“Do Revenge” - Movie review
“Do Revenge” debuted Sept. 16 on Netflix. The film has a star-studded cast with Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke playing opposite each other as the lead actresses. The movie, directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, also features an excellent soundtrack. While it is listed almost everywhere as a comedy, it is more of a dark comedy/drama than a simple comedy.
“Do Revenge” is the story of Drea Gomez (Camila Mendes), a teenager who has spent her whole high school career building a name for herself and trying to survive by joining the most popular clique in school.
It is not until her boyfriend leaks an intimate tape of her to the whole school that Drea’s world comes crashing down and she is pushed aside by the group that she thought were her best friends.
That summer, Drea meets Eleanor (Maya Hawke), at tennis camp and finds out that she is transferring to Drea’s school. Unfortunately for Eleanor, a girl who wronged her in the past also attends the school.
Drea and Eleanor agree to “do each other’s revenge,” meaning that Eleanor will take down Drea’s former friend group while Drea undermines the girl that hurt Eleanor.
While “Do Revenge” certainly had the potential to be a good movie with an interesting storyline, the writers went about the story the wrong way and made it very difficult to enjoy this film.
If this had been a psychological thriller that was not based in a high school, it would have been much easier to watch. However, “Do Revenge” was corny, unrealistic and simply not worth the hype it has received from critics.
It almost seems as though Netflix thought some popular music and a few actors that are beloved by teenagers, like Austin Abrams, Jonathan Daviss, Aisha Bowe and a cameo by Sophie Turner, to name a few, were the only ingredients necessary to make a good movie, or at least that it would make up for the lack of substance in the film.
The costumes and set design in this film were also outrageous. Although the characters do attend a country day school in California, it is extremely unrealistic to assume that any teenagers would be wearing berets to math class, or that the principal would have a desk that is embellished with gold and a lamp made of crystals in her office.
Additionally, there is a scene in which the senior class attends a class ring ceremony that takes place in a tent on the school’s lawn. While it is certainly feasible that a school would do something special for such a ceremony and that students would want to dress up, it is hard to imagine that a high school would set up Greek-like columns and hundreds of decorative plants. It is also unlikely that students would dress up as if they were attending an award show.
Until the final 35 minutes, “Do Revenge” was just as cliché as one would assume a Netflix movie to be. However, a plot twist adds an extra level to the film that was unforeseeable.
Despite this, the film’s plot continues to change until viewers are unsure whether to trust anything that the characters are saying. While this makes the film much more enjoyable than the first 90 minutes, it feels rushed and as though the writers were trying to pack every last plot twist and detail into the film before it ended.
The ending of the film set up the possibility for a sequel and it would be unsurprising to see a second and possibly even third movie made, but this is certainly not a movie that created a strong desire to learn what happens next in the lives of the characters.
Overall this movie was fine. The acting was nothing spectacular and the writing was good, but not great. It was hard to feel any attachment to characters and the over-the-top sets and costumes caused a distraction from anything that might make this movie worth watching.
Rating: 1/5
Rachel Newnam is a second-year majoring in journalism. To contact her, email ren5102@psu.edu.
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