Wife saw this movie the weekend that Bestie left and came home saying that she wished that I would see it sooner than the following Tuesday so that she could 1) talk about it with me and 2) play the soundtrack in the house, which was all the persuasion I needed to rearrange everything so that I could see it the following evening. The questions that I want answered in any remake or adaptation of a cult film from 20 years ago are: is it improved by the inclusion of musical numbers (“Are there any bangers or is it just a rehashing in song form of the characters’ inner monologues in a soulless cash grab?)? How do the updates account for changing mores around sexual and gender norms in that times (“Probably ‘too gay to function’ has less of a sting to it?” “Is the ‘get her fat’ plot still there?”)? Is technology accounted for (“Does it do the Assassination Nation thing?”)?
I’m happy to inform you that I am a complete convert. Just about everything I can think of in the update is an improvement upon the original and the stage play: the music, the arrangements, the work around the Janis/Regina rift, even the humor wielded by the adults is perfect for the time. The movie prompted me to take a more serious listen to the stage play soundtrack to think more about the decisions for choosing the songs that were chosen for the movie, and I think I can illustrate some points just by using a case study like Stupid with Love.
The lyrics are some of the best in the show: the “calculust” pun by far the greatest math/romance pun ever, but also the chorus, the choreography in the movie version which shifts from the classroom fantasy to a walk out to the parking lot with some very cute dancing is such a huge improvement on the mombo drum theme that evokes Kady’s past in Africa. The shift away from big, showy showtune-y numbers, evocative of classic Broadway, and toward a cleaner almost a capella, poppy feel is such a clear aesthetic choice which makes the movie even fresher and distinctive in its style than simply an “update” to the original movie.
There are some songs that seem a little more juicy and dramatic in the stage play: Bebe Wood’s rendition of “What’s Wrong With Me” is abridged, vulnerable and melancholy in a way that the stage play leaves a little more open-ended, with the assurance of an inevitable conflict between Regina and Gretchen Wieners:
Tell me who we hate today
And I will fall in line
Hug me while my shoulders tense
And we’ll pretend we’re fine
Though we both know one day
There’ll be blood on the floor
But which one will betray the other more
Avantika’s unhinged version of “Sexy” with the social media twist is an orgy for the senses and her preternatural stupidity is a sight to behold. I’m still not sure if I prefer “I’m a SEXY bunny, duh” to “I’m a bunny, duh.” Regina George’s songs and Reneé Rapp’s performance are high points: “Meet the Plastics,” where she exudes sex appeal, especially the way that she touches her lips, alluded to in the movie posters; “Someone Gets Hurt,” the awkwardly choreographed but deviously composed make up song; and “World Burn,” the villain’s power ballad. “Revenge Party” is the song that I keep coming back to (Wife contends that the “Yes, bitch” response from Janis is the best line in the entire movie), and “Apex Predator” is the first song that the monster in the house commented on saying, “It’s pretty good” and also “That’s from Mean Girls”. Which is all to say that Auli’i Cravahlo’s performance shows such range from her work on Moana. In a lot of ways, the force of her singing reshapes the structure of the story around the tension between her and Regina George, which makes for some really interesting moments. Wife came out of this movie saying what she always does, which is that she resents thirty year olds for playing high school students, and then she went back and reported to me that everyone is really (relatively) young, which I think is part of what I like about the casting.
Giving this one two Babadooks and calling it a day.
