On Sundays we review Mean Girls the Musical the Movie
Happy New Year!
In honor of the start of the year, I’ve decided to start my 2024 blogs off discussing one of society’s most pressing questions – was the Mean Girls musical the movie worth seeing?
As the first movie of my 2024 (the last of 2023 was obviously Anybody But You, which changed my life far more significantly…. I may or may not be listening to Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield as I write this entry), I had my expectations set high. It doesn’t help that I am a major musical theatre nerd (my Broadway, Ranked will be a blog coming very soon) so I have thus created, for this week’s short entry: Mean Girls the Musical the Movie – the good, the bad, the ugly. Please enjoy this mega fetch article by yours, truly.
The Good:
- Renee Rapp is just a goddess from above. Not only does she slay as Regina, her jaw-dropping voice lifts some songs, like “Someone gets Hurt” and “World Burn” to new heights that really do this movie justice. A true Queen in her own right.
- Auli’i Cravalho (aka Moana) has some serious pipes, and I love her rendition of “I’d rather be Me”. This is one of my favorite songs from the original musical (and I have had to blind karaoke this one at a Broadway Rave) so I was expecting perfection and I thought she delivered.
- All the cameos and OG appearances were so much fun! I loved Tina Fey’s one liners (which were one of the only ways this movie tried to be unique in its adaptation of the classic). I also obviously loved the surprise appearances of Lindsey Lohan during the mathletes tournament and Ashley Park (aka Broadway Gretchen) as the French teacher – ha ha, get it? Because she’s a hotshot French girl in Emily in Paris?
- Kevin G, is well, just hilarious. I lived for his scenes
- Nothing will ever make the Jingle Bell Rock dance not ICONIC
- The one girl who after 20 years, still “doesn’t go here” and is still in need of a therapist
The Bad:
- My biggest issue with movie musicals of the 21st century is what I call “Dear Evan Hansening” them – when they are somehow made black and white, full of stereotypes and extremes in an icky way. The following are just a few examples of this phenomenon from this movie:
Making Karen dumb in borderline dysfunctional way
Turning “Revenge Party” into a bad Taylor Swift music video
Killing off the dad because…. Well all Disney characters have dead parents, right?
Making some dude from The Summer I turned Pretty play Aaron. I’m just…so over these guys. And hot take? Shane Omen was hotter than him *shrug
The entire scene with Regina’s mom. No thanks, just so not for me
- The soundtrack decisions, for the most part. Slashing “Where do you Belong” and “It Roars” but leaving “What’s Wrong with Me?” Removing the plural from “Meet the Plastics” so we don’t give any backstory to anybody but Regina?
- Not awful, but did anyone else think Regina was oddly likeable in this movie? They removed her mean snips at randos like “ugliest f-ing skirt I’ve ever seen” and her shit-talking Cady to Aaron, the only person she’s being a bitch to is Gretchen. And maybe making her Renee Rapp… team Regina all the way!
The UGLY:
- Every single person who came to watch this movie and then posted on Tiktok about it that it was “cringe” because they somehow “weren’t expecting it to be a musical”. Seriously, what?
- Cady motherfucking Heron. In this Movie. Say what you want about Angourie Rice – nepo baby or not – she is just not a good fit for this movie. I know that it is becoming kind of a trend to hate a main character, but listening to Angourie sing “Stupid with Love alongside Erika Henningsen’s original Broadway version is actual torture. And next to Renee and Moana… it only looks worse for her. To each their own, but I feel like I just watched one of my favorite songs in the whole musical get slaughtered.
- “oNe cAnDy cAne pLeaSe” - I can still hauntingly hear it in my head a full week later
And that’s all for this week’s entry… obviously had a lot to get off my mind today. All in all, a solid 6.5 from me (so I guess that makes it above average?) But since Anybody But You is a 9, the bar definitely a dipped a little. There’s some pretty good movies out in theatres this year, so you know I shall have to review more on here. And until then, stay warm out there😊