Following within the footsteps of Hairspray, The Producers, and Little Store of Horrors, Imply Women is returning to theaters, not as a remake however as a flashy musical impressed by a stage manufacturing too fashionable to disregard.

Tina Fey, who wrote the unique film and the e book for the Broadway musical, returns to script this incarnation and as soon as extra play the flustered trainer Ms. Norbury. Nonetheless, administrators Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. have an added impediment: Their supply comedy wasn’t only a cult traditional; it was a large hit that spawned numerous catchphrases and memes. Plus, this film musical updates the timeline from 2004 to immediately, when teenagers and tech aren’t what they have been. 

So how does Imply Women survive this newest re-interpretation? On its facet is a strong plotline of recognition, priorities, and Plastics, plus a promising forged of younger stars, together with The Intercourse Lives of School Women‘ Reneé Rapp, The Good Guys‘ Angourie Rice, and Moana‘s Auli’i Cravalho. However is that sufficient to make this film musical sing? 

How does Imply Women (2024) evaluate to Tina Fey’s authentic?

Credit score: Jojo Whilden / Paramount

The plot between the 2004 Lindsay Lohan automobile and this singing-dancing model is just about the identical: Homeschooler Cady Heron (Rice) is worked up to go to highschool and make buddies, however quickly realizes the cliques, crushes, and guidelines of cool are greater than she bargained for.

Fortunate for her, she clicks with the “artwork freaks”: Janis ‘Imi’ike (Cravalho), who has a snarl and a ardour for embroidery, and the garrulous Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey), who’s “nearly too homosexual to operate.” However this contemporary meat who’s “actually fairly” additionally catches the attention of fearsome Queen Bee Regina George (Rapp) and her fellow Plastics: desperate-for-approval Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Woods) and the deeply dippy Karen Shetty (Avantika). 

Welcomed into the cool children’ circle, Cady conspires with Janis and Damian to take the menacing Regina down a peg by way of varied sabotages involving face cream, bulk-up bars, and a few scandalous secrets and techniques. However between the annual vacation expertise present, the vicious Burn Guide, a well-timed bus, and promenade, all of those teenagers will study classes about self-worth, bullying, and what it means to be a buddy. 

There may even be the re-enacting of many well-known traces about large hair stuffed with secrets and techniques, cool mothers, and Glen Coco. Nonetheless, a number of of those really feel tacked on, making some punchlines really feel extra like a punchcard. And total, Imply Women has misplaced plenty of its chew. 

This Imply Women feels too tame. 

Credit score: Jojo Whilden / Paramount

Among the cuts from Fey’s authentic script are well made. Gone are the tedious race jokes about Black tradition (by way of a white lens) and excised is the thread concerning the “Cool Asians” hooking up with the predatory Coach Carr. But additionally gone is the road, “Oh my god, Karen, you’ll be able to’t simply ask folks why they’re white.” Early on, this means that Fey’s revision was much less geared toward clearing away dated or problematic jokes and extra about dulling the sides of something that may threat being provocative. 

Intercourse can be toned down right here, with slut-shaming language largely absent and innuendo saved very PG-13. Most notably tamed is the Halloween part. The place within the authentic, “The hardcore women simply put on lingerie and a few type of animal ears,” 2024’s Imply Women sport costumes that would not make a priest blush. So, the distinction to Cady’s creepy costume is much less sharp and fewer humorous.

The jokes that stay or are subbed in haven’t got the chew of the unique. This implies each ruthless Regina and livid Janis are gentler variations, extra advanced and worthy of viewers empathy. Which throws off the stability, for higher and worse. 

As Regina George, Reneé Rapp is so wickedly enjoyable, it is nearly imply. 

Credit score: Jojo Whilden / Paramount

Following within the footsteps of Rachel McAdams’ iconic flip isn’t any straightforward feat. However Rapp has had loads of rehearsal, having performed Regina George on Broadway from 2019 to 2020. And whereas the film musical provides the Broadway present’s track a extra pop spin, Rapp makes all of hers a marvel. From the second her smirking lips seem in close-up, sultry-singing, “My title is Regina George, and I’m a large deal,” she has us hooked. 

