Ever since it was officially unveiled in July Do Revenge has rightly been one of the most anticipated Netflix movies of the year – and not just because of its ridiculously good cast stacked with favourites from the biggest shows around.

The concept of the mean girl and a social outcast teaming up in high school to take down those who wronged them is delicious enough. It evoked memories of more cutting teen movies of years past such as Clueless and Heathers combined with a Hitchcockian edge.With Stranger Things star Maya Hawke and Riverdales Camila Mendes in the lead roles the signs were promising that we could get a classic teen movie to add to the pantheon of classics.Unfortunately even though Do Revenge is an often-entertaining and wild ride it fails to give us one key thing to make it truly sing a character to actually root for.Co-writer and director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson certainly doesnt hold back on the gags at the expense of the characters populating the prep school of Rosehill where the action takes place.

In classic teen movie fashion there are numerous cliques at school and Robinson especially targets those at the top of the social agenda. Drea (Mendes) used to be part of Rosehills royal court alongside her boyfriend Max (Euphorias Austin Abrams) but after an intimate video is leaked her carefully-managed status comes crashing down.Once she teams up with Eleanor (Hawke) to bring down Max the movie doesnt hesitate to show how awful Dreas former friends are. In one of the stand-out gags Max sets up a new society at school after Dreas video leaks called Cis Hetero Men Championing Female-Identifying Students League.Nothing is particularly subtle in Do Revenge including the excellent costume design but its bluntness is part of the fun. Buzzwords are frequent in the dialogue almost as much as the needle drops from Billie Eilish Olivia Rodrigo and more and youll absolutely see memes everywhere from the movie.

Its all expertly crafted to be a breezily entertaining teen movie elevated by its perfectly-cast leads. Hawke can do awkward-but-cool outsider in her sleep as seen in Stranger Things while Mendes is excellent as her defiant – potentially more unhinged – partner-in-revenge.As their plan of assumed identities and subterfuge plays out youre right there on their side and having just as much fun. The problem comes when you realise that actually youve been suckered in and theyre potentially not as endearing as you initially thought.Lead characters dont have to be likeable for a movie to success of course but Do Revenge feels like its trying to get you to emotionally invest in them. Without going into spoilers the twisty plot has revelations that affect the tone in the final act and what should be moments of triumph end up feeling empty as a viewer.

Things end up wrapping up a bit too cleanly where theres such a dark edge to everything else. The movie would have been better committing more to the cynicism at the risk of leaving a bitter taste but at least it would have been authentic to the world.Still when youve got a teen movie that has Sarah Michelle Gellar as the Headmaster in a genius piece of casting you cant end up being too mad. Its just that theres so much right elsewhere in Do Revenge that its flatter final act stands out more.If youve ever wanted to see Hitchcocks Strangers on a Train play out with a group of bitchy teenagers then Do Revenge provides exactly what youd want. It might not reach the classics of the teen movie genre but its still plenty of darkly entertaining fun.