Do Revenge follows high school queen bee Drea Torres (Camila Mendes) and transfer student Eleanor (Maya Hawke) as they team up as an unlikely duo thirsty for vengeance.
Clueless meets Strangers on a Train in this 2022 Netflix dark comedy as a quintessential high-school film combines with a tale of shocking betrayal, dark twists, and revenge.
Starring Riverdale‘s Camila Mendes and Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke in leading roles, Do Revenge explores the cliches of American high school romps in a satirical reconceptualization of the mean girl-misfit clash.
The film is directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and stars Austin Abrams, Ava Capri, Rish Shah, and Alisha Boe in supporting roles.
The Story
High school queen bee Drea Torres (Camila Mendes) has it all: a glitzy clique of popular kids, the senior class president as a boyfriend, a stellar path chalked out to Yale, and a fancy mention in Teen Vogue’s “next gen-100” list.
However, Drea’s picture-perfect life is shattered to smithereens when her boyfriend Max Broussard (Austin Abrams) leaks her sex tape leading to public defamation. Matters get worse when her angered retaliation directed at Max leads to behavioural probation, putting her scholarship in jeopardy.
Writhing in rage, Drea’s time at tennis camp acquaints her with the demure and frumpy Eleanor (Maya Hawke), haunted by an ill-fated rumour spread by Clarissa (Ava Capri). Together, the dethroned queen bee and the misfit new kid team up to exact revenge, going after each other’s detractors to avenge their smeared dignity.
Reasons To Stream
Do Revenge combines stereotypical American high-school movie tropes with the unpredictable twists and dark subplots of Hitchcock films. The glitzy locale of the posh high school Rosehill is reminiscent of Mean Girls-Esque cliques and Clueless-inspired makeovers, while Drea and Eleanor’s plan to exchange vendettas pays homage to the Hitchcock’s timeless classic- Strangers on a Train.
The dark comedy offers a scathingly satirical view of the quintessential gen-Z American high school experience, as seen in Max’s absurd creation of “The Cis Hetero Men Championing Female-Identifying Student League”.
Drea and Eleanor’s vendetta exposes the fabric of casual misogyny and patriarchal conditioning women face from a tender age – simultaneously retaining comedy at the expense of the posh privileged kids.
Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke are admirable in their respective roles, creating a uniquely maniacal dynamic in their common goal of retribution. The two teenagers act as foils to each other as their unlikely partnership seeks to form the backbone of female solidarity against the evils of a patriarchal orthodoxy.
Maya Hawke delivers a stellar performance as the unassuming Eleanor; her character development powerfully generates suspense, horror, and grudging awe.
Admirably, supporting characters like Gabbi, Russ, and Talia are not mere props existing solely to prop up the two leads. In contrast, every character is a unique person of their own and has independent equations with Drea and Eleanor.
Gabbi (Talia Ryder) is an excellent example as she stands out as an independent figure in her own right, valuing fairness over blood in supporting the truth instead of shielding her guilty brother.
Do Revenge balances the glamorous extravagance of the teen world with satirical commentary on the inequity of a patriarchal system. The film’s best features are its dark twists that are sure to blindside viewers who only came with expectations of watching a high school flick.
Reasons To Skip
As is the norm with American high school movies, the experience is embellished to the point of ridicule. Flamboyant extravagance and the overused trope of using actors in their late 20s as hormone-crazed teenagers loom large over yet another Netflix flick.
While the film attempts to satirize patriarchy, feminism, and queer politics, it falls into the trap of employing overused stereotypes in Hollywood like the defamed queen bee, the makeover of the misfit, and the nonconformist predictably beginning to enjoy the very life they scorned.
Parents are predictably out of the picture in the glamorous world of ditzy teenagers. Drea’s mother only exists as an afterthought throughout the film and the Headmaster (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is the only voice of reason in the entire film.
Despite “woke” politics given so much importance, trauma is dealt with in a rather flippant manner as the girls only push themselves further down the rabbit hole in their destructively blinding desire for revenge.
The Verdict
Writers Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and Celeste Ballard are commendable in instilling unforeseeable plot twists and betrayals into the glitzy worlds of privileged high-schoolers. Every character is fuelled by a uniquely vindictive stimulus as the high school flick gradually veers into Hitchcock-inspired dark twists and camouflaged pasts.
Overlooking the obvious recursion of overused tropes and plot devices, Do Revenge is thoroughly entertaining with its allure and dark twists, leaving viewers satiated with the duo’s devious schemes and ethically grey victories.
Rating: 3.5/5
Do Revenge is now streaming on Netflix.
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