Them (2007)

Senior Year, the Netflix film. Not my senior year. Although now that I think about it…

The plot is familiar, if not a bit odd. Rebel Wilson plays Stephanie: a 37-year-old woman who wakes up from a 20-year coma, and decides to go back to high school to finish her senior year. The expected high school/waking-up-from-a-coma tropes abound—mean girls, popularity, cheerleading, prom, navigating a new world, discovering the value of oneself, true friendship, learning what you want out of life, blah, blah, blah.

As a typical teen movie about prom and popularity, this film succeeds. What makes it weird is the way Wilson’s character handles the 20-year coma part. While it makes sense that Stephanie would act like a 17-year-old girl, what doesn’t make sense is how accepting she was of her new reality. I don’t know about other people, but if I had just woken up from a 20-year coma after formally being a 17-year-old high school student, I would freak out. And that’s what I think this film was missing: a good old-fashioned freak out.

The film’s formula is easy to follow and it’s comedic timing is actually one of its’ saving graces. Angourie Rice (Spider-Man, Mare of Easttown) captures Rebel Wilson’s sarcastic and deadpan humor to a T. Her spunky performance as popularity obsessed, teenaged Steph is fun to watch, and the transfer to Rebel as popularity obsessed, adult Steph is believable and effortless. Sam Richardson (Veep, The Afterparty) as Steph’s childhood best friend is delightful to watch and provides some much-needed sanity to this over-the-top plot.

Steph’s ultimate goal of course is to win prom queen at Harding High School. She is horrified to find that her friend Martha (Mary Holland; Happiest Season, New Girl), now the school’s principal, has done away with the outdated, heteronormative, toxic traditions once associated with the quintessential high school experience. Gone are the days of sexy cheerleading, cliques, the cool table, and prom king and queen.