Ever feel like you know what your best friend is thinking? The filmmaker Dylan Meyer makes that figure of speech literal in “The Wrong Girls,” a comedy about stoner pals who become telepathic.
Frankie (Kristen Stewart) and Molly (Alia Shawkat) are codependent roommates scraping by in Los Angeles. Frankie is a delivery driver; Molly builds spreadsheets. But their real métier is getting high, be it by joint, edible or a smoking contraption that serves as their apartment’s pièce de résistance.
Growing pains loom as Molly considers moving out of their bachelorette pad and in with her boyfriend, Josh (the ever-likable Zack Fox). But the story really goes sideways once the friends consume a laboratory-engineered hallucinogen that induces their psychic connection. Soon, they’re on the run from Danish goons who are determined to weaponize the drug for world conquest.
It’s only a little less puerile than it sounds, a silly, giddy diversion that’s often quite funny, especially when Kate McKinnon shows up as a mad scientist. As written and directed by Meyer (who is married to Stewart), the movie also looks like it was a total gas to make, and the hazy good time is contagious.
Could I have done without Frankie and Molly mind-melding with their pair of whiny cats (voiced by Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani)? Sure, but “The Wrong Girls” earns points for blithe creativity, even during its dopier bits.
The Wrong Girls Rated R for some seriously potent drugs. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters.