A One Mann’s Movies Film Review of “Mean Girls” (2024).
Mark Water’s “Mean Girls” is 20 years old and was a classic of its time. That starred Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams in the roles of Cady Heron and Regina George. It became a firm teen favourite that a generation (my daughters included) fondly look back on. Despite all its frantic efforts to please, I really can’t see this Mean Girls musical remake, written by Tina Fey, one of the stars and co-writers of the original, achieving that level of love.
Purely judging this in relation to the original, I’d probably give it a poor 2 or 2.5* rating. I *suspect* that fans of the original will be largely disappointed. (My eldest daughter saw it last night so I will get her feedback). Given that the illustrious Mrs Movie Man really enjoyed it, I’ll rate this as a 3* film. But I recognise that the target audience of new teen-viewers really needs to give their verdict on this.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is unhappily being home-schooled by her mother (Jenna Fischer). She’s doing research in the wilds of Kenya and Cady feels she’s missing out. But she pitches from one wild environment to another. Because she comes to America and enrols in North Shore High School. There she has to find her place among the different school cliques. She falls under the clutches of ‘apex predator’ Regina George (Reneé Rapp). Regina heads up “the plastics” who hold image above everything else.
Certification:
UK: 12A; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Moderate sex references, language, discrimination”. Sometimes a 12A can be nearer a PG than a 15. And sometimes it’s not. I was watching this with a view to whether this would be a suitable for my grand-daughter to see. (Eva’s 7, going on 14!). But given the sex references and the general theme of high school bullying (the transition from junior to senior school is hard enough!), I would say not. IMHO, this is Grease++ in terms of some of the inappropriate high-school scenes shown.
Talent:
Starring: Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Jenna Fischer, TIna Fey, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Avantika, Bebe Wood, Christopher Briney, Tim Meadows, Lindsay Lohan, Jon Hamm.
Directed by: Samantha Jayne & Arturo Perez Jr.
Written by: Tina Fey.
Twitter Handle: #MeanGirls.
Running Time: 1h 52m.
“Mean Girls” Film Review:
Positives:
- It’s a comedy musical, written by the talented Tina Fey. As such, you would expect it to contain some decent laugh-out-loud moments, and it does. Some of these come from the exclusive cliquie of Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and the ‘almost too gay to function’ Damian (Jaquel Spivey). Spivery is impressively in his movie debut. (The following sentences give a couple of examples…. skip to the next bullet point if you don’t want them spoiled!) An opening quip made me laugh: when their TikTok video is disrupted by a jolted camera, Damien comments that “it’s gone full Cloverfield” (LOL). And when the long suffering Gretchen (Bebe Wood) gets pulled up for using the phrase “Fetch”, she says she “heard it in an old movie… possibly Juno”!
- Angourie Rice has been a young actor that I have been following for a while. She’s been on my radar ever since she shone as Ryan Gosling’s daughter in 2016’s “The Nice Guys“. Frustratingly, she doesn’t seem to be have been given many prominent parts since then. Her “Betty Brant” character – in the recent Spider-Man films – had little more than cameos. So it’s good to see her get a leading role for once and she does do very well with it.
- It’s fun that both Tina Fey and Tim Meadows reprise their roles of the teachers Ms Norbury and Mr Duvall after 20 years absence. Also back is Lindsay Lohan in a cameo as the moderator of a “Mathletes” inter-school competition.
- This Mean Girls musical is obviously based on the stage musical (written by Nell Benjamin and Jeff Richmond), so there are a lot of songs (rather too many, if I’m honest). Some of these are quite catchy. The song “Someone Gets Hurt” could easily be a Bond main title!
Negatives:
- It all feels like it is trying too hard. It goes from one frenetic scene to the other. The cast seem to be desperately trying to rekindle the magic of the original classic (and largely failing). The attempts at ‘extending’ the myth by introducing new catchphrases (like ‘grool’ – a portmanteau of ‘great’ and ‘cool’) fall flat on their faces.
- The plot is quite topical, covering as it does cyber-bullying in schools. However, it never feels like it has anything special to ‘say’ about the topic. The film could have explored a darker thread. For example, the real effects of mental illness (and worse) that such behaviour creates. But no – everything is neatly given a pink and happy gloss and it builds to a predictable (and unlikely) girl-gets-boy ending.
Monkeys?
There are scenes of the cast dancing over the start of the end credits (which are a bit “meh” – I’m sure there were some better ‘bloopers’ that could have gone there). There is also a very quick post-credit monkey with Regina talking to camera (it’s actually in the trailer if you don’t want to stay!).
Summary Thoughts on “Mean Girls”
To misquote Ian Malcolm from “Jurassic Park”, the filmmakers were so preoccupied with whether or not the could remake a classic “for a new generation”, they didn’t stop to think if they should. You can’t help compare this film to the original classic and, in comparison, it comes off very badly. IMDB is already full of 1* and 2* reviews that mainly seem to be from disgruntled fans of the original.
But forgetting that this is a remake, and focussing on the film as a standalone Mean Girls musical. This is a musical comedy that had moments that really worked and were funny, but a lot that didn’t. As I’ve said in the intro, the illustrious Mrs Movie Man went into this with a sinking feeling and came out really enjoying it (it was a 4*s from her). So if you go and see this with an open mind, you might be equally happy. The real acid test for the box office on this one will by the response of that “next generation” of teens.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Mean Girls” musical:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xgPEplWACQ .
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