Stewart, Shawkat Revive the Stoner Comedy in 'The Wrong Girls'
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- Dylan Meyer wrote and directed 'The Wrong Girls,' a Los Angeles-set stoner comedy that IndieWire had declared a dead genre earlier this spring, positioning the film as its antidote.
- Kristen Stewart plays Frankie, a Kwik Thingz delivery driver who dropped out of Stanford's engineering program, opposite Alia Shawkat as Molly, a would-be professional baker; the pair acquire a briefcase containing a glowing empathy-inducing substance derived from deep-sea creatures and try to sell it like recreational drugs.
- LaKeith Stanfield plays 'Not Metal Head Dave' whose mistake sets the caper in motion, with Tony Hale appearing as a rich yuppie customer, Kate McKinnon as beleaguerured genius Dr. Chapman, Zack Fox as Molly's boyfriend Josh, and Geena Davis in a small role; Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani voice the protagonists' cats.
- The film recasts the stoner genre for a post-legalization landscape, arguing that marijuana is mainstream in 2026 but being brazenly and unapologetically high still functions as a kind of social offense, with three European henhmen tailing the duo in a black SUV.
- A psychedelic sequence gives way to genuine telepathy between the leads, and the review notes the fantasy and sci-fi elements prove trickier for Meyer to navigate, with comic and contemplative asides gumming up the central caper.
- Stewart is described as 'having the absolute time of her life,' shedding her cool indie persona for insecure brattiness, while Shawkat channels 'a blissed-out Keebler Elf,' with the film positioning their shared weed ritual as a private romantic language rather than an inability to socialize sober.
Why it matters: For a genre IndieWire had pronounced practically dead this spring, 'The Wrong Girls' argues that the post-legalization stoner comedy can survive by relocating transgression from legal jeopardy to social visibility — still being 'incorrect' even when the substance is legal. The film hands that reset to two women, ending the long run in which stoner comedy's messiest joy has been reserved for men.
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