Director: Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr
Cast: Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey
Have I Seen it Before: Well… Is it even really an appropriate question in this context?
Did I Like It: I had been on the fence about seeing the movie at all, ultimately. How different could it be? Thankfully, it is different enough that although one takes in the same story* with almost no variation, there are enough new Tina Fey-isms to make one feel like they haven’t been cheated by the experience. I laughed with some regularity.
Where the film exceeds expectations is in its casting. Although all of the new plastics and the other students at North Shore evoke all of their predecessors, but never once feel like they are doing an impression of Lindsay Lohan or any of the others. That adds more to the experience of what essentially is watching the same movie again. But that’s not really what I mean about the casting, what I mean to say is I am unwaveringly impressed by the fact that Rice absolutely looks like she could be the daughter of Jenna Fischer, and Rapp absolutely looks like she could be the daughter of Busy Phillips. So few movies ignore such considerations—including the original Mean Girls (2004)—and it has a nasty habit of taking me out of the film.
Unfortunately, this will end up being something of a mixed review. The songs offered here are fine, but there is not one that burrows into the mind and soul like a great musical. This might be forgiven, if it weren’t for the fact that the only reason I did break down and watch it was because Lora and I had binged all (so far) of Girls5Eva and I was struck by how great Jeff Richmond’s music complemented the comedy of his spouse. Here, the music isn’t doing much beyond giving the characters an excuse to sing. The crew involved here can do (and has done) much better in other work.
*Parts of the plot—indeed, some characters—are pared down, and a few parts are expanded, but if you’ve seen the original Mean Girls, you’re taking this in as an exercise in cinematic comfort food.