We have seen a million variations of the slacker buddy movie, but almost all of them star two guys sitting on a ratty couch arguing about sports or video games. Writer-director Dylan Meyer decided to completely upend that tired template with her feature debut, The Wrong Girls.
Starring Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat as a pair of chronically underachieving best friends in Los Angeles, the film drops viewers right into a haze of smoke, financial panic, and total absurdity. Instead of relying on traditional romantic comedy beats or high-stakes action tropes, the movie asks a simple question: what happens when two brilliant women decide to completely check out, get high, and stumble blindly into an international conspiracy? Don't miss our earlier post on this related article.
The answer is messy, hilarious, and entirely unique.
The Chemistry Behind the Smoke
You can not fake genuine friendship on screen. Stewart plays Frankie, a burnt-out college dropout with a sharp mind she refuses to use, while Shawkat plays Molly, a failed chef whose ambitions start and stop at arranging elaborate snacks. To read more about the history here, Associated Press offers an excellent summary.
They live paycheck to paycheck on the east side of Los Angeles, sharing a deep affection for Celine Dion cardboard cutouts and complicated, Rube Goldberg-style bongs. When Frankie accidentally walks away from a concert with a mysterious briefcase filled with glowing liquid vials, things escalate fast.
Most movies would use this setup for a slick thriller. Meyer uses it as an excuse to strand two incredibly stoned people in situations they are entirely unequipped to handle.
Rewriting the Rules of the Stoner Genre
Stoner comedies live or die by their commitment to the bit. Classics like Friday or Half Baked worked because the stakes felt low enough for the characters to prioritize getting high over saving the day. The Wrong Girls leans heavily into that tradition while subverting it with a distinctly female perspective.
When Frankie and Molly open that briefcase, they do not call the cops or run for cover. They look at vials of an unknown, glowing chemical substance and decide to drink it.
Logic flies out the window immediately. The liquid grants them telepathic abilities, leading to a stretch of the film where their pet cats—voiced by Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani—start talking back with biting, sarcastic commentary. It is unhinged. It is silly. And it works because Stewart and Shawkat play every single absurd beat with total, unblinking sincerity.
Breaking Down the Criticisms
Not everyone is sold on the weed-soaked anarchy. Some reviewers point out that the pacing drags in the middle, or that a subplot involving wealthy Stanford alumni feels tacked on to pad out the runtime.
Fair points. The movie is certainly uneven, and some of the broader gags miss the mark. But judging a stoner comedy by the tight narrative precision of an Oscar-winning drama misses the entire point. You do not watch a movie featuring talking cats and giant squid obsessions for airtight plotting. You watch it to see two top-tier actors let loose, throw vanity out the door, and lean hard into being absolute goofballs.
Stewart, in particular, trades her usual brooding indie-film cool for a perpetually confused, wide-eyed daze that highlights her underrated comedic timing. Watching her try to navigate basic life tasks while completely baked is worth the ticket price alone.
Why This Movie Matters Right Now
Hollywood has spent the last few years obsessed with elevated horror, multi-verse franchises, and grim biopics. Joy has felt strangely absent from the multiplex.
The Wrong Girls arrives as a messy, loud antidote to that corporate polish. It proves that female-led comedies do not need to be tidy, sanitized, or neatly moralistic about bad behavior. They are allowed to be messy, lazy, and profoundly stupid in the best possible way.
Grab some snacks, clear your schedule, and check your seriousness at the door before you sit down for this one.
