Freakier Friday
Like fellow films of millennial lore, Practical Magic and The Devil Wears Prada, Freaky Friday has been rebooted. Rising to the demand of Y2K nostalgia, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis reprise their respective roles as Anna and Tess Coleman in Nisha Ganatra’s Freakier Friday, released 22 years on.
Writer Jordan Weiss retains the mother-daughter dynamic of the original, which managed to be simultaneously wholesome and toxic, by giving them comically beneficial arcs. Now, Tess is a podcast host, offering relationship advice while struggling to navigate her software. Anna is a PR coordinator for pop star Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and has a daughter of her own, Harper (played by the wonderful Julia Butters, who I Think You Should Leave fans will recognise as the spokesperson for a certain controversial doll). She falls in love with charming Brit Eric (Manny Jacinto) and is soon to become stepmother to his snooty daughter, Lily (a delightful Sophia Hammons, who perfects a pompous English accent).
Ganatra’s film is a slow-burner, with much of the first act devoted to exposition, interspersed with a few mild laughs. But by the halfway point, it more than makes up for any prior shortcomings, and the magic of the original is reignited thanks to the impeccable comedic chemistry of Lohan and Curtis. This time around, the pair swap bodies with Harper and Lily, which makes way for intergenerational clapbacks.
In the bodies of their elders, the teenagers are stunned to discover the existence of Facebook, once the leading light of social media and now reduced to “a database of old people”. There’s also some biting commentary on the extreme distortion of beauty standards since the 2000s. Upon seeing herself in Tess’s body, Lily is aghast that she “has no lips”. Inevitably, Lily pursues lip-pumping measures, resulting in some uproarious physical comedy from Curtis. Meanwhile, Lohan shines in an unforgettably cringe-inducing sequence in which she is reunited with her ex, Jake (Chad Michael Murray). It’s a testament to the comedic pizzazz we’ve been missing since Lohan all but disappeared from the big screen (after being mercilessly hounded during her heyday).
Did we need a Freaky Friday sequel? Perhaps on the surface, no. But this nostalgia vehicle is chock-full of laugh-out-loud gags and fantastic performances. And with so much cynicism and doomerism in the world, it just might be what we need after all.
Antonia Georgiou
Freakier Friday is released nationwide on 8th August 2025.
Watch the trailer for Freakier Friday here:
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