Movie Review

Musical version of Mean Girls boasts breezy tunes and easy storyline

The cycle of non-musical movies being turned into Broadway musicals and then back again into a movie musical is a fascinating one for those who love both sides. Other attempts at the trifecta – including The Producers, Hairspray, and The Color Purple – have taken up to 40 years to make the journey; Mean Girls went from film in 2004 to musical in 2017 and now back to movie musical in 2024, one of the shortest turnarounds on record.

$Avantika, Angourie Rice, Rene\u00e9 Rapp, and Bebe Wood in Mean Girls$

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Avantika, Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, and Bebe Wood in Mean Girls.

It’s easy to see why it’s been a success in each form, as the story is mostly light and breezy. Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is a new student at North Shore High School, one which – according to besties Janis (Auli’I Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) – is divided into cliques. At the top of the heap are the Plastics, a trio of rich girls led by Regina George (Reneé Rapp).

Cady, who quickly gets a crush on Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron (Christopher Briney), schemes with Janis and Damian to take Regina and her friends down a peg by infiltrating their group. But the more Cady hangs out with them, the more she starts to take on their traits, and it’s not long before Cady loses the sense of the person she was, and the person she wants to be.

Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., and written by Tina Fey (who’s written all three versions), the film is easy to like if you don’t overanalyze it. There are few major changes from either the original film or the stage musical, with all of the characters following roughly the same arcs. Many personality traits are heightened for comedic effect, giving any potential emotional connection a backseat in lieu of comic set pieces.

The focus is mainly on Cady’s interactions with the Plastics, but the best pairing on screen is Janis and Damian. The artistic duo, both of whom happen to be gay, are a delight every time they’re on screen not just because of their outsized personalities, but because they – and Cady for most of the film – seem to be the only genuine characters in the whole film.

If you didn’t know the musical’s songs prior to viewing, this version probably won’t have you humming them on the way home. The staging is mostly unmemorable save for the opening “A Cautionary Tale” and Regina’s big showcase in “Meet the Plastics.” Rice is clearly not a Broadway caliber singer, and you might find yourself straining to hear her soft tones in her handful of solo performances.

What ultimately makes the movie a fun one to watch is the actors. Rice has been on the rise in recent years, appearing in the newest Spider-Man trilogy and HBO series Mare of Easttown, and she has the perfect demeanor to play both sides of this role. Cravalho (the erstwhile voice of Moana) and Spivey are magic together, turning their side characters into the heart of the story.

Rapp, reprising her role from Broadway, is the strongest singer of the bunch, even if she doesn’t quite have the appeal that Rachel McAdams had as Regina in the original film. For the adults in the room, appearances by Fey, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows, Jon Hamm, Busy Phillips, and Ashley Park (who originated the role of Gretchen on Broadway) are all greatly enjoyable.

While the movie musical version of Mean Girls doesn’t prove its existence as absolutely necessary, or as good as the original movie, it’s still much better entertainment than moviegoers are typically given in the middle of January. The story is easy to understand, the songs breeze by, and the actors bring everything they’ve got.

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Mean Girls opens in theaters on January 12.

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Movie Review

Jessica Chastain drama Dreams stumbles through steamy romance

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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Movie Review

Musical version of Mean Girls boasts breezy tunes and easy storyline

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