Lindsay Lohan is back! But even she can't save this Millennial nostalgia trip
(PG) 111 minutes
The body swap concept never gets old, but pulling it off is harder than it looks. To begin with, you need a pair of uncommonly gifted comic performers, one preferably in their mid-teens.
At least two of the best examples are called Freaky Friday: the first in 1976 with Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster; the second in 2003 with Jamie-Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. Both were based on Mary Rodgers' young adult novel, published in 1970 when the generation gap between teenagers and their parents yawned wider than it has since.
Nisha Ganatra's 'legacy sequel' Freakier Friday doesn't live up to either of its predecessors. Still, it's a likeable movie, even if it strains a little to demonstrate its good nature – and it marks a welcome comeback for Lohan, who retains the knack for comic vulnerability she had as a young adult.
The set-up is complicated, with three generations of women now sharing the same home in sunny LA. Curtis' character Tess Coleman is largely retired as a psychiatrist, but has found new success as an author and the host of the podcast Rebelling With Respect.
Tess' daughter Anna, played by Lohan, was an aspiring rock-and-roller in high school, but in her 30s has settled for being the manager and confidante of Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a young pop star with emotional troubles of her own. She's also now the mother of teenage Harper (Julia Butters).
Tess can't resist interfering with Anna's parenting, while Harper's main interests are surfing and looking surly. Still, as a family unit they're reasonably stable, until Anna announces she and Harper will be moving to London to form a new blended family with Eric (Manny Jacinto) and Eric's snooty daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons), who's around Harper's age.
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Sydney Morning Herald
20 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Lindsay Lohan is back! But even she can't save this Millennial nostalgia trip
FREAKIER FRIDAY ★★½ (PG) 111 minutes The body swap concept never gets old, but pulling it off is harder than it looks. To begin with, you need a pair of uncommonly gifted comic performers, one preferably in their mid-teens. At least two of the best examples are called Freaky Friday: the first in 1976 with Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster; the second in 2003 with Jamie-Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. Both were based on Mary Rodgers' young adult novel, published in 1970 when the generation gap between teenagers and their parents yawned wider than it has since. Nisha Ganatra's 'legacy sequel' Freakier Friday doesn't live up to either of its predecessors. Still, it's a likeable movie, even if it strains a little to demonstrate its good nature – and it marks a welcome comeback for Lohan, who retains the knack for comic vulnerability she had as a young adult. The set-up is complicated, with three generations of women now sharing the same home in sunny LA. Curtis' character Tess Coleman is largely retired as a psychiatrist, but has found new success as an author and the host of the podcast Rebelling With Respect. Tess' daughter Anna, played by Lohan, was an aspiring rock-and-roller in high school, but in her 30s has settled for being the manager and confidante of Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a young pop star with emotional troubles of her own. She's also now the mother of teenage Harper (Julia Butters). Tess can't resist interfering with Anna's parenting, while Harper's main interests are surfing and looking surly. Still, as a family unit they're reasonably stable, until Anna announces she and Harper will be moving to London to form a new blended family with Eric (Manny Jacinto) and Eric's snooty daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons), who's around Harper's age.
The Age
20 hours ago
- The Age
Lindsay Lohan is back! But even she can't save this Millennial nostalgia trip
FREAKIER FRIDAY ★★½ (PG) 111 minutes The body swap concept never gets old, but pulling it off is harder than it looks. To begin with, you need a pair of uncommonly gifted comic performers, one preferably in their mid-teens. At least two of the best examples are called Freaky Friday: the first in 1976 with Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster; the second in 2003 with Jamie-Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. Both were based on Mary Rodgers' young adult novel, published in 1970 when the generation gap between teenagers and their parents yawned wider than it has since. Nisha Ganatra's 'legacy sequel' Freakier Friday doesn't live up to either of its predecessors. Still, it's a likeable movie, even if it strains a little to demonstrate its good nature – and it marks a welcome comeback for Lohan, who retains the knack for comic vulnerability she had as a young adult. The set-up is complicated, with three generations of women now sharing the same home in sunny LA. Curtis' character Tess Coleman is largely retired as a psychiatrist, but has found new success as an author and the host of the podcast Rebelling With Respect. Tess' daughter Anna, played by Lohan, was an aspiring rock-and-roller in high school, but in her 30s has settled for being the manager and confidante of Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a young pop star with emotional troubles of her own. She's also now the mother of teenage Harper (Julia Butters). Tess can't resist interfering with Anna's parenting, while Harper's main interests are surfing and looking surly. Still, as a family unit they're reasonably stable, until Anna announces she and Harper will be moving to London to form a new blended family with Eric (Manny Jacinto) and Eric's snooty daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons), who's around Harper's age.
