‘The Wrong Girls’ Revives Stoner Comedy With Stewart, Shawkat
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- Dylan Meyer directs 'The Wrong Girls,' a stoner comedy that reframes marijuana use as a tactile, introspective lifestyle rather than a source of legal peril, anchoring the film in contemporary LA culture.
- Kristen Stewart plays Frankie, a former Stanford engineering dropout turned delivery worker, embracing a bratty, insecure persona that contrasts with her usual cool indie image.
- Alia Shawkat portrays Molly, Frankie’s warm and whimsical best friend whose baking experiments and homemaker energy balance the duo’s chaotic dynamic and deepen their emotional bond.
- LaKeith Stanfield appears as Not Metal Head Dave, a mysterious man whose error leads Frankie to acquire a briefcase containing a glowing empathy-inducing substance derived from deep-sea creatures.
- The film’s plot centers on Frankie and Molly testing and attempting to sell the experimental drug, which triggers telepathic connection between them and draws pursuit from corporate agents known as Kock.
- Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani voice the girls’ cats, Dio and GG, adding snarky commentary and reinforcing the homebody mystique central to the film’s laid-back, DIY aesthetic.
Why it matters: The movie shifts the stoner genre from male-dominated slapstick to a female-led exploration of intimacy and disengagement, using supernatural elements to validate countercultural coping in a high-pressure world — resonating with audiences for whom being visibly high remains socially transgressive despite legalization.
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