Meeeaan Girls! When I first saw they were remaking Mean Girls, I thought it was absolutely shameless! Not only had Hollywood completely run out of ideas, but Tina Fey was merely backing up that grubby little dump truck for another sweet hit of that money pinata 🎊 And while that still might be the case, I didn’t realise how Mean Girls has continued to change over the years. For this version comes to us as a musical, and we’ve seen many beloved IPs get the song-and-dance makeover, producing a new angle on classic material, and breathing in rejuvenating life… I may not be able to think of any quality examples right now… But I’m sure they’re out there! 🤓 The Colour Purple, from earlier this year, certainly wasn’t one of them, but maybe Mean Girls can stamp the trend.
Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is attending suburban high school for the first time ever, after being homeschooled her whole life across the plains of Africa. The first friend she makes is Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho), but the Plastics, a bitchy trio of teenaged brats, headed by Miss Regina George (Reneé Rapp), also want to get to know her. Janis comes up with a plan, for Cady to infiltrate the chic girl’s clique, and bring down their rule from the inside. Cady has no idea when it comes to any social teen etiquette, so this will be a challenge, and one she might take too far… But you already know this! Unless you’ve been homeschooled yourself, across remote parts of the globe for the past 20 years, who doesn’t know the plot of Mean Girls?! Okay, let’s rock this bitch!
I have to say, the original Mean Girls was always such a great film, but it’s aged so well. It may even be the first movie of the 2000s I’d consider a “modern classic”, in that it’s withstood the test of time, technology has changed, and it still feels warm and relevant. It’s also bolstered for me, knowing the careers that Amanda Seyfried, Rachel McAdams, and even Lizzy Caplan, have gone on to have 🤗 A recent rewatch also reinforced to me just how great Lacey Chabert is as Gretchen Wieners, and I was surprised to find that Tim Meadows is actually pretty relevant in his principal role too, as a character you don’t really focus on until your third or fourth viewing. I also love how many of the minor background one-line characters are prevalent throughout all the school scenes, making this grade level feel like a united unit, as it should, perhaps similarly reminding me of the familiarity in shows like Hey Arnold! and The Simpsons. So, we’re dealing with movie royalty here, folks, one of the best chick-flicks in existence 💗
And what’s, at least, always fun about any movie remake, is getting to watch a new crop of actors make choices with the same characters as seen before, and getting to compare the pair. Good luck to them, because McAdam’s Regina George is i-con-ic – there’s no two ways about it. Reneé Rapp is therefore pushing up a hill to pertain to anything close to what McAdams has set before, and I would point to her, and Angourie Rice as Cady, as the weaker points of this secondary cast. Angourie Rice actually made me think more of Sandy from Grease than Cady, since she is Aussie in real life, and similarly finds herself in a fish-out-of-water scenario at an American high school – I’m aware that Rice also portrayed Olivia Newton-John in a made-for-TV biopic 😮 Actress Bebe Wood is also nowhere near Chabert’s talents as Gretchen Wieners, although I do feel like the character becomes her own by the end. Yet, although I thought Janis and Damien (Jaquel Spivey) initially present like Timon and Pumbaa in this new version, where they were real humans in the original, their characters are still really strong, so it’s not a detriment to their effectiveness. And who doesn’t love Timon & Pumbaa anyway? Auliʻi Cravalho is actually the only one across the board who I would say is just as effective as her counterpart in the original role of Janis, and it’s a high bar 💁♂️ I’m only just discovering that Cravalho is also the voice of Moana across the Disney films, so you go Cravalho! 😀 Busy Phillips is an excellent choice to take over as Regina’s mother, and I think it’s decidedly very cool that Tina Fey and Tim Meadows reprise their roles in this remake. Famously recognised as the screenwriter for the first one, Fey’s presence here actually works as an authority that helps say to millennials, that it’s okay to like this movie too. I’ve always considered her character the heart of the original movie anyways.
And philosophically, as it comes to readapting a movie like this, there’s really only three ways it can go. You can aim to reproduce the source material faithfully, and the best you hope for is to pay a good homage. Or you can pursue to extend the work, where misunderstanding it leaves a ruddy mess (and there’s plenty of examples of that floating around the cinema world). Or, you can grow atop fertile soil, marking an extension that flourishes in style. The last option is rarely done. Although, here I am, and ready to report that I’m actually thoroughly impressed with this Mean Girls production. The musical elements allow for songs that punch up the characterizations, and highlight messages within Mean Girls affectively, and it seems everyone gets a chance to shine. Karen’s Halloween song is perfect, as is Janet’s song about not giving a hoot nearing the end. Regina George is elevated like an ominous Bond villain, which is fine, as a fun interpretation, if you see her that way; but I’m more a fan of how Regina George is so underhandly wicked by inference in the original, so the pageantry is unnecessary. However, Gretchen Wieners is actually given more depth, where her erratic energy is interpreted as nervous insecurity through song, and I thought that was a thoughtful take 👍 I also really admire how this new movie doesn’t rely on the same jokes from the original in every situation, especially for Karen, and there’s a confident strut the writing takes in refreshing lines that fit within the Mean Girls’ style. Cady’s story is streamlined, to focus more on Aaron than anything else, and whilst I do feel like the movie loses something by not maintaining her voiceover from the original, there are enough differences in the format to keep this alternative movie fresh. Even the feelings-girl is incorporated more thoroughly, singing at the dance for an emotional ending – a fan favourite character, so more of her is joy. Damien borrows his grandmother’s rascal to go to Janet’s art show, which probably works very well on stage, but not so much in a movie, yet I like that this movie keeps the spirit the same.
Mean Girls sands down a lot of the less PC edges of the original, but we’d expect that. Yet it also avoids layering on a thick feminist defiance, like it certainly could have, where a foundation of girl power that must rally against the external patriarchy is there; it wouldn’t have been true to the heart of the original story, but less worthy modern movies have gone out of their way. You just knew that they were going to change Janis’s lesbian angle, because you can’t have the stigma of Regina George being turned about by a lesbian at a pool party in 2024, even though the point of Regina’s mean story originally, is to show her intolerance and manipulation over something immaterial. But this movie actually goes a step further by actually making Janis a lesbian now, so bad luck Kevin in the math jacket. The movie also streamlines Cady’s parents into one roll, played by Jenna Fischer, so, so long Neil Flynn too, and another man bites the dust 😕 In fairness though, for the purpose of this altered story, one parental figure serves the same as two, as Cady’s mother just gives off mystified expressions as to what her daughter has gotten herself into. But did we really need to take out the one-off reference of Principal Duvall’s (Tim Meadows) past, working at inner city schools? 🤷♂️ That might be a bridge too far.
Did this stage show ever come to Melbourne? I don’t think it did. A quick Google search tells me it didn’t, and no wonder I felt we’d skipped a couple steps when a trailer for a Mean Girls remake popped up on my socials, near a year back. I may’ve judged a (burn)book by its cover, but didn’t find a horrible, soul-sucked warped depravity I was expecting – but instead, a wholesome and trustworthy extension on beloved source material. I am shocked that I love this 😶 My Mean Girls remake experience was amazing! It shakes the foundation of my rule, about how you should never touch a classic, although I do often caveat that by saying, you can, so long as you have something new to say. Mean Girls is a cake baked out of rainbows and smiles, so be happy, get a spoon, and eat it up! Directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., I love your work! 😁
4.0
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