The Clique

Essentially yes, this is a pretty adorable adaptation of the original books, the acting is pretty decent and the storyline is similar to the books. Only possible complaint was moving the setting to being winter break rather than summer/fall when the books take place. The actresses play the characters well. Massie is well played and has the same ruthlessness as she does in the books. Overall a very cute teen movie that does the books justice. It will have is cheesy, dorky, cringy moments, like any teen movie adaptation but it's all in good fun.

Spoiled rich girl Massie (an excellent Elizabeth McLaughlin) gets a literal wake up call when her dad announces that their guest house will be occupied by his college buddy and his family. This family includes a daughter named Claire (Ellen Marlow), who is the same age as Massie. Massie, the head of a seventh grade clique called The Pretty Committee, does not like this newcomer at all. A rivalry between the two girls begins. Will they ever be friends?

Although many viewers of this teen movie will surely predict the outcome, it provides enough laughs and drama to please most of the young girls the film is aimed at. I personally felt for Claire, even when she stooped to sending false e-mails to Massie's friends. (Haven't we all done something awful like this that we later regretted?) My favorite member of The Pretty Committee is Alicia (Samantha Boscarino), a shopaholic who is as idiotic as she is beautiful.

The film was based on a series of novels by Lisi Harrison, which I never heard of prior to watching this movie. As with many book to film adaptations, there will always be (probably rightly) those who prefer the book to the movie. Still, to pass on this movie just because it's not like the book would be a crime. There are many movies I saw before reading the book, and after I did read it I became a fan of both versions.

The Clique is definitely worth the 87 minutes it lasts.

Cringy but also entertaining. I feel like a lot of the main characters were miscast. If you read this adapted YA series, then you know (such as Alicia and Dylan). The film plays out like a low budget film meant for TV and feels campy, but also satirizing school cliques and social dynamics of an all-girls private prep school. It's definitely a guilty pleasure of mine to watch because a lot of the acting is amateurish, but I think the actresses portraying Claire Lyons and Massie Block do slowly disappear in their roles (a good thing) the more the film progresses. Basically, the more the film edges toward its conclusion it increases in quality. And I can only imagine what a sequel film would've looked like with the same cast and the improvements that could've been executed plot-wise, wasted potential honestly or maybe the production team had no budget for more sequels of the novels.

I held very low expectations for this movie, as the book was no where near READABLE to me. For one thing the plot is so unrelatable. How many girls watching this movie are white, "beautiful", rich, mean, and "smart". Umm, can you say NONE? No girl ,that I know of, is as mean and heartless as Massie Block and her pathetic "Sheep Committee". Obviously, the author was going for an exaggerated depiction of what "cool, rich girls who go to Private School" are like. The acting was annoying, amateur, and unbelievable, as are the characters in the book. I find it very painful to watch such a clueless "sweet" little new girl get walked over by a bunch of rude wannabes. I mean, honestly, I think you know when someone isn't your friend. The movie is fairly predictable, and fulfills the low expectation meter. So, I guess if you loved the book, you'll like the movie.

Okay, so the girls from the Pretty Committee may be hard to relate with, the acting may be sub par, and the whole thing might not be realistic but I thought that was the entire point of the film. It presents two kinds of realities--the beautiful, smart, and rich that everyone craves to have (Massie Block) and the dull plain one that most people are in (Claire Lyons). It doesn't really have to be taken literally, point is, they still represented the various cliques that really are present in high school-- the popular ones, the almost there but not quite, the weirdos, and the losers. In a way, Clique is just an incredibly high-end and young version of Tina Fey's Mean Girls. It's not something to watch if you're in need of a life-changing film. This one's fun, but it's definitely a no-brainer.