Do Revenge
"Strangers on a Train" goes to high school in this naughty, knotty dark comedy.
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Literary and stage classics often serve as the basis for high school flicks. “Clueless” (Jane Austen’s “Emma”), “Cruel Intentions” (Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ “Les Liaisons dangereuses”), “10 Things I Hate About You” (William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”) and “Easy A” (Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter”) all spring to mind. “Do Revenge” (now streaming on Netflix) draws its inspiration from Patricia Highsmith’s “Strangers on a Train” as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 adaptation of the same name.
Drea (Camila Mendes) seemingly has it all. She’s the queen bee of posh prep school Rosehill High, has straight A’s and a clear path to Yale University and is dating the uber-handsome/popular/wealthy Max (Austin Abrams). This all comes to a screeching halt when a sex tape meant only for Max’s eyes gets leaked to the entire student body.
Eleanor (Maya Hawke) is new to Rosehill. She became a social pariah years earlier when at summer camp she was accused of making unwanted sexual advances towards Carissa (Ava Capri), who also just so happens to attend Rosehill.
Eleanor and Drea make each other’s acquaintance at tennis camp and quickly strike up a friendship … and a scheme. Eleanor can exact revenge upon Max on Drea’s behalf and Drea can do the same to Carissa for Eleanor’s benefit. Ideally, no one will be any the wiser, the girls will get away scot-free and they’ll be free to live their senior years as happily as possible.
Complications arise when Drea develops feelings for Carissa’s bestie Russ (Rish Shah) and sparks begin flying between Eleanor and Gabbi (Talia Ryder, great here and even better a couple years back in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”), Max’s younger sister.
The lengths to which Drea and Eleanor will go to enact their vengeance know no bounds. They’re not above planting cocaine on an unsuspecting mark, dosing their entire class with magic mushrooms or causing a cataclysmic car crash.
I don’t know if director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (“Someone Great”) and her co-writer Celeste Ballard (strangely, one of the army of scripters on “Space Jam: A New Legacy”) made “Do Revenge” for 1990s kids or their children … probably a little from column A, a little from column B.
Sure, there are tunes by the modern likes of Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish, but tracks from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Third Eye Blind, Hole, Fatboy Slim and the Cranberries also turn up. (Maude Latour covers the Muffs’ “Kids in America,” which memorably opened “Clueless.” There’s even an orchestral rendition of OMC’s “How Bizarre.”) The kids’ pastel fashions (vibrantly designed by Alana Morshead) call to mind the movie’s Miami setting, but also recall “Clueless” and the early works of Gregg Araki.
“Do Revenge” also pays homage to Araki in that it’s queer AF. All of these young actors are beautiful … many of them in a gender fluid sort of way. Modern sensibilities are hilariously skewered when the duplicitous Max forms the Cis Hetero Men Championing Female-Identifying Students League in a misguided moment of virtue signaling. Polyamory is also addressed playfully in a subplot/prolonged joke.
Mendes and Hawke admirably co-headline the picture and are ably supported by Abrams, who deliciously embodies the modern high school dickhead. I’m more familiar with Hawke than Mendes as I watch “Stranger Things,” but not “Riverdale.” I knew Hawke was good and that trend continues here, but Mendes also proved to be a particularly adept performer.
The movie “Do Revenge” most reminded me of is “Cruel Intentions.” (Sarah Michelle Gellar even shows up as Rosehill’s headmaster.) Much like its forebear, it’s both naughty and knotty. Referential and reverential, “Do Revenge” has plenty of tricks up its sleeve (including a daring narrative about-face at the midpoint) and should please parents and teens alike … they may just want to enjoy the movie separately.