Mean Girls (12A)

Raised in the African bush by her mother, 15-year-old Cady Heron moves back to America and enrols at North Shore High School where she is befriended by misfits Janis and Damian. They persuade Cady to infiltrate a coterie of the most popular students known as The Plastics, ruled by Regina George. Cady agrees to their plan, but the Plastics gradually infect her outlook on life and she risks becoming the next mean girl.

LondonNet Film Review

Mean Girls (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

In 2004, wickedly mean-spirited comedy Mean Girls joined Heathers and Clueless in the top class of riotous schooldays celebrations. The Tina Fey-scripted romp has sustained its standing as a cultural phenomenon, inspiring an award-winning musical (also written by Fey), which premiered on Broadway in 2018 and moved with the times to de-weaponise homophobia in the teenage playbook of psychological warfare. An exuberant film version retains Fey as screenwriter and sensibly cuts and pastes some of the most quotable lines from the corridors and classrooms of North Shore High School…

Unapologetically out and proud student Damian Hubbard, who is “too gay to function” even in 2024, still introduces gossip-mongering Plastics member Gretchen Wieners with the zinging one-liner “That’s why her hair is so big, it’s full of secrets!”, and dating ex-boyfriends remains firmly off-limits because “that’s just, like, the rules of feminism”. And yes, Gretchen is unwavering in her determination to make “fetch” happen as a superlative in the modern teen vocabulary. “It’s, like, slang from an old movie,” she professes. “Juno, I think.” A glorious cameo, reserved for the Mathletes state championship showdown, is worth the wait.

The toe-tapping songbook featuring music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin has been harshly edited, removing two of Damian’s stand-out moments (Where Do You Belong?, Stop) as well as the romantic duet Stupid With Love. A new ditty, What If?, is a disappointingly subdued substitute for Cady Heron’s introductory number It Roars. The inconsistent direction of wife-husband team Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr, making their feature film debuts, is a stumbling block to making fetch happen on the big screen. They energise some musical numbers and suck the oxygen out of others, drawing attention away from the characters with the camera’s movement.

North Shore High School duo Janis Sarkisian (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey) narrate the cautionary tale of 15-year-old Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), who moves back to America from Kenya with her mother (Jenna Fischer). Janis encourages Cady to infiltrate the ranks of The Plastics ruled by the formidable Regina George (Renee Rapp), who is fully aware of the grip she exerts over classmates (“This whole school humps my leg like a chihuahua”). Cady spends time with Regina and chumettes Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika) but The Plastics’ pretty poison gradually corrupts the new girl.

Mean Girls moves with the times from 2004 to fixate on the pivotal role played by social media in teenage lives, but for the most part, Jayne and Perez Jr’s picture dims next to the original. Rapp reprises Regina from Broadway and is a supernova of seduction while Cravalho and Spivey devour their scenes with belting voices and sass, repeatedly overpowering Rice. Sadly, the third time for Fey’s empowerment anthem isn’t a charm.

– Sarah Lee