ADVERTISEMENT When Freaky Friday came out in 2003, teenage dreams felt simple: a belly button ring, electric guitar, and pop-punk band destined for stardom.
In Mark Waters’ update of the 1976 Jodie Foster–Barbara Harris classic, Anna (Lindsay Lohan) is a rebellious teen who swaps places with her uptight therapist mum, Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis), after eating a magic fortune cookie. Comedic mayhem follows – but what fans still hold dearest are the details: Anna’s embroidered guitar shirt, Tess’s quotes (“make good choices!”) and Pink Slip’s riot grrrl-inspired songs.
Its sequel, Freakier Friday, knows this – and leans heavily into the sparkly, scrappy, and superficially aspirational aesthetics of a Y2K Disney Channel era.
Set twenty two years later, Tess is attempting to start a podcast ahead of publishing her book, “Rebelling with Respect”. Anna is a music manager and single mum to surf-loving teen Harper (Julia Butters), who’s constantly clashing with her soon-to-be British step-sibling Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan). With family tensions high, a hyperactive Etsy psychic (Vanessa Bayer) intervenes – and sets in motion a quadruple body swap.
Yes, it’s as chaotic (and initially headache-inducing) as it sounds! While Harper and Ella (as Anna and Tess) decide to sabotage their parent’s wedding plans, Anna and Tess (as Harper and Ella) search for a solution – but not before embarking on a junk food binge:“I haven’t digested like this in decades!”
While convoluted and deliberately heavy on fan service, Freakier Friday is ultimately a joyful nostalgia trip, like playing dress-up with a bunch of old friends. There are scrapbook-style graphics, outfit-change montages, oversized safety pin accessories – and even a blooper reel. The return of characters like Anna’s old crush, Jake (Chad Michael Murray), gives it the comforting feel of a sitcom – everyone is older, but basically the same.
Lohan and Curtis carry the comedic parts, the latter a delight to watch posing for author photos with lip plumper on – or grabbing adult diapers and enemas with perfectly affected teenage disgust. But it’s the performance by Anna’s band, Pink Slip, that will have millennials more rapturous than a retired raver at an Oasis reunion.
In the finale, Lohan reunites with bandmates Christina Vidal and Haley Hudson to belt out their classic hit ‘Take Me Away’ before a packed stadium crowd. And suddenly, we’re thirteen again – yearning for pop stardom, and a time when we loved things not because they were good, but because they felt like ours.
So, in honour of Freakier Friday‘s release, here’s a list of some of our other favourite fictional bands that have stood the test of time. Whether headlining stars or supporting acts, ’90s boybands or hapless heavy metal rockers, their music continues to live – in the indelible lyrics of Pink Slip – “on and on and on and on.”
Sex Bob-Omb – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
The scrappy Toronto-based punk trio who want to “make you think about death and get sad and stuff,” Sex Bob-Omb are fronted by Stephen Stills (Mark Webber), Kim Pine (Alison Pill), and bassist-slacker Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), with Young Neil (Johnny Simmons) as their eager understudy.
In Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic series, musician Beck composed the band’s grungy, irreverent anthems, from ‘We Are Sex Bob-Omb’ to ‘Garbage Truck’. It’s a sound that drives the film’s frenetic energy and fight choreography – rivalled only by The Clash at Demonhead and their killer cover of Metric’s ‘Black Sheep’.
PoP! – Music and Lyrics (2007)
A relic of the 1980s pop explosion, PoP! were once floppy-haired chart-topping heartthrobs. But in Music and Lyrics, former frontman Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is now living off the dregs of nostalgia, performing the occasional reunion gig while struggling to get a solo career off the ground.
While the movie itself is quite forgettable, PoP!’s 1984 hit ‘PoP! Goes My Heart’ is certainly not – even 18 years later, we’re still humming it. A perfect parody of schmaltzy synth-pop, it’s both irresistibly catchy and hilariously grating, complete with a music video full of white suits, melodrama, and tightly choreographed hand gestures. Hugh Grant even admitted in a 2016 Reddit AMA that he still performs the moves for his kids.
Spinal Tap – This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
They’re the loudest band in rock history, and probably the funniest. Spinal Tap are the stars of Rob Reiner’s cult mockumentary about a British heavy metal band attempting a comeback tour. Frontman David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) began life as a sketch for a 1979 comedy show, with their debut single ‘Rock and Roll Nightmare’ featuring folk legend Loudon Wainwright III on the keyboards.
They’re also due to crank things up to 11 once again, with Spinal Tap II: The End Continues due out in September. Bring earplugs.
Stillwater – Almost Famous (2000)
In Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical tribute to music fandoms, Stillwater are the up-and-coming Southern rock band that teenage writer William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is sent to profile for Rolling Stone. Channeling the swagger and soul of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Eagles, their sweaty anthems exude the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll energy of the early ‘70s. The tracks were written by Crowe and his then-wife Nancy Wilson of Heart, with Peter Frampton and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready also contributing.
4*TOWN – Turning Red (2022)
Pixar’s Turning Red introduced us to puberty as a big red panda – but also 4*TOWN, the boyband obsession of teen protagonist Mei Lee (Rosalie Chiang). Despite the name, the group actually has five members. This is due to four being considered an unlucky number in Chinese culture, according to the film’s director Dommee Shi.
Styled in the fashion of ‘90s to early ‘00s pop groups like the Backstreet Boys, their tracks were written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell – and perfectly capture the squeaky clean studio sound of teenage millennial nostalgia.
Josie and the Pussycats – Josie and the Pussycats (2001)
Adapted from the Archie Comics and Hanna-Barbera cartoon, this 2000’s staple follows bandmates Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook), Melody (Tara Reid) and Val (Rosario Dawson) as they become pawns in a corporate mind-control plot. From the antsy pop of ‘3 Small Words’ to the melodic melancholy of ‘You Don’t See Me’, their songs were written to reflect the studio-controlled, manufactured feel of music at the time.
“We were coming out of an era with Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth, bands that really encouraged dissent and individuality. It was like the music industry suddenly decided we need to course-correct,” co-director Deborah Kaplan told BuzzFeed in 2017. “It was kind of a reaction to that.”
Sing Street – Sing Street (2016)
Thick eyeliner, ruffled shirts and teenage yearning – Sing Street are the Irish 80s amateur band at the heart of John Carney’s award-winning musical rom-com. Formed by struggling teen Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) with a group of his schoolmates, fame and fortune were never the goal – just impressing his crush, Raphina (Lucy Boynton).
Almost every track is addictively good, from the high-energy, Hall & Oates-inspired ‘Drive It Like You Stole It’, to the mellowing ballad ‘To Find You’. It’s the sound of nostalgia that feels both old and new, charged with the naivety and buoyant energy of youthful escapism.
School of Rock – School of Rock (2003)
They’ve got guitars in their hands and rock in their hearts! School of Rock is the student band founded by Dewey Finn (Jack Black), a failed musician posing as a substitute teacher in Richard Linklater’s beloved comedy. While they ultimately lose at the Battle of the Bands competition, their final song, ‘Rock Got No Reason’, remains an absolute banger. It has epic guitar solos, groovy backing harmonies, and some feverishly funky keyboard playing. And to their encore of AC/DC’s ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top’? We salute.
Freakier Friday is out in cinemas now.
