Girls on Film: How the new Carrie fails to tell the story it should be telling

Bullying among teenage girls has never been more relevant — but Kimberly Peirce's Carrie misses the chance to tell the real story

Carrie
(Image credit: (2012 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. and Screen Gems, Inc.))

To copy or not to copy — that is the undying question at the heart of Hollywood. On one level, it determines which beloved classics will get remade at all. On another, it applies to how they'll be remade: Will a film break new ground, or will it stay loyal to the original?

Unfortunately, Kimberly Peirce's Carrie, which hits theaters today, is the latter — a film so loyal to Brian De Palma's 1976 adaptation that it misses the social relevancy of Stephen King's original novel.

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Monika Bartyzel

Monika Bartyzel is a freelance writer and creator of Girls on Film, a weekly look at femme-centric film news and concerns, now appearing at TheWeek.com. Her work has been published on sites including The Atlantic, Movies.com, Moviefone, Collider, and the now-defunct Cinematical, where she was a lead writer and assignment editor.