New on Netflix
Sextapes, private schools and the Ivy League: “Do Revenge” shows why revenge is never a good idea
“Do Revenge” is a colorful high school movie
© Kim Simms/Netflix © 2022
“Do Revenge” is the new teen movie on Netflix. It’s about hurt egos, about revenge and, by the way, about growing up. A story with questionable morals.
“Do Revenge” is aimed at young people – and those who would like to be again. The Netflix teen film is set in a private school. And the students, some of whom are quite snooty, talk about their golden future at the eight renowned American universities, also known as the Ivy League.
It all starts at the party of Drea (Camila Mendes, known from “Riverdale”), who is something of the queen of Rosehill High and who later wants to go to Yale University. She appears in a Teen Vogue feature and of course it deserves a celebration. There are also people who don’t think Drea is so cool, such as the clichéd “Instagram witch”. Boyfriend Max is also a little late, but he organized fireworks, that’s how it is in the world of the rich and famous. Unfortunately, the two cannot spend the summer together, so Max asks his Drea to send him some erotic photos of himself. But that backfires (as unfortunately is more often the case).
Max releases a sextape of Drea. And suddenly she is ignored by all her friends. Although: They obviously weren’t real friends. But her former status in the school world is gone. Only outsider Eleanor (Maya Hawke, known from “Stranger Things”) is still there for her. Together they hatch a terrifying and complicated revenge plan to exact revenge on their tormentors – or as they call them “enemies”.
“Do Revenge”: Teen film with questionable morals
“Two wounded soldiers on the battlefield of growing up,” is how the two see each other. Melodramatic as they are. The film, which lasts almost two hours, is primarily about injured egos, revenge and obsession. But also the desire to belong (again) to the “cool” is represented as in every teenage film.
Somehow, however, they seem to lose sight of what is really important: the opportunity to talk to each other – and to forgive one another. Instead, they escalate their vendetta and are a metaphor for the idiom “blind with anger”.
“Do Revenge” already teases in its title that it wants to focus on revenge from the broad spectrum of feelings. But one hopes that it will become more complex, that other possibilities will be shown than that in the end there is a moral above everything. But that doesn’t happen. As a viewer, you can still understand the anger because of the intimate material published at the beginning, but over time you lose all sympathy, even all understanding for the two teenagers. And that’s a shame, because it could have been different.