I am old enough to remember when the original Mean Girls (2004) film came out. It took me two viewings to get into it, and I still wouldn’t say it’s my favourite movie. However, within that genre, it undeniably left a mark on our pop culture and helped to put some young girls (at the time) on the path to stardom, namely Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried and Lizzy Caplan, I could argue were the most impacted by the success of this film. I have never seen the musical this movie is based on (yes, technically, it’s not a remake of the original; it’s a remake of that musical). Still, I have heard many people enjoyed it, and it gave us Reneé Rapp. Unfortunately, I can see how this would have worked much better as a stage musical.

Let me start with some positives. I thought Reneé Rapp was awesome as Regina, and she can sing. I thought the girl who played Janis was familiar, so when I checked IMDb and discovered it was Moana herself, Auli’i Cravalho, I was stunned. She was also great in her role, and I don’t think I need to even mention the fact that she has some pipes on her because she is freaking Moana! Of course, she can sing. But the standout of this movie was Avantika, who portrayed Karen. Sure, she is gorgeous, so that doesn’t hurt, but what’s much more important is that she (the same as Amanda Seyfried in the original film) is perfect as this idiot. The most I laughed at was her and her line deliveries because I know this isn’t an easy role. Playing the comic relief, you are always in danger of overstaying your welcome, and when that happens, it’s easy to get on people’s nerves. But the film gives her just enough scenes for it not to happen, and she capitalised on every single one. I wouldn’t mind seeing her career trajectory follow Amanda’s and seeing her in more dramatic roles and possibly getting some Oscar love. I hope she has been cast in 20 movies.

My biggest problem with this movie was the awareness of itself being a remake and needing to deliver on the iconic lines and scenes. Because the problem with the iconic lines (“That’s so fetch.” “On Wednesdays we wear pink!” etc.) and moments is that they became iconic organically. And this film puts so much emphasis on them that it becomes distracting. I would imagine all the crew and actors wanted to make sure they did them justice, but in doing that, they took it a bit too over the board, so every time a line or a scene from the original movie gets recycled, it becomes cringy, really fast. And this is what I can see would work as a Broadway musical because you MUST play it big for those moments to land in front of a live audience. Unfortunately, just like with many adaptions prior (whether you are adapting a book, game or musical), this film fell into the same trap, not realising that what worked on the stage doesn’t translate on the screen.

Another example of this would be the musical numbers. I watched this film a few weeks ago and can barely remember any that would stand out. I had to go back and read my review on Letterboxd (feel free to follow me here, shameless plug ;-)) because I remember naming two scenes that stood out. Those were the Halloween party and the Burn Book reveal scenes). I felt like those two musical set pieces at least tried to do something more cinematic. But as far as the rest is concerned, they weren’t any more imaginative than your average music video of the last decade. To be fair, I could probably name some music videos that are much more intriguing than most of these musical scenes. Again, what might have worked as a musical won’t work in cinemas or TV screens.

And if I must be brutally honest, I thought the songs were… fine. I think one of my biggest let-downs was that even after the movie finished, there wasn’t one tune, one song that would get stuck in my head. When I watch musicals, I love it when at least one or two songs stay with me to the point I would want to add them to my Spotify playlist, but here, nothing. I remember feeling like this when the credits were rolling, let alone now, a couple of weeks removed from this film.

Look, I am not saying this version of Mean Girls is bad. No, it’s a perfectly fine, semi-enjoyable movie that will, hopefully, catapult some young actors and singers to stardom. What I am trying to say is – when you adapt a musical based on a film that defines an entire generation, there are a few things you must balance out. You should also realise that there is no stage limit. Therefore, you can shoot musical numbers differently. You must, or otherwise, the final result will be average at best.

Overall, Mean Girls is a solid movie full of decent performers and actors who will be intriguing to watch where they end up in 20 years’ time. The movie won’t probably bore you, but especially if you have seen some musicals in your life, this might underwhelm you just a bit. But if you love “young sexy people” being young and sexy and every 10 minutes they break into a dance number, this film might be for you.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke