Senior Year (3½ Stars)

Netflix Thursday #7

First I'd like to answer a question that one of my Facebook friends asked me last week. She asked me if I've really only ever watched six films on Netflix. The answer is No. I've been a Netflix subscriber, on and off, for about seven years. I watched many series and films in this time. I also subscribe to Amazon Prime Video, and more recently I've been sharing my son's Disney Plus account. The problem is that over the last couple of years my use of streaming services has become so sporadic that I've been asking myself whether I should cancel my subscriptions. To counter this I started an Amazon Friday feature in May 2021 to encourage myself to watch films online at least once a week. I added Disney Wednesday and Netflix Thursday features later in the year. As a group, I call them my DNA days. I haven't kept up the DNA days on a regular basis, but I always consider films every week on these days.

What I can tell you for certainty is that I've only watched seven films on Netflix (including "Senior Year") since May last year. The number will crawl upwards, but the emphasis is on the word crawl. The DNA posts are useful for me personally to check how much I've been using the three streaming services. My posts are often for myself as much as for others.

Rant over. Now to the film.

Stephanie Conway is one of the most popular girls in school. She's captain of the cheerleader team, she's dating the school's most handsome boy and she's favourite to become the prom queen. Fate strikes. She has an accident in a cheerleader routine that puts her in a coma. She doesn't wake up for 20 years.

After her amusing refusal to believe that her body has changed (Angourie Rice has morphed into Rebel Wilson), she decides to return to high school to continue where she left off. No, it's not about completing her education. She wants to become the prom queen. Does a 37-year-old woman stand a chance in a school full of teenagers?

Things have changed while she was away. Her best female friend is now the school principal. Her best male friend is now the school librarian. Her former boyfriend has now married her main rival for popularity, and their daughter is in her class. But the biggest problem is the attitude changes.

There's no longer a prom king or queen. The idea is that it's depressing for the losers, so nobody should be allowed to win. The cheerleader team is now boring, because sexually provocative dances have been banned. Stephanie takes over the cheerleader team and brings things back to the way they were. The re-institution of the prom queen contest is a more difficult matter.

Rebel Wilson's weight loss has been reported a lot recently. She's reduced her weight from 105 Kg (230 pounds) to 75 Kg (165 pounds). I congratulate her, even though I found her attractive when she was bigger. My problem is that she doesn't fit into the film with her new slim self. If she'd still been her former self, there would have been more opportunity for humour. To say the least, it would have been a very different film. She couldn't have performed the athletic cheerleader stunts in the final scenes.

Many women feel betrayed by Rebel Wilson. She was a big woman who accepted her size and showed that big women can be beautiful. Now she's lost weight drastically, as if she never accepted herself. I can't comment on her motives. All I can say from the viewpoint of a man is that I found her beautiful before and I still find her beautiful now.

17-year-old Stephanie goes to school (Angourie Rice).

37-year-old Stephanie goes to school (Rebel Wilson).

I'd take her to the prom. Wouldn't you?

"Senior Year" was made by Netflix, so it isn't available on disc. It isn't as great as her last Netflix film, "Isn't it romantic?" It starts very slowly, but it gets better towards the end. It isn't as funny as it would have been before Rebel's weight loss. Maybe that was her motive. Maybe she didn't want people to laugh at her any more. I may have laughed at Rebel's films, but I never laughed at Rebel the woman. Instead of humour there's a serious message that it's more important to study than to become the prom queen. Do we really need to be told that?