'The Wrong Girls' Review: Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat Light Up a Charming Female-Led Stoner Comedy
The Wrong Girls, about two Cali‑based bestie stoners and their outrageous quest for rent money, continues the high‑vatar cycle Augustine Frizzell left in 2018’s Never Goin’ Back. Frizzell’s underrated A24 gem was the first and last true female‑led stoner buddy flick to hit screens. Hell, very few female stoner protagonists exist in film; Anna Faris’s Jane F. from Gregg Araki's Smiley Face was the only woman at the dispensary before Camila Morrone and Maia Mitchell entered the room. Unless you want to count Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin when they shared a joint in 9 to 5.
With screenwriter Dylan Meyer (XOXO, Moxie) in her directorial debut, The Wrong Girls is a love letter to the ‘90s screwball stoner comedy that never existed for a female audience. Inspired by her friendship with producer and longtime collaborator Maggie McLean, the film functions as a bridge between Beavis and Butt‑Head Do America’s idiocy against an absurdist plot and Romy and Michele’s synchronicity and familial love. It’s made for the millennial potheads who wished they had the same representation that wake‑and‑bake boys got with Jay and Silent Bob and Cheech & Chong.
Image copyright (©) Courtesy of NEON
MPA Rating: R (for drug use and language throughout, some sexual references and graphic nudity)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 39 Minutes (99 minutes)
Language: English
Production Companies: Nevermind Pictures, Point Grey Pictures, Savage Rose Films, Curious Gremlin, Neon
Distributor: Neon
Director: Dylan Meyer
Screenwriter: Dylan Meyer
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Alia Shawkat, LaKeith Stanfield, Tony Hale, Zack Fox, Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Kate McKinnon, Geena Davis
U.S Release Date: August 14, 2026
Frankie (Kristen Stewart) and Molly (Alia Shawkat) are aimless, Celine Dion‑loving, cat-owning stoners who spend their days ripping hits off their Rube Goldberg‑machine bongs and communicating via coughs. Frankie is in the throes of a millennial crisis, reeling from a fresh breakup and regretting dropping out of Stanford engineering, now working as a courier. Molly doesn’t share that grievance with her failed chef dreams, but she also procrastinates on even the most minuscule task. That procrastination lands them two weeks late on rent, with 24 hours left to pay their chatty landlord, Jose (Chris Estrada).
Frankie goes to confront her ex at a show for dating a doppleganger with glasses (Stewart), but after being mistaken for someone else, she drunkenly meets an elusive agent (LaKeith Stanfield), who hands her a top‑secret briefcase. The next day, she and Molly discover it contains a mysterious neon‑pink fluid they assume is a drug. They take and then try to sell it to make rent, but unknowingly land in the middle of a plot involving white‑suited Dutch henchmen (Thomas La Barbera Christensen, Thor Knai, Thomas Nicholson), a disapproving Danish scientist (Kate McKinnon), and obtaining telepathic abilities that allow them to hear their cats Dio (Seth Rogen) and GG (Kumail Nanjiani).
The Wrong Girls has the right kind of stupid humor.
Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat in 'The Wrong Girls'. | NEON
The Wrong Girls carries the same laid‑back, slow‑burn energy as its male‑dominated counterparts, down to the opening credits’ “acid trip” font. But rather than a hangout film, it opts for Hitchcockian subversion, mining humor from its duo’s complete disinterest in the imminent danger forming around them. Thankfully, it strays from meta humor and plays its own looniness as straightforwardly as possible. As far as millennial stoners go, Frankie and Molly differ from Abbi and Ilana from Broad City, but they lean more towards a gender‑reversed Beavis and Butt‑Head, with their pursuits of sex replaced by the need for a joint or a grinder to make a joint 24/7. Meyer sometimes tries to mine substance from their characters, treating their aimless fuck-ups with a serious demeanor, but it’s not as compelling as it attempts to be, especially since the film thrives on not taking itself seriously.
Meyers’ script is at its funniest when at peak absurdity and casually mundane, rooted in the characters’ shared idiocy. The grounded bits, like the girls hijacking their assailants’ car but wasting time finding the perfect song while being shot at, or using their telepathy to talk about how boring a conversation is, always landed real chuckles. The best gag is Frankie’s sheer baseless hatred of Molly’s supportive, kind-hearted boyfriend Josh (Zack Fox). When Meyer gets over‑the‑top with visual gags, it grazes the excellence of Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.
Peak stoner instincts is bogged down by middling execution.
LaKeith Stanfield and Kate McKinnon in 'The Wrong Girls'. | NEON
On paper, it sounds like I’m in the clouds for The Wrong Girls, but it’s mostly mediocre. Conceptually, its ideas are funny, but they often fail in execution due to weak dialogue, flat jokes, a rough first act, and lethargic pacing across its 99‑minute runtime that doesn’t know when to end a bit. It’s best seen while high in a hot-boxed room, as long as you pregame beforehand, as that’s the peak experience. Part of the charm is the leads’ lack of energy, but Wrong Girls would’ve benefitted from a speedier pace to bolster its absurdist traits. When Meyer focuses on silly gags rooted in the ensemble’s quirky personas, the film finds its footing. This movie boasts the energy of one of its production companies, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey Pictures, and uses Pineapple Express in the marketing. But I’ll be damned, Wrong Girls features a weird age-gap bit in the big 2026. Frankie, as single as she is, begins to hit on a young pothead gamer (Taj Cross) at his rich dad’s (Tony Hale) party. It’s already weird, but then it leaves an even worse sour taste as the film’s bookend. Perhaps there’s an inside joke between Meyer and Stewart as married partners that the audience is just unaware of, but it doesn’t negate how creepy and dated it is.
Meyer’s spirit and intentions are admirable, but the film falters with first‑time filmmaker habits, such as overemphasizing uninteresting reverse shots in character interactions, which takes a toll on the pacing. It’s not just Meyer’s direction; I feel it’s become a larger epidemic. We need to have a conversation about center framing and constant reverse shot emphasis in indies that make them look like Netflix streaming movies, where you can’t tell if two characters are even in the same frame. It’s disappointing because when Meyer elicits psychedelic sequences and the vibrant, sun‑soaked flair that DP Todd Banhazl (Hustlers) brings to the film’s heightened Californian world, it feels like an alt‑universe ‘90s stoner classic you’d pick up from a Blockbuster.
Alia Shawkat and Kristen Stewart light up The Wrong Girls. Both are great comedic performers, and their pairing as dual dumbasses is consistently fun, even when the dialogue works against them. They share such a delightful, lackadaisical dynamic that allows Frankie and Molly to stand their ground as characters and feel more true‑to‑life than your typical stoner protagonists. They’re consistently grounded and embody the soulful tenderness that close besties share. They are platonic and straight (I know, I'm just as shocked as you are), but that doesn't take away from their all-encompassing celebration of love for one another.
Last Statement
Though The Wrong Girls doesn’t reach its highest potential, this weed‑fueled celebration of female friendship is sparked by a playful spirit and elevated by Alia Shawkat and Kristen Stewart’s buoyant chemistry. It’s a 3-star movie, but by stoner standards, it’s a certified classic. Here’s to hoping more female-led stoner movies hit da movies.
