A witty satirization of the ruling class, a fantastic third-act betrayal and Maya Hawke: what more could you want from a movie?

“Do Revenge” is a shockingly good Netflix original movie that follows Drea Torres (Camila Mendes), a girl attending the prestigious Rosehill Academy on scholarship, as she falls from grace. When Drea’s private video gets leaked, she knows it was her boyfriend, “Rosehill golden boy” Max Broussard (Austin Abrams), who leaked it. No one believes her, and she becomes a social pariah overnight.

While working her summer job at tennis camp, Drea meets the rich and independent Eleanor Levetan (Maya Hawke), who just so happens to be transferring to Rosehill in the fall. When Eleanor opens up to Drea about her terrible experience with one of the girls at Rosehill, they form an unlikely bond that ultimately leads to a revenge pact: Drea will get revenge on the girl who ruined Eleanor’s life, and Eleanor will take down Max.

In recent years, Netflix’s original movies (Tall Girl, The Kissing Booth, etc.) have not been the best, so I didn’t go into this movie with the highest expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. The characters are nuanced and realistic, the storyline was hilarious and engaging and the soundtrack was fantastic, featuring songs such as “Silk Chiffon” by MUNA, “Celebrity Skin” by Hole and “So Hot You’re Hurting my Feelings” by Caroline Polachek. This film felt like if “Succession” and “Heathers” had a baby that was raised on Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour.”

The costumes and setting also do a fantastic job of elevating the story. As Drea and Eleanor become more and more obsessed with exacting revenge, they lose themselves more and more. Their outfits throughout the movie show this moral progression; their outfits get increasingly gaudy and expensive-looking. By trying to get back at those who’ve wronged them, they end up becoming the pretentious, fake rich kids they claim to hate. The pastel aesthetic of their school, where the majority of the film takes place, makes the heinous acts committed by the students within even more outlandish and upsetting.

Eleanor and Drea were honestly the most realistic teenage characters I’ve seen in a long time; I mean, Eleanor’s emotional support pet bearded dragon is named “Oscar Winner Olivia Colman.” Now that is accurate LGBTQ+ representation! Both leads are well-rounded, interesting female characters. They both have their own storylines independent from any other characters in the film, and both show a realistic range of emotions, something you don’t always see with women in movies. Throughout the movie, I went back and forth between loving and hating both of them, which shows the depth and intricacies of both of their characters.

Drea’s evil ex-boyfriend Max was also painfully realistic. He is a proud, outspoken feminist who paints his nails and wears earrings. After Drea’s private video gets leaked, he founds the “CIS Hetero Men Championing Female Identifying Students League” in her honor. However, he doesn’t actually care about supporting and uplifting women; he objectifies every woman he comes into contact with throughout the movie, and is constantly cheating on whichever girl he’s dating at the time. Personally, I know numerous boys exactly like Max, who think that “breaking gender stereotypes” absolves them from doing any real work to dismantle oppressive systems. Hopefully, this satirization of a “woke” male feminist will cause people like Max to change their ways.

Even though I’ve only seen the film twice so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s hailed as the teen drama of the 2020s; the “Clueless” of its time, if you will. If you’re looking for a fun movie to watch while putting off your APUSH notes, I would definitely recommend checking this out.