Remake of the Broadway musical itself adapting the cult American film, “Mean Girls: Lolita Despite Me” was released in theaters this Wednesday, January 10, 2024.
Since its release in cinemas 20 years ago, Mean Girls is a comedy institution among American thirty-somethings. A little less cult in France, the fact remains that the film translated into Lolita in spite of myself remains a classic of the genre. Remaking it just two decades later therefore proved particularly difficult.
And yet. Mean Girls: Lolita in spite of myself, released in cinemas this Wednesday January 10, 2024, succeeds in surprising and being, in certain aspects, very pleasing. This is not a stricto sensu remake of the film carried by Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams in 2004, but a supercharged adaptation of the American musical, performed on Broadway between 2018 and 2020.
Always written by Tina Fey, the story of Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), a teenager who lived her entire childhood in South Africa before returning to the United States and discovering the harsh law of the jungle that rages in high school under the influence of the Regina George (Reneé Rapp) plague, is now embellished with songs.
Mean Girls: Lolita in spite of myself will not surprise fans of the original comedy: it sometimes copies shot by shot, line by line, actor by actor (Tina Fey thus reprises her role) the 2004 comedy. The plot will therefore offer no surprises if you already know the original film.
However, Mean Girls: Lolita in spite of myself succeeds in being delightful and surprising in the way in which it transposes the plot into the 2020s. Whether in the use of the smartphone, its acidic staging, the influence of social networks and especially TikTok with the appearance of influencers, openly feminist remarks or even musical influences (Regina George sounds in a style similar to that of Billie Eillish), this new version attempts to anchor itself in its time.
If he doesn’t invent anything, he nonetheless remains entertaining and effective. This guilty pleasure which could become cult for the new generation.