ABC News
20 hours ago
- ABC News
Sydney rolls out the purple carpet for Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan at Freakier Friday premiere
Sydney has welcomed Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan to town on a global promotional tour of Freakier Friday, the sequel to their 2003 Disney hit Freaky Friday. The two hit the purple carpet at the premiere at Bondi Junction on Tuesday, continuing the promo round on Wednesday. "Australia is a beautiful place," Lohan told a cinema full of people with Curtis by her side. "It's the first time my son's here, and I'm just so glad to be back here. "It's my second time back here with Jamie now." Lohan has a two-year-old son, Luai, with husband Bader Shammas. Curtis said local support in Australia was considered crucial to the box office success of a Hollywood movie. It has been 22 years since mother and daughter duo Anna Coleman (Lindsay Lohan) and Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) switched bodies for an eventful Friday. In the sequel, Tess is a successful psychologist embarking on a book tour. Anna is a single mother to 15-year-old Harper (Julia Butters) when she meets and falls in love with Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto), who is a single father to 15-year-old Lily (Sophia Hammons). Freakier Friday brings a new body-swapping journey, but this time Tess swaps places with Lily, and Anna swaps with Harper. As with Freaky Friday, there are a myriad of challenges when two families merge. "Blended families come from … in this case, loss, sometimes conflict, and trying to build a blended family can start with some conflict," Curtis told ABC News on the purple carpet. "Conflict is sort of at the core of every family, blended or not. "And in Freaky Friday and in Freakier Friday, you deal with loss, conflict, and resolution. "And it's sort of at the core of Disney movies if you think about it — a lot of loss, and then a lot of growth and a lot of self-knowledge and understanding and compassion. "And if there's ever a time in the world we need to say, 'walk a mile in my shoes, I'll walk a mile in your shoes and maybe you'll understand me better, maybe I'll understand you better and we can find community,' if ever we needed that, it's today." Curtis said the roles have shifted in the sequel, with Tess a grandmother and Anna a single mum. "She chose to be a single mum, and the grandma chose to support her," Curtis said. "Very important to me that we highlighted that aspect of the story." Harper and Lily are at odds with each other when their parents decide to marry. "There's conflict because there's a clash of culture and a clash of just loss, again, this idea of being forced to do something that somebody doesn't want to do, when in fact the best thing for everybody is to stay together," Curtis said. Also on the purple carpet were Jessicca Bennett and Belinda-Lee Reid from Perth rock band Lash, who are the original performers of Take Me Away, which was covered by the fictional band Pink Slip in Freaky Friday, with the song also appearing in the sequel. Bennett and Reid are named in the Freakier Friday credits as songwriters of Take Me Away, as are bandmates Jaclyn Pearson and Micaela Slayford, with Andrew Klippel and Barry Palmer. Bennett and Reid were grateful and blown away that Take Me Away made it into both movies. Lash was originally formed in 1996 after a meeting at a Catholic girls' high school. Take Me Away was their debut single. It was nominated for an ARIA, and now, more than two decades after gaining international attention through its placement in Freaky Friday in 2003, the song is experiencing a powerful resurgence on TikTok. Reid said she believes the song resonates because "teenagers will be teenagers," and the anger, angst, and hormones that come along with that strike a chord. Now a real estate agent, she hinted at more music to come. "We were a band since we were … 13 years old, really, playing in pubs, having our parents there in the pubs and things like that and we progressed, it seemed like we were 50 by the time we retired and hung up our guitars as Lash, but our legacy now can live on as Lash," Reid said. Curtis is a producer on Freakier Friday, while Lohan is an executive producer on a film she referred to as a labour of love. It follows the holiday-themed movies Irish Wish, Falling for Christmas, and Our Little Secret for Netflix, which came after a hiatus. "I hadn't been on screen in a long time," Lohan told ABC News Breakfast. "I saw it as a time to sort of re-introduce myself to my fanbase in a very subtle, welcoming, easy way. "And also for me it was getting into the producing side of things, and [Netflix] allowed me to do that, which I really appreciate because for the first time in my career I was able to be in from the ground up and have more control and be looked at in a different way as an adult and that really meant something to me." Lohan, 39, began her acting career aged 10, with her breakthrough role coming in Disney's The Parent Trap in 1998. The cult classic Mean Girls came a year after the success of Freaky Friday. Her life in the public eye has by no means been an easy road. Curtis is an Emmy and Oscar-winning actress and the daughter of Hollywood royalty and late actors Tony Curtis, whose career spanned six decades, and Janet Leigh, who is best known for her iconic role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho — and that shower scene. "I've been patient," Curtis told News Breakfast. "I've been an actress since I was 19; I'm 67. "I've been waiting. I've been waiting for a long time. And it's timing, it's opportunities. It's the confluence of a lot of things, and patience. "And I'm just really enjoying it and now trying to cultivate more and more … I can't imagine being a super older person doing this … but I'm very happy to be feeling as creative and fulfilled as I am." Freakier Friday opens in cinemas on Thursday
