Lately, it seems like every day, another nostalgia sequel is emerging into the world. While there are many obvious draws to this kind of movie, a ready-made audience, a starting place of love, and a world that already exists, nostalgia sequels can also be some of the hardest needles to thread. Firstly, they have the tall order of proving they need to exist. Secondly, the audience that initially loved them is probably in a much different place in their lives than when they first became attached. And lastly, the movie needs to appeal to both old audiences and new. But happily, Disney’s latest nostalgia sequel venture, Freakier Friday, managed to be a rare nostalgia sequel that was, in a word, effervescent. Both delightful and sweet, the Freaky Friday sequel smartly used its starting point of nostalgia to bubble up into a movie that shines on its own.
In Freakier Friday, what was once a story of a mother and daughter has added a generation + two. Anna Coleman, played by Lindsay Lohan, is now all grown up and a mother to a teenager of her own, Harper. But her mother, the delightful Tess Coleman played by Jamie Lee Curtis, can’t stop interfering in her life and family, not truly allowing her to grow all the way up. If that weren’t enough, after a meet-cute in Harper’s school involving an altercation between Harper and her high-school arch-nemesis, Lily, Anna is all set to marry the father of her daughter’s rival.
But when that father is Eric Reyes, played by Manny Jacinto, who is also an award-winning chef, a svelte dancer, and a silly, sensitive man, we truly can’t blame her. The girls don’t see it that way, though, of course; their dislike of one another leaves them determined to break up the forming family. But, at Anna’s bachelorette party, a run-in with a multi-hyphenate psychic forces them into one another’s shoes… Literally… As a Freaky Friday, nay, a Freakier Friday strikes them all.
Four body swaps might seem like too much for one movie, but Freakier Friday handles the convoluted exchanges with grace, never verging on feeling confusing or rushed. Everyone has their time in the sun, and their own hilarious moments in one another’s bodies. Importantly, the movie also does not go to any places that would “make it weird,” as the kids say. Do the kids still say that? And the body swap functions as a hilarious and emotional conceit that never brushes horrifying.
What ultimately struck me about Freakier Friday is the earnestness and authenticity of the characters. In the movie, Gen Z teen Harper is horrified by some headlines her mother has written that read like millennial cringe, but the movie never does. It seems to know what age group it’s speaking to and when, and never goes overboard trying to pander to any one of them. Instead, it seems to aim for an earnestness that likely will leave all ages satisfied. Sometimes boomers are clueless. Sometimes millennials are cringe. And sometimes Gen Z is annoying. But regardless of the label, everyone, at their hearts, just yearns to find a place to belong and a family to hold onto.
The generational conceit of Freakier Friday also seems to know how to handle the idea that the audience that commiserated with Tess in Freaky Friday is now more advanced in age, and the teen audience that loved teen Anna is now middle-aged themselves. In many cases, this might be where a nostalgia sequel would falter. But Freakier Friday takes pains to show that just because Anna and Tess have gotten older doesn’t mean they are any less cool.
Although Lindsay Lohan’s Anna has stopped performing by the time of the movie, her job still rocks, and she’s still living a powerful version of her dreams. Meanwhile, Tess is thriving in her later life, with a podcast, a book tour, and a loving husband. Could they use a little spruce? Yes. But so often, when we revisit our heroes and they have aged, the narrative seems to punish them for it, making their lives boring and terrible, pale shades of what they once were. The adventures, fiction so often exclaims, are for the young. But not Freakier Friday—and it’s to be commended for that.
Freakier Friday is also authentic in some more intense ways. I was personally surprised by just how mean the girls are to one another in front of their parents. But, hey, it turns out, kids can be terrible to one another, and the authenticity of Harper and Lily’s dislike makes the slowly warming friendship and sisterhood between them that much more fulfilling.
Ultimately, the true genius of Freakier Friday lies in its exceptional performances. Lindsay Lohan’s Anna is a likeable and warm mother, a great example of a new generation of moms that exist in our world—ones who know that respect and compassion are key to good parenting. Lohan, of course, also creates a hilarious teen version of herself. Lily, played by Sophia Hammons, and Harper, played by Julia Butters, make for excellent foils to one another and skillfully manage playing their age and playing much older. And Manny Jacinto, who plays Eric, the leading man in the film, is literally everything we could want out of a fictional husband. He’s charming, sweet, understanding, and an exceptional father; the other shoe does not drop with him—and that’s always nice to see. Plus, he dances. Enough said.
The side-characters in Freakier Friday also magically fill out the world. Chad Michael Murray’s Jake is a total hoot, playing his absurd hottie with a thing for older women to perfection. X Mayo’s Principal Waldman steals the show in every scene she is in, and Stephen Tobolowsky’s returning Mr. Bates never fails to make the audience laugh. Multi-hyphenate and hustler psychic Madame Jen, played by Vanessa Bayer, who is also a financial advisor, Starbucks barista, and more, is a genius character who really reflects a specific sort of person that we all know (and love, mostly).
And, of course, it was nostalgic in the most wonderful way to hear Pink Slip perform once again in Freakier Friday.
Then, of course, there’s Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis’ acting in Freakier Friday is unparalleled, and she reminds us of what we already know: that she’s an actress who has mastered her craft and can employ it to be by turns hilarious, devastating, annoying, infuriating, enchanting, and silly without breaking a sweat. Curtis always shines, but in such a purely character-focused narrative, she glows extra hard.
Freaky Friday was born in the age of the Teen Girl Movie. And sadly, fewer and fewer of these YA narratives have come to exist over time. These days, kids grow up too fast, and teens get served options for adults instead of cinematic fare crafted just for them. Freakier Friday truly harkens back to that era of movies, appealing, of course, not just to the literal teen girl, but also to the spiritual teen girl in any person who has ever had a teen girl inside of them. In the most complimentary of ways, I say that it felt like a Disney Channel Original Movie. And while it borrowed from its original film, this sequel movie worked to create a world that one could come to without any prior knowledge and still find themselves falling in love.
At the end of the day, I laughed hard while watching Freakier Friday. The younger children to my left laughed. And my mom, to my right, laughed so hard she cried. And what better testament can there be to a generational movie about motherhood than that?
Freakier Friday releases in theaters on Friday, August 8.
Content shared from nerdist.com.