Where i Watched it: Netflix
Audio Description Provided By: Roundabout
Narrated By: Elias. (No last name was given. He’s like Madonna or Cher.)
Before watching this, I saw other YouTube critics talking about how these movies always happen in Prep Schools with rich kids that make it impossible to sympathize. Except, here, our lead is on scholarship. So, it’s not the same thing. There are rich kids, and they are your typical pains in the ass. But this movie is more about a girl who had a sex tape released of her, and her actions following that. The film does a really good job of balancing humor both light and dark, and giving us a protagonist we aren’t sure we actually like. not that the incident in question is ever OK, but you can’t just go around showing these things to other kids. It is actually illegal, something the film really doesn’t tackle.
But our main lead meets a new transfer who has her own complicated history with another girl, who she supposedly had a crush on a while ago, but outed her, and made her life a living hell. So these two team up and decide to exact revenge on each other’s enemies.
That’s about all I can say, because this film is a lot more than that. Surprisingly, this film twists a bit, and i loved it. My biggest concern is the lack of development with most of the supporting cast. if you look at popular teen films from yesteryears, Mean Girls, Clueless, She’s All that, Varsity Blues, Heathers, and so on… they all have a clear lead or two, but also a rich deep teen ensemble with their own personalities. Do Revenge is not really concerned with developing any of those side characters, and just focuses primarily on the leads and their goals. Perhaps if we connected too much to those they plan to exact revenge on the film wouldn’t work, but it’s my biggest problem with the film. The main villain, an entitled brat, barely gets any development, to the point you aren’t even sure he actually is the bad guy until later in the film. That is problematic, since this film takes on a Promising Young Woman stance to take him out.
Featuring a nice surprise appearance from an underutilized Sarah Michelle Gellar, Do Revenge is actually one of the best teen comedies I’ve seen in a while. It has all the beats and energy of past hits, but just lacks the depth of the ensemble. Some people are so poorly underdeveloped that when their life is screwed over, I’m not sure if they deserved it.
I’ve never heard of Roundabout or Elias, but they did good work for an audio description studio I’m not typically familiar with. This is a fairly simple film to describe, with perhaps the biggest challenge being describing wardrobe choices. Do Revenge is a fun, somewhat dark comedy, with a nice twist that really puts the film in a whole different perspective by the end of the film. Watch it.
Final Grade: B+
