MEAN QUEEN
Canada, 2018, 90 minutes, Colour.
Zoe Mc Clelland, Allie Mac Donald, Niam Roam, Anana Rydvald, Judith Baribeau, Matt Holland, Susan Glover.
Directed by Philippe Gagnon.
This is one of many Canadian thrillers directed by Philippe Gagnon.
With the title, and its reminiscence of Mean Girls, the film is targeted to a female teenage audience. Allie McDonald? is the embodiment of the mean to and, as the screenplay explicitly states, she is a sociopath. All smiles and glamour, she dominates the girls at school, has made insinuations about teachers leading to their being fired, threatens to expose another teacher for assaulting her (which he had not) so that he helps her cheat with exams, and, it emerges that she has abducted another teacher who has threatened to fail her.
Into the situation comes a relief teacher, Zoe Mc Clelland, and her daughter who is in the mean queen’s class but who is taken on by her but, especially, as a means of finding out more about the substitute teacher, her belonging to AA. When she fails her exams again, she starts spreading rumours, upsetting the teacher – all of the time building up to manipulations where she is to achieve her life’s goal, to be Prom Queen.
She despises her mother, is relentless in her sociopathic behaviour, but also behind smiles and charm. She is severe with her own mother – and, eventually, the teacher and her mother find the abducted woman and, of course, her downfall is at the very moment that she has become Prom Queen.
1. The use of mean in the title? Echoes of mean girls? Variation on the theme? The appeal to the target audiences of young teenagers?
2. Canadian production, school, homes? The musical score?
3. Amy, the opening, the vanity of her acceptance speech as Prom Queen? The story of a sociopathic teenager? Her background, father leaving, her working mother, Amy’s resentments, looking down on her mother, on her job, on clothes? A glamorous look? With the peers at school? Dominance? Meanness? The revelation of her treatment of previous teachers, the teacher leaving before being fired, abducting the teacher who was failing her, her blackmailing Mr Peters, her targeting Julie Taylor? Befriending Mia? Insinuating herself, the AA card on the fridge, taking Mia to parties? The maths classes, her boyfriend and sexual advances? Her failure, doing tests again, getting the abducted teacher to write the answers? Keeping the teacher, drugging her? Planting the bottle under the bed? Buying the expensive dress for the prom? Getting near to be on the counting group?
4. Julie Taylor, personality, alcohol problem, AA, separation from her husband, joint custody of their daughter, her relationship with her daughter, the daughter in class, Julian the principal, teaching maths, stern? Suspicions of Amy? Warning her daughter? Giving her permission to go out, the dress shop, too expensive, the 18th birthday? Her conversations with her sponsor? Amy, failing the exam, doing the supplementary, Julie recognising her friends writing? Following Amy in the woods, Amy hitting yourself and accusing Julie, the false report from the sponsor, her daughter believing the full supports, her husband believing them, Miya moving out? The rebuke by the principal? Having to resign? The meetings with Amy’s mother?
5. Miya, 18, caught between her mother and father, sponsored by Amy, believing the criticisms of her mother? Amy not getting the vote, Amy bashing Mia, her mother rescuing her? The reconciliation?
6. Julie, going to Amy’s mother, the discussion, going into the woods, rescuing the teacher, phoning the police?
7. Amy, the announcement, getting the crown, the speech, the police arriving, her being taken, her protest?
8. Audiences watching the credibility of the teenage sociopath and the damage she could wreak?
