Mean Girls

 I was nearly done with high school when Mean Girls, the century's first definitive high school comedy, was released. I feel old knowing that it's considered a definitive high school film, period. There's a new generation ready to experience the film's "fetch" lines in a movie theatre with this remake, which is specifically based on the 2017 stage musical. I missed all the quotes the first time around. What do I think of it now?

Tina Fey (who also reprises her role from the film as math teacher Ms. Norbury) adapted the film, the musical and the film based on the musical on Rosalind Wiseman's book Queen Bees and Wannabees. I haven't read the book for myself, which is probably why I'm curious of its similarities to Cady Heron's (Angourie Rice) life. Who is Cady, you ask?

She's the new girl at North Shore High School, ready to rejoin civilization after being homeschooled in Kenya by her scientist mother (Jenna Fischer). Social misfits Janis 'Imi'ike (Auli'i Cravalho) and Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey) introduce her to the intricacies of modern school life and its various cliques. The titular Mean Girls are the Plastics, consisting of Queen Bee Regina George (Renee Rapp) and her drones, Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Wood) and Karen Shetty (Avantika). Regina takes a liking to Cady, which Janis, Regina's former bestie, decides to take advantage of. 

Janis has Cady infiltrate the Plastics and take them down a peg. Cady commits to the plan once Regina re-steals her ex and Cady's crush, Aaron (Christopher Brinney), at a Halloween party. The plan goes horribly right as Regina is indeed taken down a peg, while Cady becomes the newest Mean Girl. But Regina has a secret weapon, the Burn Book, in which she and the Plastics record all of their school's nastiest gossip. Its contents lead to war, and reconciliation, in that order.

Directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., creators of the FX-series Quarter Life Poetry, make their film debuts here. They bring some inventive flourish to their staging of the musical numbers. That's to be expected when the numbers are mostly all fantasy numbers like in Chicago. To further emphasize this, cinematographer Bill Kirstein widens the aspect ratio during the numbers. The opening goes from a garage to the Kenyan wildlands and whip-pans to North Shore. Regina's Somone Gets Hurt has time stand still between her and Cady after the former flirts with Aaron. The Burn Book's fallout is staged with delightfully silly choreography as the school literally fights it out. The production designers should be commended for their work here.

The songs, by Fey's husband, Jeff Richmond, and Legally Blonde composer Nell Benjamin, are fine, but are hampered by imperfect sound mixing. How imperfect? The overpowering orchestrations make lines like the refrain of Regina's intro song nearly indiscernible. Shouldn't both music and lyrics be equal? A lot better handled, meanwhile, are two jump scares, both involving a speeding bus. Neither you nor the characters will see them coming.

The updated script modernizes the material, both in period and sensibilities, while keeping its most iconic lines. So, yes, Gretchen's obsession with "fetch" is still a thing, but creepy gym coach Carr (Jon Hamm) is less creepy. The cultural modernizations hit the hardest in a few social media montages. We see how easier it is for meanness to spread when Regina's - and later, Cady's - reputations are tarnished. You'll almost want to pity Regina when she's degraded online, at least, until she whips out the Burn Book. Those montages make Ms. Norbury's speech to the student body as relevant now as it was then. 

Now for the cast. Rice makes Cady believable as a naive new student. It's amusingly endearing when she sings about being "Stupid with Love," and her feelings of betrayal during Someone Gets Hurt are beyond palpable. We're initially all for Cady's "Revenge Party" until she fully transforms into the new Queen Bee. Rapp's first number as Regina is a pure showstopper, and her presence never dissipates even after she's dethroned. It's weirdly nice to see the two reconcile at the end. Their fellow mean girls, Karen and Gretchen, are way too likable and sympathetic to be mean. 

Janis and Damian, the film's narrators, give us some funny on-screen commentary. Their Revenge Party number shows the film at its trippiest, while Janis's eleven-o-clock number, I'd Rather Be Me, lets her call out Cady for her meanness in spectacular fashion. Janis's backstory with Regina cements her as the film's most sympathetic character. Ms. Norbury and Principal Duvall (Tim Meadows, again from the first film) make for great voices of reason amongst the faculty. Regina's Mom (Busy Phillips) is overwhelmingly vacuous, but even she has her moment when she blows Cady's scheme wide-open. I actually didn't recognize Lindsay Lohan, who played Cady in the first film, in a surprise cameo until I checked the credits. I think you'll do better than me.

I should wrap this up already. Mean Girls is a good update on a modern comedy classic. Its updates help accentuate the original film's points, the musical numbers are impressive, and its cast is likable. A better sound mix would have made the film better, but as they are, the songs are fine. This was actually produced for Paramount + but was upgraded to theatrical during the strikes. It'll be a while before it gets there, so to quote the film, "Get in [the theatre], loser." There's a good matinee waiting for you.