Mean Girls: A surprisingly good remake
Photo Courtesy: Paramount Pictures
My flatmates and I go to see the new Mean Girls movie spontaneously on a Friday afternoon. Two minutes in, and the opening musical number, “A Cautionary Tale”, has just played.
“Wait. Is this a fucking musical?” They both turn to me, deadpan and unsmiling, and I can’t help but laugh out loud. It could be a line out of the movie itself.
Indeed, one could be forgiven for entering the cinema expecting something other than a quasi-convergence of the 2004 film and the 2017 Broadway musical, of the same name. The trailers make no indication of it being as such. And yes, most of the film laboriously churns through a mix of musical songs, only a few of which leave a remarkable impression (sung by Reneé Rapp’s queen bee character Regina George, or Auli’I Cravalho’s Janis).
But, nevertheless, the film is a romp. It’s fun, it’s trendy, it’s up to date with social media lingo and youth slang (at the risk of sounding decades older than 20), and yes, it’s cringe, but it’s what American cinema sometimes does best.
A lot of the well-known lines from the original film, often classed in popular culture as #iconic (sorry) do indeed make it in – such as “You can’t sit with us”, “Stop trying to make fetch happen”, and “She doesn’t even go here!”. There are some fantastic new one-liners written by Tina Fey, who masterminded the film and musical, and also serves as producer alongside long-time creative partner Lorne Michaels, the creator and head of SNL. At many points the film does feel like an extended SNL skit, a formula that works well in keeping the pace of the film consistent. Fey takes up the role of maths teacher Ms. Norbury once again, who infamously gets labelled as a drug pusher in the Burn Book.
There are even cameos! One comes from Megan Thee Stallion, in a blink and you might miss it line – she says “How do I get this off my feed?”, when in the fall-out of Regina’s unleashing of the Burn Book the school goes into a meltdown. It’s genuinely funny, and pokes fun at the film’s very existence.
A stand out song is Gretchen’s What’s Wrong With Me? (which was in the original musical) as she questions her friendship with Regina – “We both know you’re cruel/ What’s wrong with me? Could it be you? / It’s probably me”: the original film was not able to explore this facet of Gretchen’s character as succinctly as the song easily achieves here.
There are also some truly impressive cinematic sequences. One is at the party where Regina kisses Cady’s crush Aaron, which sets off the whole revenge plan – she sings her song Someone Gets Hurt, in which slow-motion frames surround her as she queen bees her way around the room before she kisses Aaron. There’s hair blowing wildly, mood lighting, and fantastic singing.
There’s even a sneaky reference to Ariana Grande’s 2018 music video for Thank U, Next for those well versed in pop culture: Damian literally says “Thank U, Next” after one performance at the talent show.
The point of the film? It’s fun – the last line of the movie implores you to consider the internal strife of every person, even if they might be mean: everyone’s fighting their own battle. It’s a very Gen Z, “love everyone” message, but nevertheless, it’s successful: we all leave the film smiling, and feeling lighter. And it’s a joy when a film can achieve that.
5/5 Stars.