The movie musical based on musical based on one of the most quoted movies from the early 2000s is finally here. And it took me a couple weeks to see it because it snowed like no tomorrow and I could not make it to the movie theater to see this film. But now I have and here are my thoughts. This movie was not advertised as a musical, so if someone did not follow the press on it, at first glance it seems to be a modern take on the classic tale of popularity, revenge, and staying true to yourself. But within thirty seconds the cast began to sing and I could even hear whispers of those watching in the theater saying "Wait this is a musical?!" as the film began, since the advertisers hid that fact even, weeks later, the audience I was with was shocked. This is the tale of Mean Girls. 2024.
I have not seen the Mean Girls musical live, but have listened to the cast album live plenty of times, and have a few songs that I enjoy. I feel very mixed emotions on the album and that speaks the same for the film. There is a good amount of good, and unfortunately some undeniable bad. Let's start with the good, which is some of the cinematography is great, and the performances of Rennee' Rapp as Regina Geroge, Auli'i Cravalho as Janis, and Jaquel Spivey as Damian are the standouts performances, even Avantika and Bebe Wood as Karen and Gretchen have stand out moments comedically.
Some of the jokes are extremely hit-and-miss. One thing that works and makes sense is that social media is implemented in the story, making the movie take place in the modern-day than the time the film was first made. The small changes keep the plot moving along and don't distract but show what it would be like if the film was made today. Some of the more dated jokes were changed for different ones, and some of the plot points changed too. The problem is there is a constant quoting of old lines because the first movie had them and they are popular jokes and lines, sometimes are delivered as is, but other times they try to expand on the joke to make it last longer, and it just lands flat. Some of the original jokes and lines, are funny, and I wish there were more like them, this is when the movie stood out on its own two feet. The cameos in this movie work well, and there are some really fun in-jokes and easter eggs
My only problem acting wise lies with the lead Anguorie Rice as Cady Heron. She has some moments of just not seeming emotionally interested, even in the later half as the plot is ramping up. I chalk this up in a poor direction because her singing voice is good, but has no emotional range, everything is quiet and subtle. This works earlier when Cady is shy and still trying to understand herself, but even later she acts the same as she did when the movie started.
The cinematography of this movie is all over the place, some of the songs are presented like music videos, others like TikTok filters, and some as if they were just regular songs. The style can change to black and white, or a giant party music video at a moment's notice, while at other times the songs add a new stylistic flare while still being in the environment they take place. For example "Someone Gets Hurt" has a good idea of manipulating the others at the party they are all at like puppets, while time stops and starts, it looks and sounds amazing. While "Revenge Party" can just be a random parade snapping between reality and dream world, or "Sexy" can be part TikTok, part music video, part musical number. It can be super distracting, but sometimes works. Sometimes the ideas blend naturally with the film and song, but other times they stick out.
And speaking of the music, some of it works and some of it doesn't. To be fair I was this way with the original album where half of the songs were ones I really enjoyed, and I felt some needed some changing or to be swapped out for different songs entirely. The film only has about half of the songs from the show, and the songs they picked are pretty good. Some of the songs that were cut I understand for the sake of flow but sometimes it feels like the movie is trying to jam two or three songs into a short span of time to make it seem like there are more songs than there are. Only to have there be long stretches of no song, then suddenly you get like three back-to-back. The performances are really good starting with half of "Sexy" and mostly with "Someone Gets Hurt".
The movie has a slow drag and start in terms of writing, jokes, and songs, but then picks up for the second half, with only a couple rocky moments here and there, but to be fair I did not like "Revenge Party" as a song even in the original, so the movie starts bad but then ends good and picks up. Leaving a mixed bag of quality of a good amount of good and bad, with pretty bad pacing issues. It is worth a watch, there is enough good in there that it is worth at least one watch, and I have seen worse movie musicals. There is enough good going that it is worth at least one viewing, as for me, I plan on watching it again at least once to see if I enjoy it more. For every "World Burn" and "I'd Rather Be Me" there's a "Stupid With Love". There are so many changes, some working and some not, so many style choices, some working and some not, that the movie sometimes lacks focus and identity. The overreliance on telling the jokes and story of the original gives it little wiggle room, but sometimes it works to the film's advantage and others its detriment. Overall this is a movie that can sit with me even though it isn't the most fetch movie I have ever seen.
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