Senior Year (2022 film)

Senior Year is a 2022 American comedy film directed by Alex Hardcastle in his feature film directorial debut from a screenplay by Andrew Knauer, Arthur Pielli, and Brandon Scott Jones. The film stars Rebel Wilson (who also produced) as a 37-year-old woman and decides to go back to high school to earn her diploma. Her teenage version is played by Angourie Rice. Mary Holland, Sam Richardson, Zoe Chao, Justin Hartley, and Chris Parnell also star. The film was released by Netflix on May 13, 2022.

Plot
In 1999, after a disastrous birthday party at the local "cool" spot, Rock N' Bowl, with her friends Seth and Martha, 14-year-old Australian immigrant Stephanie Conway decides to become one of "the populars". She spends the next few years giving herself a makeover, becoming cheer squad captain, dating popular boy Blaine, and becoming one of the most popular girls by senior year.

In 2002, Stephanie plans to win prom queen in hopes of becoming like Deanna Russo, an alumna of her high school who got married after graduation, and now lives in a mansion. She lives with her widowed father and is still friends with Martha and Seth, who secretly has a crush on her. Stephanie regularly argues over prom preparations with Blaine's ex-girlfriend Tiffany, who fears Stephanie might win the prom queen title. At a cheer performance, Tiffany convinces friends to sabotage Stephanie's landing, putting her into a deep coma. In 2022 Stephanie, now 37, her father and Martha, now principal and cheerleading coach at Harding High, take her home. On the way, stopping at Deanna Russo's old house, Stephanie sees the now-married Tiffany and Blaine reside there.

With reluctant support from her father and Martha, Stephanie goes back to finish her senior year. There she discovers Seth is now the librarian, and the positions of prom king and queen have been abolished. Additionally, Tiffany and Blaine's daughter Bri is the most popular girl at school with a huge social media following. Cheerleaders are no longer the popular students and perform bland, sanitized routines with no dancing.

Stephanie works to regain her former popularity through social media, finally succeeding after a risqué cheer routine she choreographs without Martha's permission goes viral at a pep rally. The next day, Martha confronts her, telling her that she and Seth felt abandoned when Stephanie became popular in high school.

Stephanie attends a showing of Deep Impact with Seth, and they get closer after goading Tiffany into getting kicked out of the theater for being disruptive. Afterwards, they have drinks at the Rock N' Bowl and Stephanie confesses that she wants to be elected prom queen so badly to make her late mother proud.

Tiffany uses Bri's influence to get the prom king and queen contest reinstated and invites everyone at school except Stephanie to a prom afterparty at their house. Stephanie hosts her own at Martha's lake house without her knowledge. Seth goes to prom with Stephanie but is hurt when he sees Blaine attempt to kiss her, not knowing that Blaine was drunk and tried to force himself. Bri's boyfriend Lance becomes prom king, and although Tiffany rigs the vote so Bri will win, Bri drops out so Stephanie is the queen. As Stephanie and Lance share the prom king and queen dance, the school rallies around her. Bri tells everyone to attend Stephanie's afterparty, which is successful until Tiffany gets it shut down. Martha angrily confronts Stephanie for using her lake house without asking.

On the way home, Stephanie realizes her Lyft driver is a middle-aged Deanna Russo. Deanna reveals that before she turned 30, her husband divorced her for a 21-year-old. Since she did not have a college degree, she wasn't able to build a life for herself and now works several part-time jobs while struggling to pay for community college. Deanna urges Stephanie not to repeat her mistakes.

Bri arrives home, furious that Tiffany had Stephanie's party shut down, and points out she hasn't even asked if she was okay. She points out that both her parents are miserable together and forces her to apologize to Stephanie. Stephanie accepts Tiffany's apology and encourages her to focus more on her daughter instead of keeping up appearances.

Stephanie tears down her popularity board and contemplates skipping graduation, but her father convinces her to attend. Streaming an apology to her followers and friends, she promises to be her true self from now on. At graduation, her friends and family secretly organize Stephanie's senior year cheer routine. She makes up with Martha, finally kisses Seth, and welcomes Tiffany to join them on stage as she gets to pull off the move she hadn't got to do twenty years earlier.

Cast

 * Cameos
 * Alicia Silverstone as Deanna Russo
 * Lucy Taylor as Lydia Conway
 * Merrick McCartha as Principal
 * Wes Jetton as Teacher
 * Steve Aoki as himself

Production
In February 2021, Rebel Wilson was announced to star in the film. June 2021, Alicia Silverstone joined the cast. In July 2021, Jade Bender, Michael Cimino, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Avantika, Joshua Colley, newcomer Ana Yi Puig, Molly Brown, Zaire Adams, and Tyler Barnhardt were added to the cast.

Principal photography began in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 24, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming was completed by July 2021.

Reception
Screen Rant criticized Senior Year's over-reliance on millennial nostalgia at the expense of story and character development, saying "The issue is Senior Year gets so caught up with referencing the early aughts that it forgets to have any depth to its story." In a two-star review, Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com commended the performance of Angourie Rice, citing that "she accurately channels Wilson's sly, deadpan delivery". The Guardian criticized the film's humor, calling it "an R-rated comedy that wants to be both sweet and salty, a balance it never manages to perfect".