Mean Girls Review: Get In, Loser, We’re Going Singing

The post Mean Girls Review: Get In, Loser, We’re Going Singing appeared first on Consequence.

The Pitch: “This is a cautionary tale,” we’re told in song from the beginning, as formerly-homeschooled Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) begins her first day at a real American high school, and finds herself totally overwhelmed by all the personalities on display, especially Regina George (Renee Rapp), ruling dictator of the lunch room and “a massive deal.”

There to help Cady navigate these unfamiliar waters are fellow outcasts Damian (Jaquel Spivey) and Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho), though their initial friendship gets complicated when Cady gets invited to spend more time with Regina and her fellow “Plastics” (Bebe Wood, Avantika). Damian and Janis want Cady to use her access to the Plastics to get revenge on Regina, and Cady’s on board once Regina swoops in on her crush Aaron (Christopher Briney). But will Plastic powers go to her head? If you know what day of the week we wear pink, you also know the answer to that one.

Musical Rules (Musicals Rule): Let’s start with the positives, because there’s good stuff to say about the newest iteration of Mean Girls, bringing the 2004 film back to the screen in the form of an adaptation of the Broadway musical (both written by Tina Fey). Maybe next it’ll become a TV show? Anything’s possible when the IP is profitable.

While Paramount kept the film’s trailers relatively music-free, the film itself dives right into song, which leads to one of the first big surprises: Not many film musicals have found a way to incorporate all of the elements we might love about a big Broadway production — in particular the joys of seeing stagecraft in action, as well as the loose boundaries between reality and fantasy.

Which makes the opening minutes of Mean Girls so impressive, as directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. break the fourth wall repeatedly, building in distinctly theatrical scene transitions to whisk us from a suburban garage to Kenya to the first day of school with great efficiency and visual flair. It’s the best of film and Broadway, combined.

Are people actually singing and dancing, though? Or is it all in Cady’s head? Initially, it seems like there are strong guidelines in place for musical numbers — either they’re being performed direct to camera for social media, or they’re fantastical representations of Cady’s imagination. (Essentially, the same rules of Rob Marshall’s Chicago.) However, despite those rules adding an additional level of meaning to the songs, eventually they slip away, with characters just Donald O’Connor-ing their way through the halls of the school by the end. “Why not?” one says with a little resignation. It is, after all, a musical.

Mean Girls (Paramount)

Dramatis Personae: In terms of the cast, Renee Rapp seems to have found the perfect bridge between her past work as an actress on The Sex Lives of College Girls and her new ambition — music stardom. Her take on Regina George is much more blunt and seductive than the casual cruelty Rachel McAdams once gloried in, but it works well in a musical context. And Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana herself!) gets to play Janis queer and loud, with her exuberant rendition of “I’d Rather Be Me” a late-film highlight.

Other characters are well cast, even if their screen time feels limited, with Avantika and Bebe Wood in particular finding ways to reveal the humanity beneath their plastic shells. Meanwhile, Angourie Rice has been playing teenagers in high profile projects since 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, and as a lead, she brings a lot of genuine sweetness to the screen, though she doesn’t have much in the way of comedic spark, and her transition into Plastic-dom ends up playing a little abruptly.

There may be a reason for that, though: On a superficial level, one of this film’s more impressive achievements is that despite the story now including 12 musical numbers (13 if you include the Renee Rapp/Megan Thee Stallion collaboration “Not My Fault”, which plays over the end credits), it’s only 15 minutes longer than the 2004 version.

Compare it to how the live-action Little Mermaid only added three new songs to the movie, which somehow ended up leading to 52 minutes of additional screen time. This achievement comes at a cost, however, as the emotional arc of the film ends up revolving around just Cady, Regina, and Janis, and everyone else outside of that triangle ends up feeling at least a little flat. Simply because there’s no time to spare on more random side plots — the kind that would really make the ensemble come alive.

Mean Girls (Paramount)

The Verdict: The original Mean Girls was never flawless, but Fey’s smart script and the stellar casting have gone a long way to ensuring its immortality. That said, there are some notable changes made from 2004 to today that work to this film’s advantage: For instance, Jon Hamm feels somewhat wasted in his glorified cameo as Coach Carr, but the film drops the original movie’s now-awkward-at-best runner about said coach sleeping with two different students.

Additional updates include a savvy incorporation of social media and TikTok culture, though watch out for some unexpected but pretty blatant product placement (literal brand names are dropped in a discussion of lipstick, with no Snapple-esque wink to the camera).

Except for the product placement, it’s these new elements — like the music — that prove the most exciting here, if only because hearing iconic quotes like “Get in, loser” repeated again in this context feels sometimes like a tired cover of a once-beloved song. It’s the fresher lines, not the repeats, which draw bigger laughs — in fact, in some cases it feels unfair to the actors, making them recreate scenes that were already stellar in the original.

Seriously, it’s just mean to make Busy Phillips say “I’m a cool mom,” like Amy Poehler’s pitch-perfect delivery didn’t already emblazon that phrase upon pop culture. If only she could have sang it.

Where to Watch: Mean Girls belts its way into theaters starting January 12th.

Trailer:

Mean Girls Review: Get In, Loser, We’re Going Singing
Liz Shannon Miller

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