“From Revenge” has all the ingredients to be a blockbuster by combining a “Mean Girls” vibe with the stars of two popular teen franchises: Camila Mendes (“Riverdale”) and Maya Hawke (“Stranger Things”).
But it is a pity that the film from Netflix doesn’t match those qualities, offering a mix of homages that are mildly amusing but not overwhelming in the end.
The most obvious inspiration in this second film by the director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (“Somebody Special,” on Netflix) would be Alfred Hitchcock’s oft-copied “Sinister Pact,” when two high school students meet each other, realize they have simmering feelings against different people, and begin to discuss the prospect of teaming up to get together. avenge them.
However, the plot (based on a screenplay by Robinson and Celeste Ballard) doesn’t pursue this seductive prospect with much conviction, which may explain why it runs out of steam at the end.
The film is also inspired by many other teen films such as Cruel Intentions – itself an adaptation of the French novel “Dangerous Liaisons”.
Mostly, it’s a story of unlikely friendship, set against the backdrop of another private school where parties make Roman bacchanals seem restrained.
The cast is also packed with talent from other franchises who seem to have passed the stage to play high school students, including Austin Abrams (“Euphoria”), Alisha Boe (“13 Reasons Why”) and Sophie Turner (“Game of Thrones”) .
Describing himself as “two soldiers wounded on the battlefield of adolescence”, Mendes/Drea is the queen bee at the top of the social strata despite being a scholarship holder in this realm of wealth and privilege.
She directs her anger at ex-boyfriend Max (Abrams), who leaked an explicit tape of her, while Hawke’s character Eleanor harbored an old grudge against a girl who made a false accusation against her.
“In this story, nothing is as it seems,” Drea warns early on, which should be a hint of the twists to come, as she and Eleanor take turns as narrators, which works until, in the end, it doesn’t.
Netflix has enjoyed considerable success in the teen genre, with everything from romance to thrillers, including past projects that offered new versions of historical tales like “Cyrano de Bergerac.”
But “Do Revenge” starts down that path before taking a significant detour – a strategy that isn’t bad in theory but loses in execution.
The cast probably makes up half the movie, and Mendes and Hawke have a solid showcase, that’s for sure. However, “Do Revenge” does not bring anything new, and simply follows what has become an established formula.
“Do Revenge” premiered this week on Netflix.
Source: CNN Brasil
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