Movie Reaction: Mean Girls (The Musical...but don't tell anyone)

Formula: Mean Girls + Music

 

I had a much longer version of this. Let me take it back to basics instead. You know Mean Girls: the 2004 comedy that established Lindsay Lohan as a teen queen, gave Rachel McAdams her first of two breakout roles that year, and proved that Tina Fey’s writing could work beyond SNL. It’s a great movie with a crazy deep cast. No one should read any further if you haven’t seen it.

 

The 2024 Mean Girls is an adaptation of the musical version that was a Broadway hit. I don’t have the time or energy to determine why the fact that the movie is a musical has been so hidden from the advertising. I will note that a whole-ass musical version of the 97-minute 2004 film is only 15 minutes longer.

 

In other words, 2024 Mean Girls is massively-stripped down on a story level to the point that I wonder how much one could follow it without knowledge of the original movie. It’s very important to note that this is a musical adaptation though and not a remake. It is very beholden to the specific jokes, scenes, and structure of the original. So, when they aren’t singing, expect exactly the movie you remember although with a different cast.

 

The main issue with this Mean Girls is that I didn’t love the music. And that’s a problem for a musical. Ideally, you’d want someone coming out of a musical asking “How’d they do the ‘Fearless’ number on the screen?” not “How’d they do the Halloween party scene?” Not perfect comparison, but for example, when people talk about “Wicked” they want to know about “Defying Gravity”, not the flying monkeys or yellow brick road.

 

I even think on an execution level, the movie is a success. The cast could prove to rival the original when we look back a decade from now. Angourie Rice (Cady), Renee Rapp (Regina), Auli’i Cravalho (Janis), Jaquel Spivey (Damian), Avantika (Karen), Bebe Wood (Gretchen). They’re all really good at recreating those characters. The choreography and design of the musical numbers do a pretty good job of leaving the stage. It’s just that I don’t like the songs as much as the parts of the original they had to remove to fit the songs in.

 

Finally, I will fully accept any accusations that I have nostalgia blinders for a movie that came out when I was 16, and that maybe this new version will speak to 16-year-olds now in the same way. I doubt it. But I acknowledge the possibility. But overall, Mean Girls: The Musical – Good but not as good.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

Movie Reaction: Night Swim

Formula: Oculus + Water

The first horror movie of the year is a fun entry to any calendar. It's this weird space that is understood to make surprise hits but also seen as a dumping ground for films that don't work. It's counter-programming for the holiday releases that are still largely dominating the box office. I don't think we've had any stone-cold classics released in this window. We did get M3gan and Scream V that last two years, and those were fun. 

 

This year, horror's big winter hope is Nigh Swim. It's a movie about a family who move into a house with a haunted pool. The nature of how it is haunted and why they don't all just agree to not use the pool are for the movie to answer. It's most notable as Kerry Condon's first paycheck from her Oscar clout and for reminding me that Wyatt Russell, who I feel like was in college movies not that long ago, is actually old enough to have teen children. 

I can't say the movie is anything worth going out of your way to see. First-time feature director Bryce McGuire executes some nice thrills in the water. It could definitely unnerve someone already afraid of the water. The origin of the haunted pool is nicely looney and not over-explained. The screenplay is best to not put under a microscope, because some parts don't hold together. None of the actors stand out from each other. Russell pulls off the "former athlete" part of his character much better than "concerned father". At first, I thought that was just my take as someone who mainly knows him from Everybody Wants Some!! and Lodge 49, but during a couple key dramatic moments in the movie, I heard some other people giggle at Russell's line delivery. So, I guess others agree that he was odd casting.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend

Movie Reaction: Anyone But You

 Formula: Ticket to Paradise * I Want You Back

 

There’s one thing to remember when talking about the moderately expensive RomComs of the 90s and early 00s that we all remember and long for. They weren’t all great. Even the ones we now love, at the time, were only warmly received by critics. Many bombed with audiences and gained esteem with distance.

 

Even more than I want Anyone But You to be great, I want to exist in a film environment where Anyone But You could be just OK. I want RomComs with decent budgets to come back badly. I want there to be enough of them coming out that many can be disposable. Where I could dislike one and know there will be another in a month. I think it’s good to go into Anyone But You with that in mind. Because, Anyone But You is fine. It’s fine in a way that I enjoyed and would like to see again. It is a highly imperfect film of low ambition yet I’m very glad I watched it.

 

In terms of premise, it’s standard RomCom fare. Sydney Sweeney plays Bea. Glen Powell plays Ben. They have a meet-cute at a coffee shop that leads to the best date of their lives, ending with them falling asleep in each other’s arms. The next morning, a series of miscommunications and poor decisions leads to each thinking the other person actually had an awful time and they mutually ghost each other. Months later though, Bea’s sister (Hadley Robinson) and Ben’s friend (Alexandra Shipp) start dating and eventually have a destination wedding in Australia. So, Bea and Ben are forced to be around each other despite now hating each other. Or do they?

 

The movie satisfyingly checks off many RomCom boxes. The movie shoots the hell out of Australia and the many sights and houses that the characters’ affluence affords them. It’s a deep cast of familiar RomCom types who all happily go along with however many or few lines they get. It’s all pleasant in the way that draws so many people to the Hallmark movies but with a level of polish that makes it feel like a real movie.

 

I also appreciate how unapologetically sexy the movie is. Sweeney and Powell are gorgeous people. So are Shipp and Robinson. Everyone in this cast is nice to look at. The movie knows it. Everyone in the cast knows it. It’s a movie that says it’s OK enjoy seeing pretty people on screen. Does it focus on a narrow definition of attractiveness? Sure. If that bothers you, I don’t know what to tell you. That points back to the problem I mentioned at the top. There are so few of these movies anymore, that it won’t be able to be everything for everyone. That’s a feature of the movie but a bug in the state of the film industry.

 

Unfortunately, my main issue with the movie is a big one. Sweeney and Powell as they are deployed in this don’t work. I’m tempted to lay a little more blame on Sweeney. And, to be clear, I love Sydney Sweeney. I think she’s a great actress with more range than she gets credit for. Just looks at her 2018: very different roles in Everything Sucks!, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Sharp Objects. Or how she rose to prominence with one HBO show (Euphoria) and swerved with a totally different character in another HBO show (The White Lotus). Anyone But You just doesn’t play to her strengths. This role asks for her to be a put-together mess. Someone who always looks flawless but is kind of a mess but not in a manic kind of way. Maybe she’ll grow into that or maybe I need to blame the script more. But she just didn’t do that thing that Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts always make look effortless. I may also be giving Glen Powell too much of a pass just because I saw him do this kind of character before (Set It Up). He excels at being quick and quippy. I imagine this same movie with him and Zoey Deutch and immediately see how it works better. Perhaps the move is to make both Powell and Sweeney a bit less lovable. Make them a problem for those around them; two flawed people who only work well together. That actually leans into things that both are better at. As is, they are pretty faultless (thus, boring) characters. Sweeney is freshly out of a long-term relationship that ended because they got along too well. Powell is supposedly a “fuck boy” but the only dating history we know about him is that he had a girl he loved who didn’t want something more serious. There’s so little for these two to overcome to make it work.

 

I’ll stop there before I go on too long describing the way I’d rewrite the movie.

 

This movie is very charming. Light on real laughs, which is true of a lot of RomComs. It’s well-made. Everyone seems invested in making it good. I like both leads, although the movie struggles to find a spark between them as a couple. I’d watch a dozen movies just like this if they made them.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend