Sitting in the passenger seat of my friend’s car, I was belting my heart out to the soundtrack from Mean Girls, the Broadway musical, that was blaring throughout the car. Wearing my hot pink jacket, I was going to see the movie “Mean Girls the Musical.”
It wasn’t me walking into the movie theater, seventh grade me was. The girl who was obsessed with this musical, the one who knew all the words to all the songs, the girl who watched every single behind-the-scenes video on YouTube, the one who got merchandise. I was insufferable.
This movie is based on the musical, which was based on a movie (a mouthful, I know.) “Mean Girls” is an iconic film that everyone knows of unless you have been living under a rock. But, in case you are unaware, it follows the story of a girl named Cady Heron who had moved to Illinois from Kenya. She gets invited to sit at the same table as the popular girls at school, which people at the school call “The Plastics.” She soon becomes friends with Damien and Janis, who convince her to work as their inside man against “The Plastics.”
This movie navigates her experience with dealing with public high school after being homeschooled all of her life; dealing with homework, drama, crushes, and the mean girls (see what I did there? I think I am hilarious.)
Jaquel Spivey, who playsDamien Hubbard, and Auli’i Cravalho, who plays Janis Sarkisian, introduced us to this musical world. The movie begins with Janis and Damien trying to set up their phone in order to make a video, as the video begins they begin to sing the iconic opening song “Cautionary Tale.”
Although both performers did a “fetch” job, Spivey’s performance was definitely one of the best in the movie. He was absolutely hilarious and gave off the energy that Damien needed. Another performance that really stood out to me was Avantika Vandanapu, who plays Karen Shetty, and she was absolutely hilarious. Her performance of the song “Sexy” has to be one of my favorites.
“Sexy” is an upbeat and fun song, and you can tell that Vandanapu was having a ton of fun with it which makes it a lot more entertaining to watch. Another performance that stood out to me was Reneé Rapp, who plays Regina George. Rapp’s voice leaves me in awe. She sings these incredibly difficult notes like it is the easiest thing in the world (it is not, I have tried.) Honestly, I want to go see the movie again solely because of these three people.
This movie did a very good job of adding the musical theater aspect onto the screen. Choreographer, Kyle Hanagami, did a very good job with making the cast dance very over the top to make this world seem more fun and whimsical.
However, I would like to break down every song and give my specific reviews for each one, that would take forever to read and no one wants to read all of that. So instead of that, I will be talking about two songs that stood out most to me, for good and bad reasons. I will be talking about “Stupid with Love” and “World Burn.”
“Stupid With Love” is a song Cady sings when she realizes she has a crush on Aaron. This song is supposed to be very upbeat, showing the happiness she gets from this guy in her AP Calculus class. Although, when Angourie Rice, who plays Cady Heron, was performing this song she was SUPER monotone. She didn’t sound in love, she sounded bored.
You could also tell that Rice was struggling a little bit throughout the song. Although you can’t really fault her. She is not a bad singer by any means but because she is getting put in a cast full of Broadway and West End performers, she is obviously going to be compared to them, which definitely makes her one of the weakest singers in the cast.
The other song I want to talk about is “World Burn,” which takes place when Regina finds out that Cady is trying to manipulate her. This song is Regina’s payback, and it gives me chills every time. Rapp has an INCREDIBLE voice, having a really impressive range and a powerful belt. She is absolutely terrifying as Regina. When the song was finished I just kind of sat there in awe of how talented Rapp is.
Now moving on from Rapp’s amazing vocals, there were two things in this movie that bugged me. First, the amount of product placement in this movie is insane. At one point Damien asks Cady what shade of lipstick she is wearing and she proceeds to tell him it is from the brand E.L.F and tells him the shade. It was really awkward. I understand a few items of product placement, but it was an insane amount. It felt like one big ad.
Along with the weird product placement, the fashion in this movie is absolutely horrendous. Not only is it ugly but it’s very out of character. Regina would be wearing Gucci and Louis Vuitton, not neon green cargo pants with an emo chain (I AM NOT KIDDING THAT WAS ONE OF HER COSTUMES.) It actually makes me so mad how ugly they looked.
Despite how annoyed I am at the horrible costumes, I actually enjoyed this movie as a whole lot more than I thought I would. Will this movie change any lives? No. Is it so unserious and campy and is just fun to watch? Yes. Honestly, I wouldn’t spend sixteen dollars on a ticket to see it in a movie theater (which is way too expensive,) but I would definitely give it a watch when it goes onto streaming platforms. I guarantee that you will have a lot more fun than you thought you would.
