The stoner comedy has been in hibernation for a while, or at least pushed to the margins of mainstream theatrical releases. But NEON’s “The Wrong Girls” looks like it knows exactly what it is: a proudly dumb, chaotic, druggy friendship comedy about two best friends, one mysterious briefcase, experimental psychedelics, telepathy, talking cats, Danish villains, and the kind of escalating disaster that follows people who were already making bad decisions before the plot showed up.
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NEON has released the trailer for “The Wrong Girls,” the feature directorial debut of writer-director Dylan Meyer, starring Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat as Frankie and Molly, a pair of pot-loving best friends whose lives are derailed by a case of mistaken identity.
Meyer laid out the setup to Entertainment Weekly without overselling the girls’ decision-making skills.
“Frankie and Molly are codependent boneheads who have spent the last 10 years blissfully in a fog of weed smoke, co-signing each others’ bad choices and screening adulthood’s increasingly insistent calls,” Meyer said. “Just as Molly’s boyfriend asks her to move in with him, Frankie is mistakenly given a briefcase full of glowing vials of an experimental psychedelic.”
That briefcase turns out to be the beginning of the trouble. The drugs leave Frankie and Molly with lingering telepathic abilities, including a connection to their cats. Their possession of the drugs also puts them in the path of white-suited Danish villains who want their property back and begin to see Frankie and Molly as disposable human test subjects.
Stewart previously described the movie in terms that should be encouraging to anyone tired of comedies that seem afraid of being comedies.
“It’s a stoner girl comedy, and it’s really f—ing stupid,” Stewart said. “I think you’ll like it.”
The cast is stacked beyond Stewart and Shawkat. LaKeith Stanfield plays NotMetalHeadDave, the for-hire action man who gives Frankie and Molly the briefcase; Zack Fox plays Molly’s boyfriend Josh; Tony Hale plays a real estate developer; Kate McKinnon plays Dr. Olsen, the Danish scientist who created the drugs; Geena Davis plays Dr. Olsen’s partner in life and science; and Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani voice Frankie and Molly’s judgmental talking cats.
Meyer previously co-wrote Amy Poehler’s Netflix coming-of-age comedy “Moxie,” but “The Wrong Girls” gives her a much stranger canvas for her first feature as a director. It is also the kind of personality-driven comedy that rarely gets a theatrical push anymore, which may be part of the appeal. Not every summer release needs to look like homework for a future franchise.
“The Wrong Girls” opens in theaters August 14 via NEON. Watch the trailer below.
