"Senior Years", directed by Alex Hardcoas and scripted by Andrew Neuer, Arthur Peale and Brandon Scott Jones, is a comedy that can contain no magic, with a weak script that can use more heart. The film is full of nostalgia, but it is not used to properly enhance its story. The main characters, the relationship dynamics, and the introduction are surface-level, and despite some interesting moments, "Senior Year" never lives up to its potential.
Stephanie Conway (Angouri Rice) is neither cold nor popular. Stephanie vows to become popular with Tiffany, a girl (played by Ana Yi Puyig and So Chao as an adult), to prevent her from being teased and humiliated again in front of her peers. Throughout her senior year, Stephanie has been dating not only the cheerleading captain, but also Blaine (played by Tyler Bonhart and Justin Hartley as an adult), the most popular person in Harding High and the prom queen winner. Unfortunately, her dreams never come true when a cheerleading accident leaves her in a 20-year coma. Stephanie (now played by Rebel Wilson), who woke up at the age of 37, was shocked to learn that she had been unconscious for so long. Without wasting time, Stephanie reunites with her old friends Martha (Mary Holland), now the high school principal, and Seth (Sam Richardson) and decides to return to high school to become the prom queen. The only problem is that the rules have changed since 2002 and Stephanie has to stay in place to succeed.
“Senior Year” focuses on being pretty and weird, but it never develops its own personality. Perhaps the film's biggest mistake is its heartlessness. Even when Stephanie realizes that she's been focusing on the wrong things for a long time, it does not feel like anything heartbreaking. Stunned by the need to become popular and win the title of Prom Queen, Stephanie never has a moment to think and internalize what she is doing. Because the film can never bring its protagonist out of the superficial goals it strives for, so the story remains the same.
Comedy can be silly and sometimes meaningless, but the "adult years" seem to be a waste of time. Yes, there are hints of what this movie might be. Stephanie describes a touching memory between herself and her dead mother. Unfortunately, short moments do not last long and are completely obscured by the presumption that real tension or stock is never properly constructed. Stephanie follows that there is a perception that film is more captured in drawing millennial nostalgia than in giving its story and character dynamics. A sequel featuring Wilson and her cast recreating Britney Spears' music video for "You Drive Me Crazy" is fun, but completely unnecessary and distracting.
The extreme nostalgia of the 1990s and early 1990s is a substitute for a much more layered story than that. The fact that humor is not so funny does not help. Conversations and comedy scenes are lacking. Most of the time sitting in the movie is about being trivial and trying to be something that is not. There’s a familiarity in the film, but it carries that vibe more than anything else, and its nearly two hours of runtime didn’t help.
Audiences who are old enough to remember the early days may have better things to do than revive an era already well done in other films. Meanwhile, the young audience could not find anything to like or laugh at the comedy. While there are some really funny moments in "Senior Years", it's not enough to address many of the film's shortcomings.
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