In a year that has already been chock full of underwhelming sequels, reboots, and spin-offs, something like the witty, nostalgic, and refreshing Freakier Friday hits a feel good sweet spot. A film that actually delivers on and exceeds expectations, Freakier Friday is one of the finest “legacy sequel” ever constructed; a movie that introduces new characters into a familiar situation while still staying true to the spirit of the source material and pushing things in a new direction. It’s also better than both the 2003 re-make and the 1976 original. It’s a party movie aimed at teens that will be funny, easygoing for viewers of all ages.
Decades after a mystical curse caused them to switch bodies, forcing them to see the world through the other person’s perspective, therapist Dr. Tess Colman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her musician daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan), once again find themselves at odds. Anna, now a record label executive who has left her former band in the past, is a single mother struggling to keep up with her own rebellious daughter, Harper (Julia Butters). Tess, now a budding lifestyle podcaster and bestselling author, tries to help Anna with Harper by being a doting, supportive grandmother, but instead ends up alienating and undermining her daughter’s parenting skills by being overbearing.
The relationship between Anna and Harper grows more contentious when mom falls in love with superstar chef and English ex-pat Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto), who also happens to be a single parent to Lily (Sophia Hammons), a posh, proper, wannabe fashion designer. After six months of engagement, Eric and Anna are ready to marry. But Lily and Anna happen to be mortal enemies with vastly different personalities, priorities, and interests, so convincing them to be loving step-sisters proves impossible. That is, until all four of them have an encounter with a scatterbrained and sketchy psychic (Vanessa Bayer) who once again prompts a body switch. This time, the mother and daughter that switch bodies are Anna and Harper, while image conscious Lily swaps with aged Tess. While the “grown-ups” know how to reverse the curse, the “daughters” try to drag things out, using their new adult personas as a chance to sabotage Anna and Eric’s wedding.
Director Nisha Ganatra (Late Night, The High Note) and screenwriter Jordan Weiss (who penned the underrated teen comedy Sweethearts) ensure that Freakier Friday gets off to a quick and snappy start. Ganatra and Weiss establish new characters, remind the viewer of what happened in the previous film, and build up new plot wrinkles on the fly and without slowing down. Viewers needn’t have seen the original film or the remake (or even the 1995 made-for-TV version) to understand what’s going on. Ganatra and Weiss keep the characters grounded in a certain degree of relatability and credibility amid all the comedic chaos, crossed wires, and chronic misunderstandings to follow. If you’re going into Freakier Friday cold, it’s still a lot of fun. If you’re already familiar with the territory and characters, you’re in for something special; a film that improves upon an established concept and includes a bunch of callbacks that are carefully integrated into the story rather than tossed off for cheap laughs and emotional reactions.
Curtis and Lohan recapture the exceptional chemistry they had before as these characters, but this time with something new to do instead of running back the exact same story. Curtis is clearly having a ball playing both an overbearing grandma and a try-hard teenager keen on impressing everyone around her, while Lohan hasn’t been this great on screen since Mean Girls (the original, not her cameo in the musical reboot). For Lohan, it’s a perfect comeback, coming from seemingly out of nowhere to firmly remind viewers what made her such a likeable and promising talent in her early career.
As their younger counterparts, Butters and Hammons have great antagonistic chemistry as the teens, and moments of profound tenderness as adults trapped in the bodies of kids. When the performers are tasked with being funny, all four are perfectly capable of creating magic, but when called upon to take things in a more serious direction, they are able to make Freakier Friday into something genuinely moving and touching. Another new addition, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, gets some hilarious moments as Anna’s star client – a rising pop star going through a terrible break-up – and returning cast member Chad Michael Murray steals some key scenes as Anna’s ex, a record store manager who still has an undying crush on Tess.
Ganatra turns Freakier Friday into a film that’s part progression and part throwback. The vibes and gags throughout Freakier Friday call to mind the sort of teen movies that were prevalent in the late 90s and early 2000s; films that straddled the line between realism, soap opera, and outright ridiculousness, something best typified by a wild school bake sale turning into a food fight that’s chock full of sight gags, or a game of pickleball where Lily-as-Tess has to try to bluff her way through a sport she knows nothing about. The set pieces are big and bold, while the more down to earth moments where people talk about their feelings are melodramatic without straining credibility. The jokes are plentiful and often laugh out loud funny, and the characters are fleshed out enough to make the viewer care about the strange predicaments they find themselves in. It’s assuredly a feel good movie that’s meant as pure entertainment and little more, but Freakier Friday should give viewers exactly what they’re looking for.
Freakier Friday opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, August 8, 2025.
