10 things in 'Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again' from which I personally will never recover
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is far from a perfect film. It defies all laws of time and space and traditional moviemaking by extension, in this ridiculous snow globe of a movie, anything goes.
That said, here are 10 of the wildest things about Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again that we're going to be thinking about for a long time.
Spoiler alert? Knowing any of these things in advance will not diminish your enjoyment of the film.
1. Lily James is charming as hell
Not only is she a convincing young Meryl, but she's a character all of her own – carefree and hungry for adventure.
2. The unspoken love between Bill and Harry
3. Ruby (Cher) and Fernando (Andy Garcia)
You may not pick up on this if, like some unnamed members of the Mashable Entertainment team, you spent the entirety of "Fernando" screaming into your popcorn [Editor's note: rude], but Ruby and Fernando fell in love in '50s Cuba. Is Fernando Sophie's grandfather – heck, are there two more contenders so we can set up Mamma Mia 3?
4. