The following contains spoilers for the Netflix original movie Senior Year.
Netflix's Senior Year is the latest teen comedy to be released on the platform, following what has been a popular trend in recent years. Many newer teen comedies try to recapture the magic of those from the late '90s and early '00s, with some succeeding in unique and exciting ways and others, unfortunately, missing the mark. Senior Year falls into the former category, serving up a large plate of nostalgia with a clever, original twist.
Steph Conway (played in flashbacks by Angourie Rice and in the present by Rebel Wilson) is the cheer captain and most popular girl in school. She's even in the running for prom queen until a cheerleading stunt gone wrong sends her into a coma for 20 years. When she wakes up at age 37, Steph goes back to high school for the final month of the school year to reclaim everything she'd lost. Using the fact that Steph has been in a coma since 2002, Senior Year becomes both a parody and an homage to teen movies of the past.
Senior Year's Narrative Device Is Right Out of Easy A
Senior Year opens in media res with an adult Steph talking to her phone in an Instagram Live, much like Olive does with her webcam in Easy A. Steph says she will explain everything in detail, starting at the beginning of her story. Sure enough, the timeline in the movie eventually gets to Steph filming her apology video, with her sweet and goofy dad (reminiscent of Stanley Tucci's character in Easy A) holding the cell phone for her.
Senior Year's Cheerleading Scenes Are a Bring It On Spoof
Before she falls and enters a coma, Steph is the captain of her school's cheerleading squad. Like in Bring It On, the title of captain is extremely important. Upon waking up after 20 years in the hospital, Steph hears the receptionist say that "the cheerleader" is awake, and she quickly corrects, "Cheer captain." The cheer squad performs routines that aren't exactly school-appropriate, and their stunts are extremely complicated. When Steph joins the squad again 20 years later, she finds the squad has changed a lot, and they only cheer about social and political issues.
Senior Year's Social Hierarchy Is a Play on Mean Girls
Steph has difficulty readjusting to high school after her coma, but things get easier once she befriends Janet, Yaz and Neil. Unlike Mean Girls' Janis and Damian, Steph's new friends don't resent the popular kids, who are incredibly socially aware and not actually mean. The actual mean girl is Steph's rival, Tiffany, whose daughter is now the most popular girl in school. Even younger Steph, who becomes popular during her freshman year, doesn't ditch her friends as Cady did. There's also a humorous and inappropriate musical number at a school-wide assembly that seems to be a homage to the Plastics' performance of "Jingle Bell Rock."
Senior Year's Makeover Is a Nod to Clueless
If there is one teen movie that makes its way above the others as the clear star of Senior Year, it's Clueless. Alicia Silverstone herself even makes a cameo in the movie as Deanna Russo, an alumnus of Steph's school and everything that Steph wants to be. Steph also has a Clueless poster on the wall of her room (which seems to suggest the existence of both Alicia Silverstone and Deanna Russo in this universe). In a flashback, younger Steph gives herself a makeover as Cher does for Tai in Clueless, making changes to both her appearance and her personality.
Senior Year's Love Triangle Parallels The Princess Diaries
Following in the footsteps of her predecessor, Princess Mia Thermopolis, younger Steph ends up pursuing the most popular guy in school. Like The Princess Diaries' Josh Bryant, Senior Year's Blaine Balbo turns out to be a total jerk. The main love interest, Seth Novacelik, is Steph's own Michael Moscovitz, a close friend who's been in love with her for years. Like Mia and Michael, Steph and Seth eventually get together at the movie's end. This time, though, it's on stage at Steph's graduation instead of at a royal ball.
To see these clever nods, Senior Year is available to stream on Netflix.