This is a musical remake of a 20 year old film. A film which has cemented itself into lexicon and pop culture and made stars of its cast, and probably one of the few 2000s films to earn its title of "classic". The original (it's so weird to say that) was about hierarchies, the corrupting nature of popularity and power, and the need for women to stop being so just damned mean to each other.
So, what does this remake add to the table?
Honestly, nothing.
I was cautious regarding this, and was essentially sent as a surrogate viewer because my partner refuses to watch a remake of one of their all time favourite films, which is only 20 years old. And you know what? Fair.
The movie has a lot of energy and punch behind it: the transitions and editing make the musical work for the big screen (which is refreshing to see, honestly, in the era of musicals ashamed or afraid to be musicals, and no, I'll never stop calling Tom Hooper a talentless hack), and there is a lot of energy to the film. They open on a garage door DIY self recorded number, then open the door to reveal the plains of Kenya where our protagonist lives, for example. There is a Greek-chorus/backing band of the theatre kids, who we see play in the numbers throughout the film, and they have a lot of fun with blurring diegetic and non-diegetic elements: for example as the characters dance through the school canteen on one number, the band are playing on one of the tables, and the headmaster tells them to "get down from there!". That made me laugh, touche movie. As did the addition of a little parallel "Mean Boys" clique with Kevin G and the Matheletes. That got a good laugh.
The characters are honestly pretty well cast: I like Angourie Rice as an actor, and am happy to see her in a leading role as Cady. She does a good job. Renee Rapp is an absolutely stellar Regina George, relishing the part and having a blast playing it (as one would); all of her numbers are done in a sort of breathy, Billy Eilish, whisper sung style, and I like the choice and feel it could work, but personally they didn't click with me and I couldn't name a song for you. Bebe Wood is a good Gretchen Weiners (and from the side, weirdly, looks like Lindsay Lohan), and gets a sweet little characterising number in a cupboard (though, to fans of the original, Gretchen already gets given depth through her arc in the movie, though I digress...). Avantika honestly steals the show as Karen, having a great time playing her. Auli'i Cravalho plays outcast lesbian girl Janice (whom they actually make a lesbian here. On the one hand: yay, well done, but also I like reading the original as a joke about how we assume people are lesbians, you know?) and has some pipes on her, but the character here is schizophrenic and feels from a different movie. Her numbers (which are the ones the makers and songwriters feel are the "big, empowering songs") are full of soaring vigor and high notes and lyrics about not giving a shit - but very clearly Janice does give a shit: she spends the entirety of the movie fixated on vengeance against a particular person for the way they have treated her. It's like the wrote the song and worked backwards. Cravalho easily has the best voice in the cast, but that "Disney Girl Boss Energy" is misplaced.
And that is the key problem with the film: it's a musical where the songs aren't very good.
I remember liking one of Regina's songs in the moment, and enjoying the staging and choreography on the whole and for the most part, as I've said before, but two days after watching it: I'm only able to remember one song. Fittingly it's Karen's song, about how much she loves sexy Halloween costumes, a throwaway number which has nothing to do with the plot and is fitting for Karen as a character. When you're doing a musical and the songs are not particularly catchy, memorable or good? You have a problem. And when the musical is based upon a beloved film based on character development, satire and witty dialogue? That's a bigger problem. It adds nothing to proceedings. However, it does remove the racism of the Asian characters (always welcome, good job there) and the paedophilia joke with the coach (again, good work) and enough energy, relish for the material and effort on display to be more than a simple cash grab. It may possibly work as a companion piece to "Mean Girls" if you know the original text, but so much of its humour relies on knowing the characters, and what parts do work are merely holdovers from the original text. It's hard to separate the two of them from each other. Every time I chuckled, or smirked, I thought "is this just a holdover from the original?". At best it feels like homage, but most of the time it feels like theatre kids riffing on it and quoting a film you've never seen (to be fair, that was the majority of my experience with "Mean Girls" for many years, so that may factor into it...).
Yet the whole thing has enough joy and effort on display, I can't QUITE bring myself to hate it. It's not necessarily something I recommend to a fan, but I'm also not sure how a person unknown to the material will enjoy it: maybe it'll be great?
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