Regina George. Cher Horowitz. Elle Woods. These fictional ‘it’ girls ruled the world back in the golden age of the teen flick. The once-in-a-generation nature of an iconic teen film is almost impossible to capture. The modern high school film must understand and display the historic dramatics of teenage life and adapt it to fit a new, chronically online generation. Because of the arduous requirements of crafting a culture-shifting teen film, cinema has gone far too long without a new cold-hearted queen bee to both frighten and serve as Halloween costume inspiration for teens everywhere. However, this cultural smoke signal has been answered by one of Netflix’s latest teen films “Do Revenge.”

This two-hour dark comedy comes stomping into the teen flick zeitgeist, clad in mood-board-worthy outfits and Glossier lip gloss. Director and co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson follows up the success of her 2019 comedy “Someone Great” with “Do Revenge,” a “yassified” high school take on Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train.” Full of GIF-able moments and witty one-liners, the movie makes use of tried-and-true teen film formulas while twisting the plot just enough to make this chaotic comedy the defining film of this era.

Drea Torres (Camila Mendes), the “girlboss” of Rosehill Country Day school and a scholarship student among a sea of Tesla-driving peers, has earned her place among high school royalty through meticulous planning and just enough evil to set her apart from lesser subjects. Ruling alongside Drea is her boyfriend Max Broussard (Austin Abrams). Unlike the heartthrobs of high school flicks in the past, Max is less of a meathead jock or leather-jacket-wearing bad boy and is more of the type with painted nails, middle part, always has a film camera. 

When Drea decides to punch Max after he leaks her sex tape, the Headmaster, played by ’90s legend Sarah Michelle Gellar, makes it clear that any further vengeful action will threaten Drea’s scholarship and thus jeopardize her chance of getting into, you guessed it — Yale. 

With all hope of revenge lost, Drea meets Eleanor Levetan (Maya Hawke), a messy-haired Rosehill transfer and her pet lizard named Oscar Winner Olivia Coleman. The pair quickly find common ground as Eleanor tells Drea about how a rumor ruined her life. Eleanor explains that a fellow Rosehill student, Carissa Jones (Ava Capri), outed her to everyone at youth camp. After a trauma dump and a road trip, they enter the school year bonded with the need to settle some scores. 

They hatch a plan similar to the one in “Strangers on a Train” and team up to do each other’s revenge. Drea promises to take down Carissa and in return, Eleanor is tasked with exposing Max, now the founder of the “Cis Hetero Men Championing Women Identifying Students League,” as the fake-woke misogynist that he is. Gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing ensues.

Predictably we plunge right into Eleanor’s makeover, in a montage straight out of “Clueless” that’s set to the ’90s anthem “Celebrity Skin” by Hole. We meet Gabbi Broussard (Talia Ryder), Max’s cooler, lesbian sister, who treats Eleanor to a campus tour in the style “Mean Girls”. There is even a direct reference to the iconic “10 Things I Hate About You” paint-filled balloon date. While at first these references feel derivative and trite, they end up becoming perfectly executed homages to the past films in the genre through thoughtful modernization. This film is extremely self-aware of its genre and does not try to hide its appreciation of its predecessors. 

Part of what makes this film so fun to watch is how these obvious callbacks to the 1990s and 2000s are balanced so well with the culture of today. Writers Robinson and Celeste Ballard incorporate Gen Z language in an authentically irritating way. Drea’s character refers to Carissa as a “human Birkenstock” while Eleanor muses about wanting the headmaster to “hide [her] body in the woods and then start the search party to find it.” The writers craft Gen Z-specific lines that are bound to become iconic on Twitter. 

The costuming, done by Alana Morshead, adds pastel to classic plaid school uniforms and combines TikTok’s ’90s-inspired fashion with classy berets and Euphoria inspired eyeliner. The soundtrack mixes nostalgic bands such as The Cranberries and Third Eye Blind with Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. The meticulous balance between past and present provides nostalgic fan service while creating new, shareable moments for this generation.

Mendes and Hawke show what can happen when great actors choose fun over Oscar nominations. They each get to show off comedic brilliance, separating themselves from the shackles of any possible “Riverdale” and “Stranger Things” pigeon-holing. Sophie Turner shows off her psychotic range in a short, but iconic, cameo, while Ryder and Rish Shah make for swoon-worthy modern love interests opposite Hawke and Mendes, respectively. 

Despite its similarities to past films of this genre, an extremely well-earned plot twist — and better left unspoiled — ending separates this film from being an exact remake. While it still delivers the moral truths of the dangers of popularity and the emptiness of revenge, this film leans into the blissfully satisfying chaos of fictionalized high school. “Do Revenge” solidifies its place as this era’s defining teen film as it effectively outcrazies the queen bees of the past and defines just how villainous a generation raised on social media can be.

Contact Abbie Thompson at [email protected].