Mean Girls was first a 2004 hit movie starring Lindsay Lohan and written by Tina Fey, who played math teacher Mrs. Norbury. It then became a Broadway musical in 2018, adapted by Fey with music composed by her husband, Jeff Richmond.Twenty years later, it's a movie again, based on the Tony-nominated Broadway musical. Angourie Rice plays Cady Heron, a girl who has been home schooled by her mother (Jenna Fischer) in Africa, but has finally moved home in time to attend high school in the States.
She's thrilled by the prospect, but soon finds herself out of her depth. Luckily, she's befriended by two outsiders at school -- Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and the quirky Damian (Jaquel Spivey), who kick off the movie with a musical TikTok video.
They warn her not to get mixed up with the snooty group of girls known as "The Plastics," but when popular girl Regina George (Reneé Rapp) invites Cady to join them at lunch, she can't resist.
The movie features cast members from the original movie (Fey and Tim Meadows as Principal Duvall), and new cast members such as Busy Phillips as Regina's mother, Ashley Park from Emily in Paris as French teacher Madame Park, and Jon Hamm as Coach Carr. There's also a surprise cameo from someone who had the audience at the advance screening screaming with delight.
Angourie Rice, who was handpicked by Fey to play Cady, is absolutely perfect as the wide-eyed, down-to-earth girl who is at first awed by Regina and her clique. In a great bit of casting, Jenna Fischer actually looks like she could be Angourie's mother. She plays Ms. Heron as a warm, intelligent but slightly baffled mother of a teen girl (mothers of teen girls can definitely relate). Reneé Rapp is the only cast member who played her role in Mean Girls on Broadway and she's definitely got strong pipes to belt out her numbers. Both she and Phillips as her mother (who also look very much alike) play their roles with over-the-top abandon.
Auli’i Cravalho is the most likeable of the cast as Janis, the cool but angry girl who suffered Regina's wrath years earlier and still can't get over it. Jaquel Spivey is lovable and flamboyant as Damian, Janis' best friend. Avantika plays the ditzy Karen, who often wears her name necklace backwards, and Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners is the most sympathetic of The Plastics -- a girl who counts on Regina to tell her what's cool and thereby suffers from a severe lack of self respect. She's the one who tries to get "fetch" as part of The Plastics' vernacular but is constantly shut down by Regina, who scoffs at the word -- which immediately became popular with Mean Girls fans in 2004 and continues to be popular to this day.
There are plenty of laugh-out-loud lines and moments in this version, including the Christmas show in which The Plastics perform in the outfits they've been wearing every Christmas for years, only this year, Regina doesn't understand why it's such a tight fit -- but Cady does.
The music by Jeff Richmond is pleasing but lacks that one catchy song you can't stop humming on the way out of the theater. Out of all the songs, "I'd Rather Be Me" sung by Auli’i Cravalho is the most memorable and has the most powerful message.
The movie is an extremely enjoyable night out at the cinema -- for both fans of the original movie and new audiences. ~Alexandra Heilbron
4.5 out of 5 stars.
Mean Girls is now streaming on Paramount+ in Canada.
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