This article contains spoilers for "Freakier Friday."
While rom-coms have been enjoying a remarkable resurgence on streaming lately, they've only barely started returning to theaters after years of being seemingly banished to your living room only. It's about time, too; whether you need a break from the outside world or to decompress from the swirling thoughts in your head, nothing scratches that good itch quite like a rom-com. Indeed, "Freakier Friday" (the funny, heartfelt sequel to the Millennial
classic that is 2003's "Freaky Friday") even features an up-and-coming Netflix rom-com star, and the results are as good as you would hope. In fact, you may even hear a murmur of surprise during your screening of the film when Maitreyi Ramakrishnan glides into frame.
For those who are not familiar, Ramakrishnan is the star of Netflix's small screen phenomenon, "Never Have I Ever." Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher's rom-com drama series, which ran for four seasons and is loosely based on Kaling's life as she came of age in a Massachusetts suburb, follows Devi Vishwakumar (Ramakrishnan), a 15-year-old simply trying to get through her last three years of high school after the tragic death of her father. Ramakrishnan makes for a flawed but inherently winning heroine as Devi, a character who manages to be talented, funny, and charismatic while also being her own worst enemy for most of the show. (Doubly so when it comes to Devi's love life -- it's a mess!) Meanwhile, the show around her has become a core teen comedy for a new generation in the same way "Freaky Friday" did for anyone old enough to remember the waning screams of dial-up internet.
On one level, "Freakier Friday" is primarily about "Freaky Friday" leads Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan passing the torch to their younger co-stars Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons, with the latter duo being asked to take on a lot of the lifting here. But at the same time, Ramakrishnan is also part of that handoff, and the movie very much succeeds in playing off her previous work on "Never Have I Ever."
Read more: The 15 Best Sequels To Bad Movies
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan Plays Anna's Protege In Freakier Friday
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan co-stars in "Freakier Friday" as Ella, a budding pop star under Anna Coleman's (Lindsay Lohan) wing, with Lohan's "Freaky Friday" protagonist having become a record producer in the years since she established her music career. That means Anna is not only in charge of crafting Ella's sound for her next album, but she's also tasked with emotionally regulating the young artist after a big breakup sends her spiraling. It's clear that Ella really respects her manager's opinions and wants to follow in the older woman's footsteps by becoming an inspiration for young girls listening to her music. It's all very sweet and has a deeper meta-layer of meaning thanks to Lohan and Ramakrishnan both having made their name as teen media superstars.
As Ella's breakup gets worse, she happens upon one of Anna's old songs. Quick to assume the tune is about Chad Michael Murray's Jake from "Freaky Friday," Ella immediately asks her manager to sing it, but Anna declines. However, thanks to the film's body-switching shenanigans, Ella is eventually able to get the blessing she wants to do her own version of the song. Not only that, but she actually performs the tune, titled "Baby" in front of a raucous crowd on the first stop of her tour in Los Angeles, even bringing Anna out to sing it with the rest of her old band, Pink Slip, as a way of thanking her mentor for helping her. Of course, Ella has no idea the advice she's been getting for most of the movie is from Anna's daughter Harper (Julia Butters), who body-swapped with her mother!
Seeing Lohan and Ramakrishnan singing along on-stage is a truly uplifting moment, complete with the original Pink Slip frontwoman honoring both her protege and daughter at the same time. The spotlight on these women, paired with a heartfelt conversation they have prior to this scene during a photo shoot, should also hit home for all the viewers out there who've felt seen by these types of rom-coms (which have often been unfairly written off as "disposable" because teenage girls are the focal point).
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan Is Proof Freakier Friday Gets It
Franchise sequels and reboots are all over the pop culture landscape right now, and "Freakier Friday" had a tough task in standing out among the crowd of similar efforts. Thankfully, however, the movie really understands the core audience it's going for and leans into what they connect to, which makes it more successful in its goals than many of its contemporaries. For a lot of Millennial viewers, the 2003 "Freaky Friday" (and "Mean Girls," if we're staying in the Lohan lane) are more or less sacred texts at this point. At the same time, just doing the exact same thing again would have probably resulted in a sequel that falls flat.
Crucially, "Freakier Friday" embraces the fact that so much time has passed since "Freaky Friday" and considers who the face of teen romantic comedy would be for audiences now. That makes Ramakrishnan's casting a no-brainer, as younger moviegoers now have actors like her to tell their story on-screen. It's also further proof that if "decades after sequels" in general want to work, then they need to do more than merely play with the set dressing of their hugely popular forbearers. Instead of banking purely on nostalgia, (which can feel good!), they should offer a path to the future while still saying a little something about where we've been. "Freakier Friday" does exactly that; by extending a hand to a new generation of girls through Ramakrishnan, it's definitely playing the right notes.
"Freakier Friday" is now playing in theaters.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