Curiously, Jayne and Perez mirror Cady’s captivation with a wide-eyed response shot that reads as lusty. However whereas this time round, Janis just isn’t queer-coded however simply flat-out queer, Cady’s preliminary fluster over Regina isn’t fruitfully explored. So this shot, whereas impactful, is extra complicated than confessional.

Rapp’s star energy is explosive. Her side-eye slices deep. Her snarled insults hit like grenades lobbed from completely manicured nails. She’s a dynamo whose swagger swiftly establishes — higher than dialogue or songs may ever — simply how Regina has the varsity in a chokehold. Nonetheless, Regina additionally will get a track about her conflicted emotions about her ex, Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney). Her hair thrown about by a rock-star gust of inexplicable wind, Rapp sells this so nicely that as an alternative of rooting for Cady to attain the good-looking senior, it is onerous to not be in Regina’s nook. Particularly as a result of Cady has turn into a shadow of her former self. 

Angourie Rice cannot evaluate to Lindsay Lohan’s Cady Heron. 

Credit score: Jojo Whilden / Paramount

Some might snark, however wanting again at 2004’s Imply Women, there is no denying Lohan’s charisma. Solid as an every-girl studying onerous classes about teendom, the ’00s icon was dynamic and entertaining, by no means overshadowed by extra bombastic characters like Regina and Janis. This made the twisted friendship triangle between the three work! However on this Imply Women, Cady is less-than. That means when Regina or Janis aren’t onscreen, the movie stumbles.

To her credit score, Rice is beginning with an obstacle: She has no voiceover. Storywise, the songs give voice to the concepts current within the authentic film. Administrators Jane and Perez make the most of this by changing the fantasy sequences of youngsters performing like wild animals with sneering classmates turning into beaming backup singers as Cady ponders love and arithmetic (“Silly with Love”). However her monologue about find out how to gown scorching for Halloween turns into a joke-filled track for Karen (“Attractive”). Regina steals her thunder singing to their shared love curiosity with “Somebody Will get Harm.” And the climactic life lesson “I might Quite Be Me” goes to Janis — not Cady. All of this undercuts the film’s principal character, making her a supporting participant in her personal story. 

Auli’i Cravalho stands out as insurgent Janis ‘Imi’ike. 

Credit score: Jojo Whilden / Paramount

Whereas Cady turns into much less of a hero and extra of a tool to usher audiences by way of catchphrases and track numbers, Cravalho establishes herself as a stunner. Positive, the Plastics get a lot of the consideration, and this outcast is robbed of a few of her surlier traces. Nonetheless, like Lizzy Caplan earlier than her, she imbues Janis with a justifiable fury that bursts forth in informal insults and difficult love. She is radiant in her rage.

Her chemistry with Spivey is strong, from their opening bars of the intro track, “Cautionary Story.” However when she sings solo, everybody else fades away. “I might Quite Be Me” is a banger dropped at life not solely with Cravalho’s Disney-princess voice but additionally a growling conviction that pulls you to the sting of your seat.

Cravalho and Rapp are forces of nature. So it turns into a disgrace we do not get to see them go head-to-head. Cady is in between them, making her much less a hero and extra a frustration because the movie’s give attention to her retains these two dynamos on separate corners. 

Imply Women lacks a robust imaginative and prescient. 

Credit score: Jojo Whilden / Paramount

To the administrators’ credit score, their forged is stacked with expertise. Avantika makes Karen her personal with a supply that’s bouncy bimbo perfection. Wooden brings a pointed panic to Gretchen that pops on this demanding setting. The likes of Jon Hamm, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows, Ashley Park, and Busy Phillips pop as much as play grown-ups caught up in teen drama. However the world they construct is uninspired, plagued by the acquainted and a spattering of phone-recorded response movies to mirror its new period.

A lot of Cady’s costumes are so near the unique, the character herself feels immediately dated. Track numbers set in hallways are restrained somewhat than rapturous. The choreography feels extra knowledgeable by TikTok than Broadway. It is flashy however lacks emotional weight.

In the long run, it appears this crew was making an attempt to wed Imply Women with Excessive College Musical, bleeding out the bits that may have been too jolting for fogeys so that children may increase the demographic. It is a unusual name since each motion pictures are PG-13. However there is no denying this Imply Women is enjoying it secure. And that is not fetch. 

Imply Women opens in theaters Jan. 12.