SBG 92: Do Revenge with Kristin Murison
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Revenge Mommy? Sorry. Revenge Mommy? Sorry. This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Lez Hang Out’s production assistant and actual mermaid, Kristin Murison (@therealksparkle), to talk about Netflix’s Do Revenge.
This movie is honestly incredibly queer the entire time. It opens to Hayley Kiyoko’s “For The Girls” at the most EXTRA High School party we’ve ever seen and the rest of the soundtrack is filled with nonstop bops from sapphic favorites like Phoebe Bridgers, Olivia Rodrigo, and MUNA. So, you might be wondering why we are doing a Should’ve Been Gay on a movie that clearly is gay, but if you watch Eleanor and Drea interact for all of two minutes you will understand.
Do Revenge stars Maya Hawke as Eleanor and Camila Mendes as Drea in a 2022 Gen Z version of Mean Girls that has all the makings of a cult classic movie. The entire premise of this film is that both Eleanor and Drea want revenge on the people who wronged them. Eleanor wants long-game revenge on the girl who ruined her life 5 years ago by spreading a harmful rumor about her that twisted things to make her look like a ‘predatory lesbian’. Drea’s whole premise for revenge is going after her ex-boyfriend, Max, and her old clique members, essentially the modern version of The Plastics, for destroying her social standing at school and ultimately causing her to lose her spot at Yale.
We love that Eleanor is unapologetically openly gay, and we love her girlfriend Gabbi’s immaculate ‘boyfriend’ vibes, but there is a stark difference between Eleanor interacting with Gabbi and Eleanor interacting with Drea. Sure, she likes Gabbi, but if Drea made a move, Eleanor would dump Gabbi in a heartbeat. These two have a wild amount of chemistry- their sexual tension is off the charts, and the dom/sub energy is on point. We know most viewers agree, because if you look up Do Revenge on Archive of Our Own, 99% of the fanfics are about Eleanor and Drea being together.
From the moment we meet Drea at the lavish party thrown by her best friend Tara (who is clearly in love with her), it is obvious that she is in the closet. She has zero interest in kissing Max, later on has zero interest in having sex with Russ (literally she is scrolling Instagram while he is going down on her- need we say more?), and is fully obsessed with Headmaster Sarah Michelle Gellar (for obvious reasons). From knowing terms like ‘crunchy granola lesbian’, wanting the hot milf Headmaster to back her over with her Tesla, and making little outfits for the greatest lizard of all time, Oscar Winner Olivia Coleman, Drea is constantly telling on herself. When making Eleanor over into ‘Frankenstein’s Bad Bitch’, Drea even says that all Eleanor needs to do to fit in with Max and her old friends is to disassociate from her body and not be herself. That sounds an awful lot like something a closeted person would do to survive in High School.
When the tables turn and Eleanor takes over the title of Ultimate Revenge Mommy, her relationship with Drea somehow gets even more sexually charged than before, even though you would think hitting someone with your car would be a dealbreaker. We still do not understand how Drea and Eleanor did not kiss even once the whole movie and we feel robbed. Drea refers to Eleanor as her ‘fucked up soulmate’ and yet it still somehow doesn’t click for them that they are in love.
We know one thing for sure, Do Revenge Should’ve Been Gayer.
Follow along on Twitter: Lez Hang Out (@lezhangoutpod) and answer our Q & Gay at the end of every episode. Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster) and Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). You can also join us on Facebook.com/lezhangoutpod and follow along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod).
