‘Mean Girls’ musical still in the works, Tina Fey says

This is the second time this week that Fey has confirmed that she’s working on a Mean Girls musical adaptation. (Remember Admission? Of course you don’t.) And while Whiskey Tango Foxtrot hardly presents a formidable challenge, it does put that statement to the test. The latest film from the directors of Crazy Stupid Love and Focus is just as glossy as its predecessors, but without the comedic vibrance of Fey, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot could have easily become a spiritual successor to Eat, Pray, Love. “Kim’s more of a badass”, Fey told People magazine.

“In signing over the rights, I felt like, ‘Look, I like Tina Fey”.

The film follows the story of a journalist played by Fey, who recounts her wartime coverage in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Christopher Abbott, star of last year’s indie drama James White, is quite exceptional as Kim’s translator, helping to keep things grounded, something that’s harder to do whenever Alfred Molina shows up as a horny local diplomat who wants Kim to be his “special friend”. “I grew up in Montana”, says Kim Barker, journalist. Just trust us. It’s going to be fine.

When she got there, she enjoyed the adrenaline-pumped life so much that she stayed on for three years in the area.

“I try to make myself feel warm about it in the fact that, y’know, Afghans are caucasians, it’s caucasians playing caucasians”. The inclusion of that scene, which features an injured marine, is the low point of the movie. It is a moment which requires absolutely nothing of her and comes at a time when she is turning a corner and should most have to struggle to get there.

It’s a pity, because these two actors might actually generate sparks with better dialogue and a more convincing narrative. Tina said that she genuinely enjoyed Kim’s story and felt like it was a character that she could play and execute well. Through it all, Kim remains steadfast in her journalistic standards but socially, the constant grind of wild partying broken up by bouts of incredible danger (gunfire is commonplace at night and bombing runs happen as a routine) begins to take its toll on her psyche.

But Fey is an inherently watchable actress, and that makes the movie inherently watchable.

Thornton says the element that drew him to the film is it displays “a different side of something that we see on the news every day”.