The Wrong Girls (2026) Review: Stewart’s Wild Double Act

Frankie (Kristen Stewart) and Molly (Alia Shawkat) are the definition of codependent deadbeats: they share a cramped apartment, a dying sedan, and a bong that gets more use than their kitchen stove. Living paycheck to paycheck - and bong rip to bong rip - they’re barely surviving when a case of mistaken identity upends their lives. After a mix-up at a seedy bar, a pair of quantum-hopping criminals (played with menace and mirth by LaKeith Stanfield and Zack Fox) mistake Frankie for her exact double, a high-stakes courier named Frances. Suddenly, our heroes are chased by a scatterbrained corporate fixer (Tony Hale), a patient but weary detective (Chris Estrada), and a pair of Nordic enforcers (Thomas La Barbera Christensen and Thor Knai) who look like they walked out of a death-metal album cover. The twist? Frances isn’t just a doppelgänger - she’s Frankie from an alternate timeline, and their collision threatens to unravel the space-time continuum, one toke at a time.

Director Dylan Meyer, working from a script that feels like it was written on a whiteboard during a long weekend, leans hard into the premise’s inherent silliness. The sci-fi element is deliberately low-fi: time glitches manifest as flickering neon, duplicated coffee cups, and the occasional freeze-frame that looks like a corrupted VHS tape. It’s a smart choice, keeping the budget-conscious production grounded in the grimy, lived-in world of its leads. The film’s best stretches are the quiet ones - Frankie and Molly bickering about rent, or sharing a joint on a fire escape while dissecting their latest screw-up. Stewart and Shawkat have a lived-in chemistry that makes their friendship feel real, not scripted. Stewart, pulling double duty as the slacker Frankie and the sharp, terrified Frances, is a marvel of physical acting; she alters her posture, her gait, her very essence, so that you never confuse the two.

The comedy lands more often than it misses. Hale, as the perpetually flustered Martin Flynn, delivers his usual brand of anxious energy, but he’s given room to play genuine desperation. Stanfield, billed as “Not Metal Head Dave,” is a scene-stealer with a deadpan delivery that cuts through the noise. Zack Fox, as his partner Josh, provides chaotic counterpoint. Yet the film’s middle third sags under the weight of its own convolutions. The time-travel rules are never clearly established - characters explain them, then immediately break them, and the audience is left to shrug and smoke along. A subplot involving a doomsday device feels bolted on, and the Nordic henchmen, while hilarious in small doses, wear out their welcome by the third chase scene.

There’s also a tonal imbalance that Meyer doesn’t fully smooth over. One moment we’re watching a wacky car chase through a strip mall; the next, a surprisingly mournful scene about the loneliness of parallel lives. The emotional beats work individually, but the connective tissue is thin. Credit must go to editor Kathryn J. Schubert, who keeps the runtime tight, but you sense a longer, richer cut exists somewhere. Still, the film’s heart is in the right place: it’s ultimately about choosing your own timeline, and whether you’d pick a better one if you could. That theme, buried under bong smoke and chase scenes, gives The Wrong Girls a resonance that lingers.

Pros

• Kristen Stewart’s dual-role showcase: a genuinely impressive acting achievement, both hilarious and tender.
• The chemistry between Stewart and Alia Shawkat feels authentic and lived-in.
• LaKeith Stanfield and Zack Fox provide hilarious, unpredictable comic relief.
• The low-fi sci-fi aesthetic is charming and avoids overblown effects.
• The film’s emotional core about friendship and self-acceptance lands despite the chaos.

Cons

• The time-travel logic is muddled and inconsistent, frustrating viewers who care about plot mechanics.
• The middle act drags with repetitive chase-and-hide sequences.
• Tonal whiplash between slapstick comedy and sincere drama doesn’t always settle.
• The Nordic henchmen subplot feels underdeveloped and overused.
• The ending wraps up too neatly for a story built on existential messiness.

The Wrong Girls is a likable mess - a film that reaches for the stars while tripping over its own shoelaces. It’s not the sharpest sci-fi comedy of its year, nor the most cohesive, but it’s impossible to dislike a movie this committed to its own bizarre vision. Stewart’s work alone is worth the ticket price, and the film’s shaggy-dog spirit makes it a fitting tribute to the friendship it champions. If you’re willing to roll with the inconsistencies and let the vibes wash over you, you’ll find a scrappy, surprisingly moving little movie that gets high on its own supply. Just don’t ask it to explain the rules. It wouldn’t know how. Final score: a generous, affectionate 6/10.