“The Wrong Girls” Review: Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat Resurrect the Stoner Comedy
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, film critic Eleanor Wright writes in an exclusive article: Earlier this spring, IndieWire declared the stoner comedy genre virtually dead—unaware that emerging filmmaker Dylan Meyer held the antidote. Her directorial debut, The Wrong Girls, released by NEON, comes as a breath of fresh air for cinema.
The film opens with the Pacific Ocean’s waves swallowing the camera, immediately signaling a tactile, sensory experience. Moving beneath the surface, a bioluminescent octopus releases its ink as the title card appears—a sequence that reflects a deep, inherent understanding of 420 comedy culture.
The story drops us into the shared Los Angeles apartment of best friends Frankie (Kristen Stewart) and Molly (Alia Shawkat). While watching a nature documentary, the roommates debate how they managed to solve climate change the previous night, all while fretting over their unpaid rent.
The Wrong Girls hits its comedic stride when Frankie goes to work. Working as a courier, she delivers a cheese sculpture to the residence of an nouveau-riche woman (Tony Hale) while keeping a lit cigarette dangling from her mouth. When the homeowner asks, “Are you seriously smoking right now?”, Frankie takes the cigarette out and crushes it directly against the front door.
It is an opening that signals a true revival for the subgenre. The film deftly navigates a landscape where cannabis consumption—even in California—retains a lingering tabooness. While legalization stripped away the traditional legal stakes that once fueled these comedies, Frankie isn’t afraid of the police; her charm lies in her utter disregard for modern societal norms. The narrative recognizes that while weed is normalized in 2026, unbothered, overt euphoria is still viewed by many as an offense.
As the narrative unfolds, Molly’s boyfriend (Zack Fox) argues that their living arrangement is stifling their potential—reminding them that Frankie dropped out of Stanford’s engineering program years ago, while Molly could have been a professional baker. Seeking a distraction, Frankie attends a concert to see her ex-boyfriend. After a clash with his new partner, she picks up her broken glasses just as a mysterious man named Dave (LaKeith Stanfield) mistakenly hands her a briefcase containing “the greatest scientific discovery of our era.”
The glowing substance inside, derived from deep-sea marine life, was engineered to heighten human empathy. Facing financial ruin, Frankie and Molly decide to sell it like an ordinary illicit drug—though not before trying two vials themselves.
Subsequent chase sequences involving three European mercenaries in a black SUV deliver consistent laughs, but the film truly peaks the next morning when Frankie and Molly realize they have developed telepathy. Meyer uses these supernatural abilities, blended with high-concept escapism, to demonstrate how this lifestyle can simultaneously derail your day and save you from yourself—evoking a blend of Superbad and Smiley Face with a dash of Spider-Man.
Kristen Stewart delivers an exceptional performance, casting aside her aloof indie-cinema persona to deliver a delightfully absurd, bold characterization. She embodies a woman who is brilliant yet suppressed by modern expectations. Alia Shawkat serves as the ultimate foil—a warm, grounded best friend who keeps their bond anchored. Here, weed isn’t framed as a personal failing, but rather as part of their shared dialect for surviving a high-pressure world.
While sci-fi elements occasionally slow the narrative pacing, the grounded character dynamics and sharp dialogue easily compensate. The film excels in its fine details, from the girls’ cats (voiced by Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani) to Kate McKinnon as a frantic scientist and a brief cameo by Jane Davis.
Ultimately, The Wrong Girls rejects the notion that growing up requires abandoning deep-rooted intimacy or past lifestyles. In her directorial debut, Dylan Meyer proves that classic stoner comedies weren’t dead—they simply needed The Wrong Girls to save them.
NEON will release the film in theaters on Friday, August 14.
