HIGHER AND HIGHER // A FILM REVIEW OF “THE WRONG GIRLS”
BY MATEO MORENO
Writer/Director Dylan Meyer has gloriously brought the stoner comedy back to life with her feature debut, THE WRONG GIRLS. From Up in Smoke to Half Backed, How High, Friday, The Big Lebowski and so many more, stoner comedies have been a staple of generations. Yet, we really haven’t seen a solid one in years. Thankfully, Meyer has solved that issue with this wild ride of a comedy free-for-all. Kristen Stewart & Ali Shawkat play best friends and life soul mates Molly and Frankie. Frankie (Stewart) is a Stanford college dropout who’s afraid of truly succeeding, so she spends her days delivering things as a “Kwik Things” driver and getting into shenanigans with her bestie Molly (Shawkat). Molly is a freelancer but also spends a large majority of her time hanging with Molly and screwing around, though she does dream of becoming a chef and her crazy food concoctions are really pretty fantastically wild (toothpaste is used as a topping and somehow works). Sadly, a few gigs here and there (and an unfinished spreadsheet job) do not pay the bills, and they are now over $2,000 in debt. Molly also has a very charming and supportive boyfriend named Josh (Zack Fox) who completely respects and loves Molly and Frankie’s friendship (even if Frankie hates Josh simply because) but really wants Molly to get her life in gear and move in with him.
Frankie ends up going to see the band Mannequin Pussy and finds her ex Mike Z. has “upgraded” her with a new girl named Frances (also played by Stewart, but with glasses). Frankie causes a scene and Frances is equally weirded out that her new boyfriend’s ex looks just like her. She leaves but loses her glasses. Frankie ends up putting them on and gets drunk at the show, where a character she calls “Not Metal Head Dave (LaKeith Stanfield)” mistakes her for Frances, who is a VIP researcher, and gives her a very important briefcase. The next morning, Frankie and Molly open up the briefcase to find that there are very high doses of psychedelics in there and they decide this is their ticket to getting their rent paid and getting some extra cash as well. Trouble is, this briefcase is wanted by some not very reasonable folks with guns, and they are happy to get it with Molly and Frankie alive or dead. To make matters even more complicated, Molly and Frankie injest two of the psychedelic viles and…let’s just say strange thing start happening that makes the manic chase of the film even more complicated.
Meyer has crafted both a very silly and very smart stoner comedy that starts at an 11 and never goes back down. It’s pure zany ridiculousness, and I am all for it. Stewart and Shawkat have great chemistry and are clearly having a blast with these characters. They are equally hilarious and you are genuinely rooting for them throughout. Zack Fox is ridiculously charming and instantly likable and roots the film with at least one reasonable character. The rest of the ensemble cast are all fantastic, with a zany Kate McKinnon once again stealing any scene that she’s in and a wonderfully fun LaKeith Stanfield, showing that you can put him in any kind of film and he’s going to excel in it. Smaller roles from Geena Davis and Tony Hale are great and the voice talents of Seth Rogan and Kumail Nanjiani just adds to the hilarity. If you’re like me and you are always craving a stupid-smart stoner film, THE WRONG GIRLS is your ticket to a fantastically fun evening. This is going to be a sure-fire streaming and DVD hit, once that you’ll play over and over to let the high sink in again and again.
GRADE: A-
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Dylan Meyer STARRING Kristen Stewart, Alia Shawkat, Zack Fox, LaKeith Stanfield, Kate McKinnon, Geena Davis, Tony Hale, Chris Estrada, Seth Rogan, Kumail Nanjiani NOW PLAYING IN THEATRES EVERYWHERE