Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 52 minutes, Directors – Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr
New-at-school Cady (Angourie Rice) finds herself welcomed into the most exclusive and known group in school – eventually colliding with feared student, and leader, Regina George (Reneé Rapp).
The highlights of this feature adaptation of the Mean Girls stage musical lie in the moments where the characters truly let loose and are having the time of their lives. As Auli’i Cravalho’s Janis and Jaquel Spivey’s Damian belt out Revenge Party, the best song of the film, the screen floods with a rainbow of bright, pastel colours. The laughs roll in from both the energy and the lyrics and its an extended sequence to simply be fully caught up in. The song leads in to a second half with more frequent humour and songs which feel more a part of the world.
For much of the first half the musical numbers, a good deal of which are presented with a slimmer aspect ratio, feel as if they’re in a different world, separate from the events of the rest of the film. More like music videos to get from one place to another rather than potential fantasy sequences or heightened situations. Most of the cast can undoubtedly belt out a tune, even if some of the songs feel better suited to this treatment than more restrained ballads of sorts – more the case for those given to lead Angourie Rice’s Cady – but perhaps they’d work better on the stage (the only song I’d heard from the musical before going in to this take was Stupid With Love, which sounds as if it has a different treatment and style here).
Rice makes for a likable lead, however with this being Mean Girls, the focus is on the most feared and known girl in school, Regina George (Reneé Rapp – returning from the Broadway musical). Leader of the exclusive clique branded as ‘the plastics’ (also including Avantika’s Karen and Bebe Wood’s Gretchen) she welcomes in new-at-school Cady, instantly making her aware of the rules and a tear-down who’s who of other students. However, when Cady falls for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron (Christopher Briney), who sits in front of her in calculus class, she gets caught up in a web of conflictions between her friends and the plastics.
There’s a good deal of humour to be found within this particular take, particularly when the film breaks out into its own and steps away from the original – also written by Tina Fey who has now been with a Mean Girls project in three iterations over 20 years. It’s such points that allow the events to feel better connected, and the musical numbers to fully flourish and burst more from the screen instead of leaving you imagining how they would work on a stage. As a whole, when the plot truly kicks in and a chain of events become clearer Mean Girls truly finds its stride and struts forward with a good deal of confidence. There may still be some occasional bumps along the way, cut down from the stage version this film take still somehow feels occasionally overlong, but as a whole there’s enough to enjoy about the way in which this particular version of Mean Girls presents itself to make for good, entertaining viewing.
While certain moments might feel better suited to the stage, when Mean Girls lets loose with bursts of colour and energy there’s an entertaining nature with effective humour, particularly in the second half which brings in more narrative developments.
Just A Little Bit Random 