DO REVENGE – (L-R) Maya Hawke as Eleanor and Camila Mendes as Drea in Do Revenge. Cr. Kim Simms/Netflix © 2022.
There was a time, many years ago, when man could keep up with new Netflix releases. I was one of those people, looking at the website every week to see what new goodies were available. That’s how I’ve seen the movie Tallulah. This era did not, could not last. Sometimes I just look upon these lists with fear. How can one company release this many films? The answer is that most of them are barely real, a new era of straight-to-VHS garbage with a Target commercial sheen. You really, really need to look hard to find the good ones outside of their awards pushes like The Power of the Dog or The Irishman. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s Do Revenge caught my eye due to its star, Maya Hawke, but I also fondly recall Robinson’s short-lived MTV series Sweet/Vicious, a show ahead of its time. Do Revenge has a bit of the Netflix cinematography issue, but it is a very fun, very silly movie for teens that ends up working far better than you might expect from the (limited) marketing.
Do Revenge is something of a mashup between Stranger on a Train and Heathers with plenty of modern twists. Our hero is fallen queen bee Drea Torres (Camila Mendes, of Riverdale fame), cast out of polite society at her fancy high school due to a leaked personal video. She knows her ex-boyfriend Max (Austin Abrams, of Euphoria fame) leaked it but has no proof. At tennis camp, she meets Eleanor (Maya Hawke, of Stranger Things fame… these kids have some stacked resumes!) who will be transferring to her school in the fall. Drea and Eleanor hit it off, sharing their grudges and realizing they might actually be able to do something about it. No one at school knows they know each other… they can use that.
Drea and Eleanor have seen the movies. They think they can pull this off without a hitch. However, they weren’t counting on the boys co-opting the language of feminism and activism, as so many do as an act of self-preservation. Despite the “wokeness” of their generation, the senior class is ready to slutshame Drea for the topless video and Eleanor essentially for just being a lesbian. I hope that sentence doesn’t make me sound disdainful; I am thrilled this movie went there. Teens need to learn they can’t blindly trust the people who talk the talk, especially if it is at the expense of others. While I’m not allowed to fully discuss the plot twists and drama, trust me when I say it is worth the wait. Much like Juno, the first twenty minutes of this script can feel unmooring and ridiculous, but there is a purpose to the madness. It felt like being drowned in a flood of social media witticisms, with mostly Hawke’s performance keeping me above water. Once I got on the film’s level, I was ready for what the girls were doing.
There’s nothing better than a teen revenge fantasy, and the costumes and set design reflect this. Bright colors everywhere, kids in school uniforms with personalized twists, no adults anywhere except one cameo I cannot spoil. Some of the dialogue might make you roll your eyes, sure, but Maya Hawke wears some crazy outfits and has a lizard named Academy Award Winner Olivia Colman. Don’t let Do Revenge get washed away in the endless tide of Netflix content. Do it for Hawke, the only actor in this film to seemingly understand what it’s actually like to be on shrooms.
Do Revenge
Dir. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
2022
120 min
Streaming on Netflix starting Friday, 9/16
