FILM
MEAN GIRLS
GET IN, LOSERS. WE’RE GOING TO SEE THE LATEST MUSICAL REBOOT
Best in class: The Plastics.
★★★★
OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 112 MINS
DIRECTORS Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr
CAST Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Christopher Briney, Jon Hamm, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows
PLOT Regina George (Rapp) is feared and worshipped by everyone at North Shore High — until the arrival of homeschooled Cady Heron (Rice) shakes things up.
WHEN IS A reboot not a reboot? Maybe when it’s the Mean Girls reboot, which is based on the 2017 Broadway musical, which was adapted from the 2004 film (itself loosely inspired by the 2002 non-fiction parenting book Queen Bees And Wannabes). While it might feel like nu-Mean Girls comes with a lot of sparkly pink baggage attached, in the event, from the zippy opening prologue number onwards, it’s very much a case of speedy boarding onto a first-class flight of fancy that requires zero familiarity with previous incarnations, but which manages to simultaneously reward loyalists with some decent inside jokes.