‘Mean Girls’ musical reboot described as “snappy” yet “culturally irrelevant” in mixed reviews

The new Mean Girls movie has been described as a “lively musical update” by critics, although reviews have generally been mixed.

Directed by Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne, and written by Tina Fey, the revamped musical version of Mean Girls was released in UK cinemas today (January 12).

The new film is an adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musical, which itself is based on the original 2004 movie, also written by Fey. Using the exact same plot, it follows socially naive teenager Cady Heron who, after moving back to the US from Africa, joins a new public school and soon becomes entangled with a “mean” group of girls known as the ‘Plastics’.

Reneé Rapp, who played Regina Geogrge in the stage adaptation, reprises her role for the film, starring alongside Angourie Rice as Cady, and Auli’i Cravalho as Janis Ian. Fey also reprises her role as Ms. Norbury from the original film.

In a four-star review of the film, Empire described it as “sharp, funny and strongest when it stands on its own two perfectly manicured feet,” adding: “This snappy musical successfully updates the original Mean Girls template for a fresh audience.”

Variety‘s Owen Glieberman was similarly positive about the reboot, going as far to suggest that certain elements of the film compared favourably to the original.

He wrote: “I’ll just say that after you’ve seen the pop singer Reneé Rapp, as the head mean girl Regina (Rapp also played the role on stage), make her grand entrance in a black vinyl bodysuit, singing ‘My name is Regina George, and I am a massive deal…,’ as if she were Anita Ekberg crossed with Mata Hari, the scene carries a jolt, and you may wonder for a moment how Rachel McAdams, in the original film, made the impact she did without that song.”

The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, was far more critical, describing the “regurgitated musical” as a “tuneless mess”. They wrote in their review: “All the effervescence and fun have been drained out of the material in this laboured reincarnation, a movie musical made by people who appear to have zero understanding of movie-musical vernacular.”

Elsewhere, The Independent gave the film a scathing two-star write-up, branding it “unsatisfying” and “culturally irrelevant”.

Mean Girls is now showing in cinemas.

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