Senior Year

Last weekend, Senior was released as an original movie on Netflix. Senior Year stars Rebel Wilson as Stephanie, a 17-year-old cheerleader. After a cheerleading stunt gone wrong, Stephanie is put into a 20-year coma waking up in the year 2022. She decides to return to high school to finish up her senior year, regain her title as cheer captain, and attempt to win prom queen.

There is some fun to be had with this movie. Rebel Wilson is always fun and can pull off the teenager in an almost 40-year-old's body very well. This movie is a bit of a mix between the films 13 going on 30 and 17 again but at the same time adds a bit of originality to it. The movie also handles the difference between 2002 and 2022 very well with the drastic differences in technology and culture. The differences in culture are what supplies quite a bit of the humor, specifically with words that were said as insults in 2002 that are not good to say now and Stephanie's reaction to this. Finally, some of the side characters are fun to watch as well specifically Janet and Yaz.

Sadly, there are quite a few things that keep this from being a good movie. One issue is that some of the aspects that come with Stephanie mentally being 17 can be problematic. The main one is the fact that she goes on a date with someone who is technically her age but is still a teacher at the high school essentially making a teacher date a student which is just a weird plotline to have. The other issue with the plot is that Stephanie seemingly has no consequences for her actions. She throws a party at the principal's lake house while serving alcohol and drugs to minors. However, when the police put a stop to the party, she somehow doesn't go to jail and is still allowed to graduate. These two plot aspects make it seem like the movie is picking and choosing when it matters that she is almost 40 while other times seemingly ignores it. The lack of consistency just kind of pulls me out of the movie. Finally, the handling of the end is a bit odd. The main focus was on Stephanie trying to win Prom queen. After the prom, there are still about 20 minutes left in the movie so the plot has to somehow find something else to resolve the story which just didn't feel as natural as it should have.

Overall, while this movie is still fun to watch, the fundamental issues at the plot and story level keep it from being a great movie.

Grade: C+ Score: 6/10 Recommendation: If you have Netflix, it's worth streaming once

R rating guidance: This movie is rated R for strong language. If you don't like a lot of f-bombs then you probably won't want to watch this movie.