The plot kicks into full impact when Regina takes a liking to Cady, as if she’s a brand new plaything, and invitations her to hitch the Plastics for lunch. Unbeknownst to Cady, Regina and Janis have a darkish historical past involving a center college friendship gone unhealthy. This backstory is fleshed out with a lot richer, nuanced, and fairly frankly devastating particulars which make the nefarious plot put into movement by Janis way more comprehensible on this model of the story.
Complicating issues additional is Cady’s crush on her calculus classmate Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney, who, between this and “The Summer time I Turned Fairly,” is cornering the market on teen love triangles), who occurs to be Regina’s ex-boyfriend. Janis convinces Cady to buddy as much as Regina so she will be able to get revenge and Cady can get the man. After all, issues don’t go as deliberate and shortly Cady will get caught up within the glow of being in style, shedding her sense of self and her sense of ethics.
From right here, the brand new movie remixes plot beats and character moments from the unique movie by each a musical and social media lens. The recognition of Cady and Regina rises and falls as quick as a trending subject on Twitter. Their antics are recorded on cell telephones, spurring a thousand response vids. One minute Cady is nothing, the following she’s getting one million views and likes. Whereas these sequences are visually arresting, they usually are used as shorthand to sign adjustments in Cady’s conduct that might have been teased out a bit higher in dialogue as properly.
The identical may very well be mentioned for the songs, which within the musical custom, are principally used as a means for characters to precise their feelings. Not one of the songs are significantly catchy, though Gretchen Weiner’s track “What’s Unsuitable with Me?” stands out for its poignancy, as does “I might Moderately Be Me,” Janis’ highly effective rock anthem concerning the significance of self-worth. Even when the songs aren’t nice, they’re delivered to life with visible panache. “Revenge Social gathering,” sung by Janis and Damian, with its hallway decked out in rainbow colours and cotton sweet clouds nails a sure Gen-Z Instagram aesthetic. Equally, Regina’s darkish dirge “Somebody Will get Harm” evokes the glitter-infused, lowlight distress of one thing like “Euphoria.”