First, let me say I never saw Mean Girls - the movie and/ or any sequels or iterations (eg. Musical) - so for all the reviewers downgrading the movie because it's a "shameless Mean Girls rip-off," I have no basis to make that complaint. I reviewed this movie on its own merits alone.
Secondly, this is clearly a high-production value movie for a Lifetime movie. Not quite theatrical release quality, but certainly a Disney original movie or Netflix original movie quality.
The movie is carried brilliantly by hugely watchable multi-talented charismatic seasoned TV Queen Lucy Hale in an early-ish TV movie role that makes the movie engaging right out the gate.
Sticking to a common Lifetime setup wherein the star girl gets accepted or is recruited or pressured to join the same sorority as her mom as a "legacy" sister, the movie is built around the tension that ensues when the girl breaks from that mold. The movie could well have been entitle Mean Moms.
The campy sometimes cringy "warring" aside ("more like 'Little Whores on the Prairie'"), the movie does prove to be a mini-showcase for the loveable Hale.
This a Lifetime movie worth seeing.
