Mon: Welcome to a bonus Stereo Geeks episode from Toronto International Film Festival 2026. I’m Mon and today, I’m reviewing Girl Group, which had its world premiere at TIFF.
Ron: Before we start our episode, we would like to acknowledge that the land we are recording on is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. It is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit.
Mon: While we are making this land acknowledgement, we understand that this is not enough and that positive action is required by the people of Canada to make substantive change for the Indigenous nations and communities whose lands we now reside on.
What is the film about?
Mon: Rebel Wilson writes, directs and stars in Girl Group, in which teenager Tassie Young and her girl group are on top of the world. That’s till Tassie decides to quit and pursue a solo career, which tanks.
Tassie tries to restart her career again but a conviction sends her to community service, where she must reluctantly become a mentor to a girl group hoping to win a big music competition.
Surrounded by young girls with big dreams, as well as their hopeful tutor, played by Randall Park, will Tassie be able to turn her life around?
What did the film do well?
Mon: Girl Group had been on my list but initially the screening timings weren’t working in my favour. But I thankfully was able to get to the press screening. And I’m glad I did. Because I love jukebox musicals. And I freaking love Randall Park.
The film has lots of cover versions of songs, many of which are contemporary and catchy. There’s also plenty of dancing which is energetic and always fun to watch.
Girl Group is also wholesome at times with sweet moments of friendship. The film is bawdy, which I had expected after seeing Wilson’s previous film, The Deb.
The first couple of acts were really hilarious. There were laugh-out-loud moments. Some clever jokes, puns, and innuendo. Sometimes it took a moment to sink in, which made the jokes even funnier.
The main draw for me was Randall Park, because he is always fun and funny to watch. Admittedly, Park has a pretty small role. But he always makes me smile. His characters always have a ton of depth to them even when the writing and screentime don’t support him. Here too, you can feel his love for his work and the warmth of his character. He also has the happiest smile that makes me smile too. I wish he’d had a larger role in the film.
I was initially concerned that the original songs didn’t pack as much of a punch as the mainstream songs. But I was wrong. I found myself bobbing along to the film’s anthem. And the medley at the end was particularly enjoyable.
Girl Group packs in a lot of characters and storylines, plus musical sequences. It’s frenetic, though not chaotic. There are a ton of cameos, some of which I may even have missed. There are so many characters, each with their own moments. The world of this film feels very alive!
I love that this film has more than one curvy or plus size character in significant roles—this was a problem in The Deb. Young actors Bailey Stender and Mia Kaplan are such a welcome change in an industry obsessed with thinness. And while Miracle Washington has a much smaller role, she’s also a tall, muscular girl who doesn’t fit the norm, and that’s great to see.
Mon: I went to a surprisingly empty press screening of Girl Group. We were in one of the larger theatres and it was not even 30% full. My guess is the TIFF programmers were expecting a ton of interest. But I don’t think Wilson, nor this story, has that kind of sway.
What could have been improved?
Mon: I’d seen Wilson’s The Deb a couple of TIFFs ago. I enjoyed that film too, but found that the core message was given short shrift. I wrote about it in WWAC.
The same problem continues with Girl Group. The majority of the film focuses on Wilson’s Tassie trying to mould her protégés into the girl power groups of yesteryear. The antics, costumes, and dances are highly sexualized. The non-conforming member is shunted out. The Black tomboy is in the background.
We have sequence after sequence of conventionally attractive young women dancing suggestively in ridiculous clothing. I was beginning to wonder what the film was trying to tell us when the pivot in the third act finally happened. By then, I worry that the damage is kinda done. Anyone watching is going to only see lewd dancing and the message that girls must conform to a certain look and appeal, otherwise they’re not worth it.
But that is not the takeaway from Girl Group. A better structured story and smarter editing would have allowed the central message of real girl power to come sooner. And the characters could have been better fleshed out.
We could have also done with more diversity in the contestants. There’s a group of curvy girls who briefly show up in the final act, but it would have been good to have more of that throughout the film to drive home the message of body positivity. The message simply comes too late.
I also don’t know if the message is undermined by the end credits video. It’s supposed to be fun, but it’s a pastiche of a 90s girl group music video. Is it sending the right message?
One last note on Girl Group: was it intentional to cast this many women who have had obvious cosmetic work done on their faces? It was jarring. There were some jokes about it, but not enough to explain just how many of the actors in the film look like they’ve had stuff done. Very odd experience.
Final thoughts
Mon: In general, I enjoyed most of Girl Group. The original songs and cover versions are really fun to listen to. The central message is important for young women—for anyone—to hear. Randall Park is always a draw for me. But the film needed to be streamlined so the storyline didn’t race through important story beats. The core message needed to have been brought in sooner so that so much of the film didn’t feel like an ad for Botox, nose jobs, and the sexualisation of women. A really powerful film is hiding just beneath the surface of Girl Group. Give it a shot to find it.
Mon: That’s it for this bonus review episode of Girl Group. Tune in next time for another TIFF 2026 review.
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Mon: See you next time.