Movie Review: Mean Girls

I have so many thoughts on "Mean Girls" and the state of movie musicals in general, so let's get right into it.

"Mean Girls" is a movie musical based on a musical based on a movie based on a book. Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is a new girl at North Shore High. She gets invited to lunch by the popular girls known as The Plastics. She and two other students use this as an opportunity to take down the leader, Regina George (Renne Rapp).

Before I get into everything, I will say this: I enjoyed parts of this movie. I thought some of the new versions of the musical songs were very good, particularly "Someone Gets Hurt." Rapp is as great as Regina (as she should be; she played her on Broadway), and this version of the song is much more sinister than the original.

My problems start with the fact that it didn't commit to being a musical. There are at least three times where only half a song is sung. As someone who has seen the musical and listened to the soundtrack many times, it felt like it wanted to be as much like the movie as possible.

This gets me to something I mentioned in my "Wonka" review. Hollywood is afraid to market musicals as musicals. There was a time when these were surefire hits: Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Debbie Reynolds, and dozens of other stars made their names in musicals. And while it stinks that very few musicals are released today, the studios should embrace it when they do: they might be surprised.

6/10

Rated PG-13 for teen drinking, strong language, sexual material

1h 53m