The Wrong Girls are oh so right, taking a walk on the feral wild side that hardly ever lets up in its pure bedlam. Chaos erupts all around them, while the comedic, dimwitted, but ultimately sweet chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat becomes a beautiful wreck all its own. Even when the story keeps flying off the rails, their friendship remains at the center of all that foggy, unconventional, and unpleasant chaos.
Yet, who the hell needs pleasant anyway? Not when you have a couple of bong-ripping degenerate misfits diving headfirst into a hell-bent spiral of comically dangerous, spectacularly bad decisions and utter mayhem. In a world where cookie-cutter conventionalism is all the rage, The Wrong Girls is a detour into the unhinged and a sprint into glorious stupidity.
What is The Wrong Girls About?
Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat in The Wrong Girls (2026) | Images via Neon
LaKeith Stanfield and Kate McKinnon in The Wrong Girls (2026) | Images via Neon
Thor Knai, Thomas La Barbera Christensen, and Thomas Nicholson in The Wrong Girls (2026) | Image via Neon
The story follows two stoner best friends, Frankie (superstar Kristen Stewart), a Stanford dropout under shady circumstances, and Molly (Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat), an aspiring chef, who repeat the same irresponsible patterns over and over, leaving themselves living paycheck to paycheck. This time, the Ambiguously Baked Duo are two weeks behind on rent.
Even after picking up gig work, like delivering food to a yuppy douchebag (Tony Hale), they’re still eating one meal a day at an all-you-can-eat breakfast spot. Yet, it just so happens that their landlord (Chris Estrada) is also their weed dealer, so it’s not like he doesn’t know where their money is going, right? However, Molly’s boyfriend (Zack Fox) wants her to move in with him.
That safety net doesn’t matter because Molly won’t leave her fellow boss b*tch behind. However, after a night in which Frankie sees her ex-boyfriend dating a woman who could practically be her twin, a hired operative (LaKeith Stanfield) mistakes her for a covert courier and hands over a briefcase containing a mysterious substance that gives them the trip of their lives.
The Wrong Girls Review
Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat in The Wrong Girls (2026) | Images via Neon
The new film comes from writer-director Dylan Meyer, making her feature debut behind the camera. The movie strikes a remarkably different tone from two of her previously produced scripts, XOXO and the Amy Poehler streaming comedy Moxie. The plot is irreverent, filled with “who gives a f*ck?” storytelling choices that keep the film moving at a brisk, amusing, and reckless pace.
The film has a deep supporting cast that cranks up the comedic insanity even louder. That includes a deep dive into absurdity, with actors like Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani bringing more layers of comic relief by voicing the girls’ cats and having hallucinating conversations with them. Then you have Kate McKinnon showing up as a mad scientist-adjacent weirdo that hits the right notes.
Now, admittedly, when you begin throwing in all the weed, talking animals, hitmen dressed like an over-the-hill boy band, telepathy, and a sparkly, pinkish, kaiju-sized giant squid, the experience can become so overwrought with oddness that you start to wonder whether Meyer’s writing process is an exercise in cinematic contrarianism. The type of movie that is dumb and dumber redux and metal as f*ck.
Is The Wrong Girls Worth Watching?
Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat in The Wrong Girls (2026) | Images via Neon
Yet, by the end, the real meaning of the film is clear: The Wrong Girls is about female friendship. Hollywood is always trying to force women into a box, so how refreshing is it to see female characters with imperfections and an unapologetic attitude about what anyone else thinks? Meyer doesn’t ask the audience to find Frankie and Molly respectable.
She asks us to afford these dumpster-fire women the same freedom to be imperfect. The same options that Hollywood has been giving male characters for decades.
You can watch The Wrong Girls exclusively in theaters starting August 14th!
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