Do Revenge (2022)

September 18, 2022 6:10 PM

Drea (Camila Mendes) and Eleanor (Maya Hawke) agree to go after one another's bullies in a teen comedy riff on Strangers on a Train.

Also starring Austin Abrams, Rish Shah, and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who co-wrote the screenplay alongside Celeste Ballard.

A Netflix original.

posted by DirtyOldTown (10 comments total)

You can pretty much plot the whole thing out on a cocktail napkin with just the logline and the first few minutes introducing the characters. That said, it was mildly fun. Could have been fifteen or twenty minutes shorter and that would have helped a lot.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:17 PM on September 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

I just watched this today and thought it was pretty fun. I was kind of annoyed by the ending though, I didn't think either of their redemption was really earned, especially after the last thing they did was get revenge on Max. Granted, that was maybe the only act of revenge that was proportional/fitting and didn't also have innocent collateral damage, but it still made it seem like they were just as narcissistic and vengeful as before. And then they both got happy endings with their love interests! which I was sort of rooting for because it's cute, but again, terrible people and I just wanted to tell Russ and Gabbi to run away! and get away from these people who are clearly messed up in a bad way.

Also spent all the headmaster scenes trying to figure out who she was/why she looked so familiar and then saw afterwards that it was Sarah Michelle Gellar. It seems like she's doing a ton of press - I guess she's trying to do a bit of a comeback?
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 8:43 PM on September 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

oh but, agree that overall it was pretty fun. I mean, kind of bad and again, didn't really stick the ending, but definitely fun and entertaining throughout. I feel like a couple of years ago there was a lot of chatter about Netflix bringing back the mid-budget romcom or high school movie, which was a pretty fun trend but then they haven't done any the past couple of years. maybe now that we're further past the pandemic they're picking them up again? one can hope
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 8:44 PM on September 18, 2022

She's said that after acting with Robin Williams in The Crazy Ones and then learning of his death shortly after, she basically said, "Fuck it, I'm going to concentrate on my family for a while."
posted by praemunire at 8:46 PM on September 18, 2022 [6 favorites]

The SMG promo work was a good idea, because it's the only reason I decided to watch! And I'm glad I did, this is a lot of fun. I loved the twist with Eleanor. Maya Hawke was excellent playing the shy geek and the revenge-driven sociopath. And they sold Drea and Eleanor's vibe well enough that even though they did awful things to each other, I bought it when they decided to bury the hatchet.
posted by grandiloquiet at 5:02 PM on September 19, 2022

She's said that after acting with Robin Williams in The Crazy Ones and then learning of his death shortly after, she basically said, "Fuck it, I'm going to concentrate on my family for a while."

I saw that in the NYT interview she did. To clarify, I meant comeback in a "she's getting back into acting" sort of way, not a disparaging way
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 9:07 PM on September 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

I do think this could've been a bit shorter but it was fun.

I loved all the references to teen girl movies in a smart way -- the scene with the paint ballons was both The Princess Diaries and the paintball scene from 10 Things I Hate About You (and also the acknowledgment that maybe Wild Things is a teen girl movie for some weird teen girls). You can be Strangers on a Train and Mean Girls at once.

Snd some of Heathers and Jennifer's Body and Clueless (Horowitz Hall!) and Cruel Intentions (SMG's whole vibe) and well, I didn't really see Carrie in here, honestly, and maybe some of The Craft with the Instagram Witches but everyone knew what they were doing and I loved it.

I don't think it relies on all of those things to work but it's so much fun. I had fun. (And not a teen girl movie but the convertible scene at the end -- it was a Thelma and Louise reference, right?)

I will likely watch this again.
posted by edencosmic at 6:05 PM on September 20, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am looking forward to watching this when I have an evening free. It looks like just the thing I enjoy as a rainy weekend afternoon diversion.

Despite watching Stranger Things and reading lots of recap stuff and getting tons of TikToks on my FYP, it took a TikTok on how Maya Hawke's hair for this is an homage to her mother Uma Thurman and her father Ethan Hawke for me to learn that Maya Hawke is, in fact, Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke's kid.
posted by urbanlenny at 1:43 PM on September 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I loved the costume design - Maya Hawke's Mary Quant-inspired outfits and those earrings - AAAH. Gimme.

The thing that really jerked me out of my suspension of disbelief was that the jerk ex-boyfriend's sister would still want to go out with Eleanor with, apparently, not a single qualm about dating the person who brought down her brother in quite a spectacular way. I mean yeah he was a jerk, I just would have appreciated a line or two of dialogue acknowledging the sister was maybe in a tough position or had been doing some soul-searching or whatever. But she and Eleanor just got together during the credits and everything was fine. I also felt the same about Drea and her love interest whose name I can't remember, like she turns up going I'm sorry and he's like oh ok in that case fine. I mean, Eleanor and Drea come off like bad people; it was hard to believe that their perfectly nice love interests didn't see that.
posted by unicorn chaser at 9:16 AM on September 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

yeah, I found this quite entertaining and think it really has its moments, but I'm absolutely with unicorn chaser - I cannot see any reason whatsoever why anyone felt the need to tack on reuninon with the decoy love interests in the end credits. Eleanor and Drea don't quite deserve the absolution, the decoy love interests both had very valid points when they expressed why they were morally appalled and by the end of the movie, these points still pretty much stand. Sure, Drea comes clean about drugging her classmates, but kinda gets off easy - missing out on Yale is framed more as freeing herself of social expectations and personal growth than a real sacrifice. I thought the idea was that Drea and Eleanor are both twisted, and more than a bit awful, and that's what makes them compatible. Also, and probably more importantly, they have way more chemistry with each other. Why couldn't we just end on them riding into the sunset together? Would have made the whole thing a much leaner, meaner, punchier affair, it seems to me like a real no-brainer.
posted by sohalt at 2:31 PM on September 23, 2022