Mean Girls

Grade: B

I rewatched Mean Girls (2004) a few days ago. Seeing that and this new one so close together reminds me of the time I watched Hitchcock’s and Gus Van Sant’s Psycho back to back (I had never seen either one). I don’t remember what I thought of Mean Girls 20 years ago, at age 22, other than having a crush on Lindsay Lohan at the time – but re-viewing it now, at age 22 + 20, I found it to be some fluffy fun often overshadowed by teenage drama and overreactions that became insufferable. But I recommend it just barely.

They got it right on Broadway 14 years later, and really got it right on the silver screen 6 years after that. It was begging to be made into a musical all along, and by doing so, it solves several problems I had with the original film. When you have characters who break into song, and know all the dance moves, it’s very easy to forgive a lot of other stuff.

You had 20 years to watch it, but in case you haven’t, or it’s been a while, I’ll catch you up. 16-year-old Africa native Cady Heron (pronounced “Katie,” frequently mispronounced as “catty”) has just moved to the states, and is diving into regular school, after a lifetime of homeschooling. She unwittingly becomes a hit with the Plastics – a small clique of the hottest, most popular girls in school. The two real friends Cady does make (Janis and Damian) encourage her to use it to her advantage, by pretending to be a Plastic and breaking down this A-list club from the inside, via petty revenge tactics.

The two carryovers from the 2004 movie are Tina Fey and Tim Meadows, reprising – respectively – their same characters of Cady’s teacher and the school principal. Meadows’s character said in the original film that he’d been with the school for 14 years. I listened to see if he would say a different number this time, and he does. Many lines are the same in both films, and the sets look amazingly similar. I didn’t mind.

When The Wedding Singer got Broadwayized, it was a marked improvement on a mediocre movie, and I feel the same way about this Mean Girls. The music here is poppy and fun. I haven’t said this in a while, but I want to hear these songs again. I didn’t feel that way with The Color Purple. Choreography is creative, vibrant, and energetic.

Each individual Plastic feels more fleshed-out than ever before, and all three get to shine with at least one number of their own. Reneé Rapp is a scene-stealer as Queen Bee Regina George, and has an awesome set of pipes, as do Bebe Wood and Avantika as sidekicks Gretchen and Karen. But here, they are more than just sidekicks. I might prefer Auli’i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivy (as Janis and “almost-too-gay-to-function” Damian) over their 2004 counterparts. Keeping everything grounded is Angourie Rice as Cady, finding just the right tone for our awkward, pretty, pretty awkward heroine. There’s an uncredited cameo near the end that is well-used, and so far, they’ve done a great job keeping it under wraps. I didn’t know this person would make an appearance.

We, at last, get the Mean Girls we were meant to have. This is the most I’ve enjoyed sitting with them.

Grade: B