The early reviews for Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut The Deb are out, and since premiering at TIFF this weekend the film has already earned an 80% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The musical movie focuses on two teenage girls, private school student Maeve and her cousin Taylah, attending a debutante ball in a small country town. It’s based on the stage musical of the same name by Hannah Reilly, with songs by Megan Washington.
There’s no trailer yet for The Deb, but actors Natalie Abbott and Charlotte Macinnes debuted a musical number from the film at the 2024 AACTA Awards, announced by Rebel Wilson, which you can watch below.
Choreographer Michaeljon Slinger also recently revealed the opening number of the film, titled ‘FML’, and posted a clip of it to Instagram.
The Deb: what the critics say
Pete Hammond from Deadline raved about The Deb, calling it ‘a toe-tapping, dazzling, fun and young musical entertainment with an exceptional cast in the kind of showcase that makes future stars’.
Marya E. Gates of RogerEbert.com wrote: ‘Reilly’s script takes playful jabs at every form of cancel culture, performative allyship, and a certain form of modern feminism that often seems more rooted in a need for attention than in doing any tangible good in the world.’
Ferdosa Abdi of Screen Rant wrote: ‘Rebel Wilson leans into her comic roots with The Deb, a cheeky, outrageous musical comedy that leaves a strong impression.’
Variety‘s Peter Debruge enjoyed it too, adding that, to US audiences, The Deb ‘might feel engineered to be Wilson’s splashy coming-out party: a chance for the multi-threat to present her gifts, both comedic and creative, in a whole new light. Australians, on the other hand, should already be familiar with this side of Wilson’.
The Deb: some doubts
Lovia Gyarke of The Hollywood Reporter called it ‘overstuffed’ and wrote: ‘It’s a campy movie musical whose cultural self-awareness when it comes to teenage life might draw comparisons to this year’s Mean Girls musical adaptation but whose narrative owes much to Muriel’s Wedding.’
Collider‘s Jason Gorber gave it a 6/10 and wrote: ‘The plot is wrapped in a comforting if predictable tale of rebellious youth and the vagaries of popularity, with several wild swings that bring the characters closer and farther apart as things go inevitably awry.’
IndieWire‘s Matthew Creith graded it with a C+, writing: ‘Rebel Wilson’s insistence on casting herself in almost every scene makes it challenging to respect the plights of her two leads, displacing the attention to her offbeat brand of humour rather than where the story is meant to be focused. Gen Z’s modern issues of isolation, difficulty fitting in, and disengagement are practically mocked through the use of song.’
Chase Hutchinson of The Wrap wrote of The Deb: ‘It’s no Pitch Perfect‘ … ‘At best, the film is only occasionally fine. There are brief flashes of what could be a fun musical, but it never strings together enough of them to truly soar.’
The Deb has no Australian premiere date as of yet, so local audiences will have to wait to form an opinion on the film.
Also on ScreenHub: The Substance, Demi Moore, review: hagsploitation gets a facelift:
‘French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance has brought the ghastly hag into the 21st century with a unique and gory revival starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. The Substance has been dubbed with genre labels like ‘feminist’ and ‘body horror’. While these classifications are true enough, it also certainly nails the brief for ‘hagsploitation’ films like Baby Jane.
Though Sunset Boulevard (1950) served as a powerful predecessor, Baby Jane birthed a short-lived genre known as ‘hagsploitation’ (also referred to as ‘psycho-biddy’ and ‘grand dame guignol’), which had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, the genre has mostly laid dormant though the demand on women – especially in entertainment – to defy the ageing process has skyrocketed. Films such as Neil Jordan’s Greta (2018) and Ti West’s X trilogy (2022–2024) have certainly paid homage to this dusty corner of filmography, but never quite went all the way.’ Read more
Also on ScreenHub: The Penguin, Binge review: a captivating character study:
‘Never provoke the flight or fight response of the flightless bird … is what the tagline for The Penguin should’ve been (HBO, call me!).
‘Colin Farrell is back in the prosthetics for The Penguin, a punchy, noir crime series based on Matt Reeve’s 2022 film The Batman. Taking place a week after the Riddler and Batman went head-to-head, and destroyed much of Gotham’s lower-class district in the process, the story follows one Oz ‘The Penguin’ Cobb (Farrell, deep in character), Iceberg Club owner and gangster, whose desperation to climb the crime ladder will see him make a few interesting friends … and many more enemies.
‘While loyally recreating the aesthetics of Reeve’s film (that orange colour wash is still omnipresent, as is the droning orchestral soundtrack), showrunner Lauren LeFranc has more in mind for Gotham, especially when it comes to exploring its rogues gallery, and the regular citizens most affected by their villainous actions.’ Read more
