Do Revenge

Do Revenge,” Netflix's new high school revenge-swap dramedy starring Maya Hawke and Camilla Mendes, is a minefield of '90s teen movie references — from.

I watched ‘Stranger Things,’ so I knew her work, and when I heard she was already attached, it made me want to be part of the project that much more.” “So I didn’t want the story of Eleanor to be about her being outed; it’s what happened when she was outed.” “But, also, part of what makes actors actors is that they are people who are good at having chemistry with people,” she added. Bonded by their respective traumas and dread about the coming school year, the two eventually hatch a plan to “do revenge” for each other and get away with it. And, on top of that, the emotional depth of the movie — it’s a really beautiful story about healing your trauma.” In fact, the director moved the filming location to Atlanta so that both Hawke and Mendes were able to sign on. “It was really about staying true to the deliciousness of ‘Strangers on a Train,’ within this world that feels really candy-coated, saturated and fun.” In addition to “Strangers on a Train,” Highsmith is perhaps best known for writing “The Talented Mr. A nude video of her is leaked online and the most likely culprit is her boyfriend, Max (Austin Abrams of “Euphoria” fame), who wields significantly more power over the privileged student body than Drea, who attends the school on a scholarship. That’s when, friendless and in risk of losing her chance at Yale, she meets a new transfer, Eleanor, who unlike Drea is no stranger to being a social pariah. And even the soundtrack of pop songs and camera work, which includes montages of school cliques and aerial shots, pay homage to the ‘90s teen genre — as do its central storylines. “Do Revenge,” Netflix’s new high school revenge-swap dramedy starring Maya Hawke and Camila Mendes, is a minefield of ‘90s teen movie references — from cliques with coordinating outfits to makeover schemes and house parties where popularity is made and lost.

"Do Revenge" has all the makings of an attention-generating machine, combining a "Mean Girls" vibe with the stars of two popular teen franchises in Camila ...

She directs her anger at dreamy ex-boyfriend Max (Abrams), who leaked an explicit tape of her, while Hawke's Eleanor has nursed an old grudge against a girl who leveled a false accusation against her in the course of outing her. Mostly, it's a story of unlikely friendship, set against the backdrop of another private school where the parties make Roman bacchanals seem restrained and pale by comparison. Yet the plot (based on a script by Robinson and Celeste Ballard) doesn't pursue that enticing prospect with much conviction, which might explain why it runs out of steam down the stretch.

Director and cowriter Jennifer Kaytin Robinson takes us inside her candy-coated new Netflix film with images of fashion, bearded dragons, and Sophie Turner.

'Riverdale' star Camila Mendes and 'Stranger Things' star Maya Hawke team up for Netflix's high school twist on 'Strangers on a Train,' from director ...

It was just like, “This is just a really cool project and I want to be in it, and like I don’t give a f— that I’m 26 playing in high school. I could see that you were running from a long day on “Stranger Things” to another long day on “Do Revenge,” then back to a long day on “Stranger Things.” The work she put in to both projects simultaneously was so impressive, and the fact that every time she showed up to work I didn’t see the exhaustion. It was a big undertaking and touched a lot of soft spaces in our hearts. Your temperament through all of that was so impressive, and not a lot of people can pull that off. The second I realized that this movie was going to be that, getting to work with amazing people who really care about it, it didn’t matter if I’d be playing a bush or a lamp post or a keychain. Like, “I just love too hard” or, “My tragic flaw is that I care too much!” I don’t think that’s the case with Drea and Eleanor. Every now and then someone has hurt my feelings, and the way they hurt my feelings, I had to be like, “Gosh, you’re so smart. You hurt my feelings in the exact way that my feelings can be hurt.” Sometimes someone does something to you that doesn’t look that bad on the surface, but really hits your soft spot ... And this is credit to Jenn’s writing and directing, to set up a scene where you have two characters you’ve been following and they both have a very strong opinion about what’s happened, and as an audience member, neither one is right and neither one is wrong. But when we’re in the scene of our own lives, we’re like, “No! “I had nothing but time and resources and I had my two co-stars with me and we were all just watching ‘Harry Potter’ movies all week,” she said. I feel like I’ve been Drea at low points in my life, where I’ve been vengeful or I’ve wanted to hurt somebody who hurt me, and I’ve felt motivated by those same dark desires.

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Camila Mendes also star in a candy-coated "Gossip Girl" riff that's major fun despite its try-hard feminism.

If they want to do a little revenge on a world that seems hell bent on driving humanity off a cliff, “Do Revenge” offers some clever entertainment for the ride. The two collaborated on the 2016 MTV comedy “Sweet/Vicious,” a college rape revenge comedy that predated “Promising Young Woman” by a few years. It’s nice to see Robinson and Ballard get another shot at the vigilante genre in “Do Revenge,” though they’ve traded violence for more psychological tortures. [Maya Hawke](https://www.indiewire.com/t/maya-hawke/) (“Stranger Things”) as two unlikely allies in a battle for teen justice, “Do Revenge” is a funny feminist take on the mainstream high school comedy. “I’m Frankenstein, and you’re Frankenstein’s bad bitch.” The plan is to infiltrate Max’s friend group in order to humiliate them and prove once and for all that the founder of the “Cis Hetero Men Championing Women Identifying Students League” is full of shit. If two-faced men’s rights groups and psychedelic mushroom stings seem a little ridiculous, it’s all part of the sickly fun and games of “Do Revenge,” a quippy romp through the steely cunning of that universally feared group: teenage girls.

From a '10 Things I Hate About You'–inspired paintball date to a 'Cruel' cameo, here's a breakdown of teen movie Easter eggs hidden in plain sight.

Robinson Library, in honor of Do Revenge’s director and co-writer? “All three of us really immersed ourselves in all of these films,” she says. “I feel like coming back to them as a filmmaker, I was just really taken aback about how beautiful these films are.”