The phenomenon of a non-musical film being tailored right into a stage musical that then will get tailored right into a film is surprisingly frequent, as latest movies like 2023’s The Colour Purple and the 2022 Matilda reveal. A few of these tailored film musicals have even eclipsed the unique film variations in popular culture legacy, like Hairspray and Little Store of Horrors.
The 2024 Imply Women is the most recent entry on this very particular style. It’s tailored from the 2018 Broadway musical, itself tailored from the 2004 movie starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. The brand new Imply Women in all probability bears extra of a burden than previous film musicals tailored from musicals tailored from films, in that the unique film left a big impact on popular culture, and got here out proper on the daybreak of the web age, which set it up for a selected type of cultural longevity.
Administrators Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., making their feature-film debut, have their work minimize out for them, even armed with a script from Tina Fey, who returns after penning each the musical and the 2004 film. They make some baffling selections, like preserving a few of Nell Benjamin and Jeff Richmond’s songs from the Broadway present that don’t actually spotlight the forged’s vocals, on the expense of reducing some extra enjoyable and dynamic ones.
However additionally they do a fairly neat job of updating the trivia of highschool drama for the social media age. Bolstered by a (principally) stellar forged, who make the enduring characters their very own and exhibit their spectacular singing voices, Imply Women is a enjoyable little replace, although it by no means transcends the expertise of the unique film.
[Ed. note: This review contains minor setup spoilers for Mean Girls (2024), as well as the original 2004 movie.]
Photograph: Jojo Whilden/Paramount Photos
Like the primary film, 2024’s Imply Women follows Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed teenage lady who transfers to North Shore Excessive Faculty for her junior yr after a lifetime of being homeschooled in Africa. She struggles to slot in, till artsy Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) take her underneath their wings. Unexpectedly, the varsity’s hottest and ruthless scholar, Regina George (Reneé Rapp), decides to ask Cady to sit down together with her and her loyal lackeys, the Plastics: dim-witted, fairly Karen (Avantika) and insecure secret-keeper Gretchen (Bebe Wooden).
At first, Cady dismisses Janis’ warnings about Regina, however then Regina swipes Cady’s crush Aaron (Christopher Briney) from underneath her nostril, for no purpose apart from petty jealousy. So Cady joins forces with Janis and Damian to infiltrate the Plastics and take Regina down.
The forged of Imply Women (2024) has numerous massive sneakers to fill, each from the unique film and from the Broadway musical. Most of them do step up, flexing their vocal chops and bringing their very own aptitude to the larger-than-life characters — aside from Rice. Sadly, she simply doesn’t have Rapp’s or Cravalho’s robust singing voices, or Spivey’s or Avantika’s comedic timing. She brings a pleasant wide-eyed naïveté to Cady, however her singing doesn’t maintain up, particularly in comparison with the remainder of the forged.
This wouldn’t be such a obtrusive drawback if the primary few songs weren’t principally centered round her. To accommodate Rice’s singing voice, Cady’s preliminary solo was modified, and among the extra vocally difficult components within the group numbers went to different characters. The primary phase of the film solely flirts with being a musical: Jayne and Perez Jr. dangle higher singers and numbers in entrance of the viewers with out totally committing to them, as an alternative dragging out a number of uninspired songs just like the new-to-the-musical “What If?” and Cady’s romantic overture “Silly With Love.”
Photograph: Jojo Whilden/Paramount Photos
Fortunately, these boring songs aren’t indicative of the full-throttle musical theater that the film does ultimately embrace. When Jayne and Perez Jr. let the film be the musical it’s imagined to be, it’s an amazingly good time. The 2 greatest numbers — “Revenge Occasion,” an ensemble song-and-dance routine that overlays a montage of Cady, Janis, and Damian getting again at Regina, and “World Burn,” Regina’s massive villain tune — are completely splendid. They’re additionally those that almost all play up the musical model’s theatricality, and embrace what it’s meant to be.
Musicals are fairly often heightened variations of actuality. In any case, how else do you clarify the periodic breaks into tune and dance? As such, all of the characters are much more heightened variations of their unique counterparts. And the actors ship. Cravalho and Spivey are dynamic, grittier, and extra dramatic than the primary film’s variations of their characters, which is sensible in a musical with enormous group numbers that they headline.
Photograph: Jojo Whilden/Paramount Photos
Rapp’s Regina, for her half, is extra cutthroat and ruthless, with an iconic voice that pierces by means of the remainder of the soundtrack. Avantika’s Karen is extra empty-headed; Wooden’s Gretchen is extra insecure. All of it principally works — besides, once more, for Rice, who performs up Cady’s ingenuity slightly an excessive amount of within the first act, which makes her transition right into a verified Queen Bee tougher to purchase.
The story’s second act — from each the unique film and the Broadway stage model — is sped up and in the end jumbled on this adaptation. Fey’s script doesn’t dwell sufficient on Cady’s heel flip right into a imply lady to make the transition plausible. It additionally doesn’t assist that Rice by no means fairly sells Cady’s ruthlessness. She appears a bit too deer-in-the-headlights, wide-eyed and pushed round by too many different folks.
Each the unique film and the Broadway musical spend time with the brand new model of Cady, the favored Plastic who’s hardened and turns into every thing Regina as soon as was. However Imply Women (2024) doesn’t. All the things about Cady’s arc is a bit flattened and fewer, properly, imply.
Photograph: Jojo Whilden/Paramount Photos
The remainder of Imply Women, although, is sufficient enjoyable to nearly make up for a mediocre lead. The center of the film — proper from the enduring horny costume Halloween celebration to Regina’s bus incident — is probably the most enjoyable, because it totally indulges the musical theatricality and in addition pushes Cady to the sidelines in larger musical numbers. There are some enjoyable interval updates within the film, which takes numerous the story’s regular gossip and cellphone calls to social media platforms like TikTok. (There’s one hilarious working gag that includes rapper Megan Thee Stallion.) And there are sufficient nods to the supply materials to please followers. (Did I cackle on the Glen Coco point out? After all I did.)
Imply Women (2024) probably gained’t change the unique 2004 film in anybody’s hearts. The beginning and the tip — probably the most Cady-focused components — aren’t robust sufficient to hold the remainder of the movie, particularly when evaluating Rice’s tackle the character to Lindsay Lohan’s unique film efficiency, or Erika Henningsen’s robust vocals within the unique Broadway forged recording.
However Rapp, Cravalho, and the remainder of the forged maintain up the film, and customarily flip it into an excellent time. There are sufficient infectious songs to make up for the uninteresting ones, although the ratio isn’t fairly sufficient to solidify it as a transcendent musical expertise. (There are all the time a number of duds in a musical, however there needs to be extra bangers.) Total, the 2024 Imply Women hits the correct notes, persevering with the unique film’s legacy as an alternative of completely revamping it.
Imply Women debuts in theaters on Jan. 12.
