Senior Year: Going back to high school after a 20-year coma

Netflix’s Senior Year wants to be a variety of things. Unfortunately, from a nostalgic callback to the early 2000s to a teen comedy hopeful, Senior Year fails to be one of the fun and witty films it attempts to emulate or directly references.

A child or teenager waking up one day in an adult body has been done before, notably in Jennifer Garner’s13 Going On 30 and Tom Hanks’ Big.

When Stephanie, the high school cheer captain, wakes up from her coma twenty years after a cheerleading stunt gone wrong, she is justifiably confused. She has missed twenty years of her life and has lost out on the future she had hoped for herself. But, rather than take time to mentally, emotionally, and psychologically adjust to such a vast transformation, Stephanie decides to jump right back into the world, re-joining her high school to complete her senior year with prom queen in her line of sight.

But, while humor is subjective, even if the movie’s raunchy comedy may not always work in the film’s favor, one of its most significant issues is the set-ups that never actually amount to anything.

Stephanie is informed by her old best friend Martha, who Stephanie treats horribly throughout the movie, that the world has changed. School and teenagers are not what they were in 2002, and neither is the way people approach the world, the phrases they use, or the technology. Stephanie is told that the things she used to say as a teenager in 2002 are no longer considered popular slang. Instead, they are considered highly disrespectful and offensive and should be left in the past.

But, none of this stops Stephanie, a physically 37-year-old woman, from joining the high school roster. Her desire to re-join the cheerleading team comes with the obstacle that the team is far different. The cheerleading squad has transformed into more of a public service announcement group for cheers about gun control and consent than the dancing Stephanie’s squad used to do.

At times, the depiction of teenagers comes across as more of a parody or satire of generation z rather than genuinely understanding the age demographic. Still, Rebel Wilson’s failure to portray a teenager is one element that makes the movie perhaps more confusing to watch than anything.

Stephanie’s dialogue never sounds anything remarkably different than what viewers have seen Rebel Wilson say as various other characters. While Stephanie is emotionally and mentally seventeen, Wilson spends more time verbally repeating the character’s age than actually feeling like a real teenager stuck in an older body. While Stephanie references her body’s development over the years, there is nothing about it that reveals that Wilson is playing a convincing teenager.

37-year-old Stephanie throwing a house party for her teenage classmates should be far more horrifying than the film portrays. Although Stephanie’s miraculous awakening may have made the news, it should not entirely excuse that she is an adult woman throwing a party with alcohol for underage students. She even throws the party at Martha’s home. More specifically, at the school principal’s home. How does no one get in severe trouble for this?

Instead, while Martha calls out Stephanie for getting Martha in potential trouble, it never leads to anything of consequence for anyone other than Martha and Seth, another of Stephanie’s old friends, both ending the night upset at Stephanie.

Senior Year attempts to create an emotional conclusion, but it is hard to understand if Stephanie truly learned anything in the first place. While she seems to understand she has upset her friends, the romantic conclusion between Stephanie and Seth is less than earned. While Seth’s previous crush on Stephanie had at least been established when he was a teenager, it never comes across that Stephanie has looked at Seth in a romantic light.

The antagonistic dynamic of the film, between Stephanie and her school rival, Tiffany, makes no sense either twenty years later. Tiffany got the dream life she wanted even after being why Stephanie ended up in a twenty-year coma. Yet, rather than regretting her actions, Tiffany is still out to destroy Stephanie’s wishes for prom queen.

Why did Tiffany not face repercussions for her actions in high school? Why is she still so shallow as an adult? Her daughter, Brie, who has taken up the role of popular girl, is far more aware of her actions and is a more decent person than Tiffany ever proved herself to be. This is also the case for Brie’s father, Blaine.

Blaine also never grew up. Although people do not develop overnight, twenty years after high school would likely cause people to grow and develop somewhat. Yet, Tiffany and Blaine are both stuck in the past as if to escape the misery they feel in the present. But, other than their marriage preventing Stephanie from getting back together with Blaine, why are Blaine and Tiffany still together if they and Brie are all miserable and aware of it?

Teen movies are a staple genre of the highs and lows of growing up. However, Senior Year never reaches anything it sets out to accomplish with any legitimate substance.