? Can I even afford college, if I get in? What majors help pay off loans most quickly?
Soon, you’ve planned out your entire life, not realizing how many times things will change over the next few years. And, in a very real way, a lot of people can’t afford setbacks.
Writer/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson understands that, and uses the intensity and frustration, the single-minded drive high school strivers have to have, as a jumping pad to talk about entitlement, privilege, and egocentrism. The heightened atmosphere is furthered by the slang-heavy script, but Robinson doesn’t rely on quips to skate past tough moments. Instead, the dialogue is just one more reflection of the false faces these kids wear in their attempts to ‘present’ a passably authentic ‘personal brand’.
Do Revenge is a balancing act, and one that should tip over. It’s a testament to its phenomenal cast and crew that it sails by so beautifully.