THE STORY – Two codependent best friends living paycheck to paycheck and bong rip to bong rip get caught in a case of mistaken identity that throws their lives into chaos.
THE CAST – Kristen Stewart, Alia Shawkat, LaKeith Stanfield, Tony Hale, Zack Fox, Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Kate McKinnon, and Geena Davis
THE TEAM – Dylan Meyer (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 99 Minutes
The stock of comedies in Hollywood has drastically shifted in the past few decades, as it has become rare to see a non-romantic comedy break the box office and stay with audiences long past its theatrical run. Independent comedies like “Splitsville,” “Booksmart,” and “One of Them Days” show that audiences yearn to share laughs in theaters. Studio executives are often incentivized to keep the ball rolling and reclaim the genre’s space in our cinematic ecosystem. It’s fascinating to think how the 2000s feel like a completely different era for this genre, yet its influence remains prominent in the comedies coming out today. Think of how many times filmmakers have referenced “Superbad” as a seminal film for their comedic sensibilities. For Dylan Meyer, stoner comedies appear to be the bread and butter that helped shape her debut feature “The Wrong Girls,” which offers a fun re-dressing of familiar films in this vein.
Meyer opens the film in the depths of the ocean, spotlighting a neon squid that eventually appears on the television placed on the ceiling for Kristen Stewart’s Frankie and Alia Shawkat’s Molly. The two longtime friends and roommates spend most of their days sparking it up on their couch, delaying the responsibilities around them, mainly their overdue rent. Frankie and Molly are mostly in sync, even understanding each other through aggressive coughs after extensive bong rips on Frankie’s elaborate bong-a-tron, designed for maximum results. While their friendship is beautiful, their codependency prevents them from aspiring to more in life. Molly’s desire to become a chef is stifled by Frankie’s inability to let go of her past at Stanford or accept Molly’s relationship with all-around nice guy Josh, played by Zach Fox.
Frankie’s actions usually come at Molly’s expense, and the results of a drunken stupor cement this dynamic when she brings home an invaluable briefcase of misplaced psychedelics. This throws the two stoner gals into a desperate plea to not only pay their rent but survive those hunting them. It takes a bit for Meyer’s screenplay to reach the chaos we expect from this type of film. The prolonged setup builds to the ludicrous odyssey they embark on, involving telepathy and a Three Stooges trio of bumbling Danish enforcers who are slightly mysophobic. “The Wrong Girls” doesn’t diverge from the many stoner flicks that came before it, but Meyer’s dedication to establishing the friendship between these two leads mostly works by making the relationship worth rooting for. Yet it doesn’t negate that their journey becomes a formulaic outing that does little more than let the ensemble riff off one another for occasional laughs. The humor isn’t effective until Meyer goes full psychedelic on audiences, especially when she dials up the zany visuals.
“The Wrong Girls” thrives because of Stewart and Shawkat’s natural chemistry, making every exaggerated expression they deliver or quip all the more amusing to audiences. Their back-and-forth is the heartbeat of the film, and Meyer more than succeeds in getting these two performers on the right wavelength for a female-centric stoner comedy that aims to subvert conceptions of what this genre can be. That being said, while Stewart and Shawkat make the most of their screentime, many of the jokes don’t land, especially a running gag involving their feline companions. Dio and GG (voiced by Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani) constantly bicker with their owners and with each other as Frankie and Molly’s newfound abilities allow them to communicate.
The rest of the ensemble around the two leads is serviceable, with LaKeith Stanfield delivering a fun turn as a gun-toting fixer tasked with protecting Frankie and Molly. He’s merely a straight man, coming in for narrative convenience and occasional punchlines, rather than a fleshed-out character. Besides the three, no one else has a memorable presence in “The Wrong Girls,” not even Kate McKinnon as a wacky scientist doing absurd accent work that feels like it was from her time on “Saturday Night Live”.
Meyer certainly tips her cap to films like “Repo Man” or, more recently, “Pineapple Express,” especially with Rogen’s involvement as a performer and producer. Sadly, there’s nothing game-changing about “The Wrong Girls,” and despite Meyer’s understanding of the staples that make films of this pedigree eternal for a directorial debut, it doesn’t stick out.
