The Wrong Girls, 2026.
Written and Directed by Dylan Meyer.
Starring Kristen Stewart, Alia Shawkat, LaKeith Stanfield, Zack Fox, Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Tony Hale, Chris Estrada, Thomas La Barbera Christensen, Thor Knai, Thomas Nicholson, Kate McKinnon, Geena Davis, Cate Blanchett, Morgan Krantz, Taj Cross, Zed Cutsinger, and Sugar Lyn Beard.
SYNOPSIS:
Two aimless young women inadvertently gain telepathic abilities after ingesting an experimental drug, pitting them against dangerous rivals pursuing the same powerful substance.
Not to take credit away from Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat (two terrific talents, with the former being one of the best actors/filmmakers working today), but one knows something has gone wrong with writer/director Dylan Meyer’s The Wrong Girls when they are upstaged in comedy by Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani voicing a pair of cats.
There is a premise here that should yield hootin-and-hollerin’ hijinks with restless momentum in that the stoner besties struggling to pay the bills – and withholding decisions about their future from each other correlating to that – end up with a briefcase containing a new drug that becomes even more valuable when they simultaneously get high on marijuana, realizing that combining them grants them various telepathic abilities (such as speaking to their doofus cats who take every opportunity to remind them what irresponsible pet owners they are while also being cowards). Confused by LaKeith Stanfield’s idiosyncratically credited Not Metal Head Dave on the intended recipient of the briefcase, handing it to a look-alike (also played by Kristen Stewart, a fairly amusing gag as an upgraded version of her actual character that her ex-boyfriend is hanging around), Frankie and Molly take possession of it and become targeted by criminals and scientists alike looking to take back the drug for their own monetary reasons.
Whenever they aren’t being harassed or shot at or fumbling their way through the night like floundering dimwits, Frankie and Molly are trying to monetize the drugs themselves to pay the bills. This includes hitting up the lamest college reunion ever hosted by Tony Hale’s Martin Flynn for buyers, and eventually connecting with the scientists (Kate McKinnon doing her standard quirky routine that feels uninspired here) who might be willing to work together. For anything to happen, it means fending off a group of European criminals looking to reclaim the drugs, prepared to sell them to the highest bidder, which, due to the nature of its telepathic powers, is likely to be used for warfare.
Yet somehow The Wrong Girls is a tedious sit with little urgency and even fewer laughs. Apparently, much of the inspiration for Dylan Meyer (Kristen Stewart’s wife) came from personal experiences getting stoned with friends, which shows, since those situations are often funny only to those living through them. Jokes in the dialogue are unmemorable; set pieces such as eating at their favorite buffet when they have the munchies, or even a late action sequence in an abandoned factory, trudge along without any spark or clever zingers.
I don’t want to sit here and be that guy proclaiming that, in a film filled with talented women, the only amusing parts come from men voicing dopey cats, but I remember Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani as Dio and GG shit-talking their owners more than anything: “trust me, she’s not taking us to the vet, they don’t have the money for that”. The cats also have the most exciting part of the action, as Kumail Nanjiani pep talks himself into being less of a coward to save the day while navigating a perilous course, only to scurry and give up upon hearing a bullet fired in his direction. Everything else is mostly forgotten, including more intricate details of the narrative, four or so hours removed from watching the film.
It’s not that Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat can’t match the goofy chemistry between their voiceover feline screen partners, but that their characters are stranded in genre clichés, failing to transform them into anything unique, resonant, or interesting. They make convincing stoners, but even those who get a contact high from this style of comedy will likely be left perplexed and unengaged. Aside from the occasional moment of telekinesis (and, of course, loosely communicating with Dio and GG, which isn’t entertaining because of the humans), the film, confoundingly, doesn’t take advantage of the superpowers until well into the third act. Maybe the right creative choice for The Wrong Girls would have been centering the cats.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
