Say it ain’t so.
Actors Molly Gordon and Emma Mackey play characters who “peaked” in high school in a new movie filming in New Jersey.
Peaked, an A24 movie, filmed Monday at Woodbridge Center Mall.
Gordon, who plays Claire Dunlap in the Emmy-winning series The Bear, is directing the movie. She leads the cast with Mackey, an English and French actor who rose to fame as Maeve Wiley in the Netflix series Sex Education. Mackey starred in the 2025 movie Ella McCay from veteran New Jersey director James L. Brooks and appeared in the Greta Gerwig box office behemoth known as Barbie.
Gordon and Mackey filmed scenes for Peaked at a makeup counter in Boscov’s as locals got their early-morning walks in around the mall before stores opened. Joining the actors on set was Allie Levitan, a Saturday Night Live writer who co-wrote the movie with Gordon. Levitan will also appear in the film.
Gordon stars in and directs the movie. Photo: Bobby Bank
Mackey and Gordon, both 30, play Millie and Bobby, characters in their late 20s. Per a synopsis of the film, they’re staring down their 10-year high school reunion having apparently flamed out after senior year. They didn’t exactly treat their peers the best, and they haven’t been invited to the gathering. No matter—they crash the party and try to recapture the highs of their teen years.
The Peaked cast also includes Oscar winner Laura Dern, Gabby Windey, of The Bachelor fame, and Levon Hawke (Marty Supreme), son of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman and brother of Stranger Things star Maya Hawke.
Heated Rivalry breakout Connor Storrie, whose visibility exploded alongside co-star Hudson Williams when the Canadian series debuted on Crave and HBO Max in November, has also been included in Peaked cast reports. Supporting Storrie’s casting is the fact that Gordon, Mackey, Ashley and Levitan were all at SNL when he hosted the show Feb. 28.
Filming took place at a makeup counter at Boscov’s. Photo: Bobby Bank
This is Gordon’s second film as a director and her first solo directorial effort, having previously helmed the A24 mockumentary film Theater Camp (2023) with Nick Lieberman (she also starred in that film, as did Thiele). Gordon’s movie credits as an actor include Booksmart, Good Boys, Shiva Baby and Am I OK?.
Peaked is just the latest movie of many to film in New Jersey. The Oscar-nominated Marty Supreme, another A24 film starring Timothée Chalamet, is among the many titles that have filmed in the Garden State in recent years. Jersey TV and film production hit a high of $833 million in 2024.
In the next few years, more film activity is coming to the state with the planned opening of a series of studios. Lionsgate Newark is set to debut in 2027 at Great Point Studios in the city’s South Ward. There’s also a Netflix hub coming to the former Fort Monmouth, a major Paramount Skydance base headed to the forthcoming 1888 Studios in Bayonne, and the recently announced Filmology Labs studio in Paterson.
“Mom, thank you for driving me back and forth to New York when we didn’t have enough money to go through the Holland Tunnel,” he said.
The annual summer festival is returning with two weeks of music and arts performances in Newark, Asbury Park and Freehold.
