The Lame Trickery In ‘Senior Year’ Starring Rebel Wilson

Senior Year, Rebel Wilson

Senior Year itself plays like an 80s “going back to high school” template only it finds a way to make it fresh. Rebel Wilson stars as a 37-year-old lady who wakes up from a coma to the reality that she wasn’t voted prom queen and didn’t get the life she wanted.

She missed 20 years of her life and to be honest, she has bigger fish to fry but the only thing she has on her mind is going back to high school and doing all the things she missed the first time. When you take into account that 20 years ago feels like yesterday to her and she still has the mind of a 17-year-old, we can move past the fact that she isn’t trying to put her life back together but instead, chooses to prioritize becoming prom queen. It’s a comedy after all and her friend Martha conveniently happens to be the principal now, so that makes it easy for her to slip right back into where she left off after her tragic cheerleading accident. That’s when she comes face to face with a new reality.

A lot has changed in 20 years. There is no competition for prom queen. The cheerleaders aren’t popular anymore. But the person who is popular is a social media influencer who is into building her, “Most authentic, socially conscious, body positive, environmentally aware, and economically compassionate brand that’s a home for inclusion-focused fashion, food, and fun-filled lifestyles.”


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Rebel Wilson
via Netflix

You know, the same thing every other teenager is into. The new school has a very lame vibe as if all the fun has been sucked out of everything. But is that the message? Or is the message that school in my day was lame?

Senior Year feels like a satire targeting 80s high school movies. Only this one begins in 1999 and wakes up in 2019. Rebel Wilson is the oldest high school student in the world and when she gets a shoutout from her nemesis on social media, her followers begin to grow. In 1999, she wanted friends. But now, it’s all about the follows. The comments are hilarious as one follower replies “I love the elderly” as the rest are your typical “I see you gurl” and “Namaste.”

Rebel Wilson
vis Netflix

The movie plays out on a predictable trajectory with tension and rivalry between the same old crew. It just happens that her old nemesis is the mother of her new nemesis. She married her old boyfriend and moved into her dream house as if it was all planned. This is the world that Rebel’s character wakes up in two decades later.

It seems to me that the movie is saying school in my day was lit. School these days have been stripped of all the character that made us who we are. Of course, some people didn’t like school. They had a tough time dealing with all the social challenges and politics that every community inherently develops. But that part stays the same. Because even though there has been a genuine effort to remove that from the high school environment, it’s not possible. It still exists. It just rebrands itself. It finds its way of squirming into the culture, only in a different costume.

Even though Rebel Wilson is 37, she has some growing pains to go through. Her friends from high school are still in high school, only one is the principal and the other is a librarian. They try to help her deal but of course, she has her head in her high school friends. She is on a mission to capture everything she missed out on and it leads to bad decisions.

Of course, that means there’s going to be a lecture. The movie goes into a soft musical touch as her friends give her the 411. That’s followed by a different lecture from her dad. All of this makes her do a complete turnaround in about two minutes of film. Now, she’s a totally different person with new priorities. Even her nemesis is now her best friend because things always work out in the end.

All that doesn’t matter. I love watching Rebel Wilson and she can do magic with a script that follows the routine and doesn’t dare deviate. I mean, everyone has to join the dance in the end. Smiles and laughs for everyone. The boy gets the girl and all that jazz. This is that movie.

I’ll probably watch it again when I need my Rebel Wilson fix. Seriously! I’ll get some wings and Dr. Pepper so I can sit down and feel like a teenager myself while I watch the war of two worlds.