“Senior Year” takes excessive-idea premises—the going-lower back-to-excessive-faculty film and the waking-up-from-a-coma film—and slams them collectively in an intermittently a laugh however often apparent comedy. 
 It`s a respectable automobile for the bawdy charms of Rebel Wilson, who maintains to set up herself as an attractive comedian lead past being a reliably irreverent sidekick. And one of the greater stimulated picks is the casting of Angourie Rice as Wilson`s teenage self; she virtually receives to be Australian, which is unusual, and she or he correctly channels Wilson`s sly, deadpan delivery. 
 Both actresses are up for all of the wacky hijinks the film asks of them, that is why “Senior Year” seems like the sort of a waste of each of their talents. The function filmmaking debut from TV veteran Alex Hardcastle performs like a listing of early 2000s references added energetically to life. Too often, the movie seems like  hours of that Leonardo DiCaprio pointing-at-the-TV meme from “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.” Mentions of CK1 cologne, Smirnoff Ice and Von Dutch denim, and needle drops from the likes of Nelly and Avril Lavigne do position your proper lower back in a selected popular culture technology. (Although the manner “Senior Year” makes use of the Mandy Moore hit “Candy” affords one of the movie`s largest laughs.) But there`s now no longer a good deal clean perception into this precise length of put up-millennium flux, or into the undying and poisonous entice of excessive faculty popularity.
That`s been the perky, blonde Stephanie`s obsessive quest considering that she moved to the USA from Australia as a clumsy 14-year-antique. With the recommendation she receives from youngsterager magazines—“Three Pounds Is the Difference Between Hot and Obese” screams one headline—she offers herself a makeover, turns into the captain of the cheerleading squad, dates the vapid soccer player, and units her attractions at the closing goal: being topped, promenade queen. 
 “If they have been this fantastic in excessive faculty, consider how best the relaxation in their lives might be,” Stephanie gushes as she stalks the pretty, younger married couple down the road who have been promenade king and queen of their day. This is a true nugget of fact withinside the script from Andrew Knauer, Arthur Pielli, and Brandon Scott Jones: the super-famous humans generally tend to top in excessive faculty, then stick around the metropolis to hold feeling like large fish in a small pond. 
 But Stephanie`s desires are dashed whilst a bold aerial stunt is going horribly incorrect at a pep rally. Were her rival and fellow cheerleader Tiffany to blame? Whatever the cause, Stephanie finally ends up withinside the clinic in a coma for 20 years. When she wakes up, it`s abruptly 2022, and she or he`s baffled with the aid of using iPhones and flat-display TVs. Her sweet, widowed father (Chris Parnell) has saved her youth bedroom intact (whole with “Clueless” and P! nk posters) all this time. And despite the fact that she`s now 37 years antique, her first intuition is to go back to school and satisfy her future of turning into a promenade queen. 
 A newly trim and suit Wilson pulls at the cheerleader uniform and poufy, inexperienced ponytail bow and jumps into all of the fish-out-of-water antics. She provides the surprise of her lifestyle hole now no longer with wide-eyed histrionics but together along with her trademark understatement. But due to the fact that`s such a smart and constantly unique approach, it makes you desire she had wittier matters to mention past marveling at how many “Fast and Furious” films have popped out during the last decades. 
 Still, Wilson enjoys active chemistry with Mary Holland (“Happiest Season”) and Sam Richardson (“Veep”) as the 2 misfit buddies who`ve caught with the aid of using Stephanie all this time. (Holland particularly has incredible comedian timing.) Justin Hartley indicates up because the hunky, grown-up model of her excessive faculty boyfriend, who`s now married to mean-lady Tiffany (Zoë Chao). It`s a robust assisting cast, which makes it irritating that they don`t get a good deal to play past multiple man or woman traits. 
 And if “Senior Year” is making an attempt to mention something in any respect approximately how various things are for younger humans now, it`s now no longer doing so with a good deal of pressure or clarity. Stephanie is devastated to find out that so one can offend nobody and make every person sense included, her antique excessive faculty has no greater famous children or cliquey cafeteria tables, no greater suggestive cheer exercises, and—worst of all—no greater promenade king and queen. This is the technology wherein every person receives a trophy, and those who love you in case you put up on social media approximately how passionate you're approximately the environment. Is “Senior Year” mocking this cultural shift as a terrible thing, as performative “wokeness,” to borrow a reductive phrase? Or championing it because of the important evolution from an archaic manner of thinking? 
 Doesn`t matter, really. As lengthy, because the script consists of the same old cross-promotional references to indicates like “Bridgerton” and “Tiger King,” it`ll suit only exceptional with the cool children at Netflix.