JLC Watch: Freakier Friday (2025)

Watched:  08/27/2025

Format:  Alamo

Viewing:  First

Director:  Nisha Ganatra

We all know I went to see this because it stars JLC, and that's fine.  I'd also finally recently watched the 2003 version of Freaky Friday for the first time, liked it much more than expected, and - now that I have the Alamo Pass, popping off to go watch a movie is not such an ordeal.  In fact, I feel pretty incentivized to use the heck out of the pass.

I am not sure if I hadn't seen the 2003 movie, though, if I wouldn't have missed a lot or even been lost.  So, watch that first.  

Here in 2025, I think we finally kind of figured out how to do these late-entry sequels no one was asking for and make it worth it.  As evidence, I'll enter in Freakier Friday (2025) which manages to expand on the set-up of the general Freaky Friday concept, do new things with it, be very funny, and feel like it has some emotional resonance at the end that I'm not sure any of the prior entries, or most body swap movies in general, tend to earn.  

The movie is what you think.  Lohan and JLC swap bodies with Lohan's daughter and Lohan's soon-to-be step-daughter.  Hi-jinks ensure.  Familiar faces from the 2003 film appear in the form of Lohan's band, Chad Michael Murray, Tobolowsky as the tough-nut teacher, and the owners of the Chinese Restaurant.  And, of course, Mark Harmon, who has had the same haircut since Summer School, I think.  

We also get Manny Jacinto as Lohan's love interest, Julia Butters as Lohan's daughter, Sophia Hammons as the step-daughter, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as a pop star in crisis, Vanessa Bayer as...  what if Vanessa Bayer was a psychic?... and plenty of others.  

In general, yeah, I dug it.  It felt genuinely really funny instead of resorting to cringe.  There's some odd-ball funny stuff like how the food fight is shot, and referencing another famous film during the detention scene.  

If I may gush for a moment - this same year I've also watched The Bear, and while I know folks find that show *too much*, Jamie Lee Curtis earned her Emmy for prior seasons and she's up again, and she absolutely should be.  Her performance as Donna Berzatto is astonishing - and she's felt everywhere, all the time, and she's only in a handful of episodes.  But then she turns around and is a stunning physical comedian in this movie.  Like, I know she already has a well-deserved Oscar for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once - but holy shit, is she good.  Keep giving her flowers.

That's not to say JLC is alone here, everyone is good.  Well done, Lohan - you cracked me up.  

Anyway - in an era where I could have punted to streaming to see this in a few months, it was nice to drop in to the theater and have a good time with a movie made not-for-me, but that I was pleased to watch.