DO REVENGE (dark comedy, 2022) Netflix movie review

DO REVENGE takes us into the scary world of American teenagers. From September 16, 2022 streaming on Netflix!
FILM SHEET
DIRECTOR: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
CAST: Camila Mendes, Austin Abrams, Maya Hawke, Ava Capri
DURATION: 118 min.
RELEASE DATE: September 16, 2022
PLATFORM: Netflix
REVIEW
Raise your hand if you have never been betrayed!
No, I’m not just talking about love affairs, but about any situation during which someone has betrayed our trust.
(Who knows if a few hands will remain raised …)
Being betrayed is, alas, incredibly common and just as widespread is the burning desire for revenge.
And in the face of the old adage “The best revenge is forgiveness”, Repeated as a mantra by friends, relatives and acquaintances, the blood boils in the veins and the will to repay the wrong suffered with interest it becomes more insistent than ever.
It’s a atavistic feeling that of revenge. Songs, poems, novels and even paintings speak of revenge. They also speak of revenge lots of moviessuch as the famous V for Vendetta from James McTeigue with Hugo Weaving And Nathalie Portman.
He talks about revenge also a movie released on Neflix on September 16, 2022. I refer to Do Revengedirected by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (already known to the public of the platform for Someone Great), which right from the title makes it very clear what it will be the dominant theme.
Protagonists by Do Revenge are two teenagersDrea (Camila Mendes) and Eleanor (Maya Hawke). Both remained ferite from a person they trusted and both are burning with a desire for revenge.
So far, this one teen comedy it doesn’t seem anything special.
Indeed, in some ways it is very reminiscent of the film Mean Girls (2004). Like Cady (Lindsay Lohan) had joined the Barbie group, at the suggestion of her friend Janis (Lizzy Caplan), to take revenge on their leader Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Like this Eleanor instigated by Drea enters in the popular kids’ group at Rosehill Country Day High School to make Max pay (Austin Abrams), who released an erotic video of Drea.
However, unlike Cady and Janis who had the same enemy, the relationship between Drea and Eleanor is a do ut desbecause if it is true that they both want to take revenge, it is also true that the people they want to have revenge on are different. In fact, even Drea must help Eleanor satisfy her thirst for revenge. The latter’s target is Carissa (Ava Capri), her first crush, which revealed to everyone that Eleanor is gay.
The similarities with Mean Girls continue.
Like Cady, too Eleanor changes her look to approach the “Rosehill court”as the members of this group are called by the other pupils of the school, of which Drea was the queen bee (expression used precisely for the leader of the Barbie in Mean Girls), until his reputation was ruined by the revenge porn of his ex.
And, as in Mean Girls, also in Do Revenge the two protagonists combine some good ones with their opponents.
But then, the story takes an unexpected turn. The victims, as Eleanor herself says, become executioners and it turns out that the allies were nothing but cleverly concealed enemies.
Do Revenge reveals itself a black comedyone step away from the acclaimed Suburbicon of George Clooney and brothers Cohen.
However, female solidarity against a world that is still too sexist will prevail and our two heroines will throw themselves on the path of possibilities, as of modern Thelma and Louise.
One of the highlights of the filmbeyond the plot, really well built, which gives us twists just when we least expect it, they are right the two protagonists.
Neither is too good or too cruel. Both hide numerous secrets, of which the biggest one is none other than the fear of being marginalized.
And if initially, both Drea and Eleanor are afraid of living as outcasts, because they can’t be like the others, they will soon realize that their diversity is something to show off not to hide, that being yourself is a thousand times better than wearing a maskbecause sooner or later someone will arrive just as crazy to understand us.
Do Revenge, while winks at multiple American teen comedies, represents a world, that of today’s young people that is scary. A world where being a teenager can become hell.
The ace in the hole are also the tracks of the soundtrackinserted truly ad hoc, such as Praise You of Fatboy SlimBitch of Meredith Brooks and Dreams dei Cranberries.
Furthermore, it is impossible not to notice the choice of cast membersalmost all actors now made known just from teen drama or successful TV series. From Camila Mendes (Riverdale) a Alisha Boe (13 Reasons Why) ad Austin Abrams (Euphoria) a Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones). The school principal herself is played by Sarah Michelle Gellarthe legendary Buffy Vampire Slayer.
Also Maya Hawkedaughter of the actors Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawkewhich already boasts a role in the film by Quentin TarantinoOnce Upon a Time in … Hollywood, is in the cast of Stranger Things.
Do Revenge therefore focuses on faces known to the teen drama audience, actors who manage to give greater depth to the characters they play with their skill.
I absolutely recommend watching this film, which between a laugh and a cry of amazement, makes us reflect, but at the same time makes us hope that there is always the possibility of changing our minds and perhaps even doing the right thing.
Francesca Wonder
ORIGINAL TRAILER