Robinson pays homage to several 1990s high school films and other teen classics such as Heathers (1989) and Mean Girls (2004).[2][3]
Plot
Drea is a popular student attending Rosehill Country Day High School, an elite private school in Miami, on a scholarship. A "conniving, selfish sociopath" who uses people to get what she wants, Drea becomes a social outcast after an intimate video she sent to her equally popular boyfriend, Max, is leaked online. Max claims he was hacked, but Drea blames Max for the video's release and they breakup.
That summer, Drea works at a tennis camp where she meets Eleanor, a shy girl from a wealthy background who is transferring to Rosehill in September. Eleanor tells Drea about also becoming an outcast when a false rumor spread that she forcibly kissed Carissa, another Rosehill student, at a summer camp years earlier.
Realizing they will not get justice on their own, the two plan to exact revenge on each other's enemy: Drea on Carissa and Eleanor on Max. Following a makeover, Eleanor slowly infiltrates Drea's old clique of popular students, while Drea tries to get close to Carissa by working at the school farm, also befriending Russ, an unpopular student and Carissa's friend.
Eleanor is invited to a party thrown by Max, where she discovers he is cheating on his new girlfriend, Tara – Drea's former best friend. Drea steals Carissa's keys to the farm's locked greenhouse, finding the marijuana and magic mushrooms that Carissa is storing.
At the school's Senior Ring Ceremony, Drea places the drugs from the greenhouse in their classmates' dinner so she can steal Max's phone to obtain evidence of his wrongdoings. She anonymously tips off the headmaster about the greenhouse, getting Carissa expelled and sent to rehab. While searching through Max's texts messages, Drea and Eleanor find photos and messages from other girls at school stretching back years.
At a school assembly, Eleanor shares Max's texts to the entire student body, but Max and Tara then pretend to be a polyamorous couple, which in turn becomes the school's latest trend. Drea spirals after getting rejected from her dream school, Yale, and concocts a new plan to destroy all her popular former friends at the upcoming Admissions Party, which can only be attended by those accepted by Ivy League schools.
Eleanor enjoys her new popularity and Drea's old friends, beginning a relationship with Max's twin sister Gabbi. When Max and his friends surprise Eleanor for her birthday, Drea crashes the party and nearly jeopardizes their revenge scheme. They fight, going their separate ways after Eleanor asserts that there is no evidence that Max leaked Drea's video. Gabbi overhears this and breaks up with Eleanor for taking Max's side.
Drea, seeking dirt on Eleanor, visits Carissa at the rehab facility. Carissa reveals Eleanor is actually "Nosey" Nora Cutler, a girl they went to summer camp with. It was Drea who outed Nora and spread the rumor, an event she had selfishly forgotten, which prompted Eleanor to change her name and undergo a rhinoplasty. Drea confronts Eleanor, who reveals she had been playing her all along, aiming to cause the same pain she endured from the rumor. Eleanor threatens to frame Drea's mother, a nurse, for drug possession if she refuses to expose her old friends at the Admissions Party. Eleanor T-bones Drea's car, sending her to the hospital, to create a sob story that earns Drea access to the Admissions Party.
During the party, Drea reveals Eleanor to be "Nosey Nora" to Max and friends, but immediately regrets it and apologizes to Eleanor for being a sociopath. Their emotional reconciliation is interrupted when Max confesses to releasing Drea's video, as he found her selfish behavior a risk to his own sociopathy. Eleanor secretly films the confession, quickly sharing the video at the party, turning everyone against Max.
As a result, Max is expelled from Rosehill and his spot at Yale is offered to Drea, who rejects it. There is redemption for all, as Drea apologizes to Russ and they kiss, Eleanor reconciles with Gabbi, and Max joins a support group to address his toxic masculinity.
Principal photography was scheduled to take place in Los Angeles in early 2021,[11][12] but was changed to Atlanta, Georgia, with the story taking place in Miami following a rewrite in order to accommodate Hawke's schedule, who was shooting Stranger Things, as director Robinson did not want to lose either of the main actresses.[13] Filming initially wrapped on August 7, 2021,[14] with later stages of production occurring in August 2022 in Miami, Florida.[15] Much of the filming took place at Oglethorpe University in suburban Atlanta.
Release
The film was released on Netflix on September 16, 2022.[16]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of 83 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Do Revenge could have used a bit more bite, but Maya Hawke and Camila Mendes make this a sweet dish best served to viewers who understand that high school can be hell."[17]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[18]
Coleman Spilde of The Daily Beast called the film a "generation defining masterpiece", saying that "once a decade, there comes a high school comedy so stylish, so witty, and so instantly influential that it cannot be topped. Netflix's colorful new romp is that movie."; Spilde subtitled his review "Cruel Intentions", acknowledging the relationship to the 1999 film of that name and the presence of actress Sarah Michelle Gellar – who played the teen antagonist in that earlier film, tormenting the daughter of her school's headmaster, and appears as the headmaster in Do Revenge.[19] Amy Nicholson of The New York Times gave the film a B and described it as "a playful, sharp-fanged satire that feels like the '90s teen comedy hammered into modern emojis: crown, knife, fire, winky face."[20]Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and said, "The film manages to blend all of its influences into a distinctive movie that is fully committed to its vision of high school as a handsomely costumed, art-directed snake pit filled with sadists who get off on other people's pain and embarrassment."[21]
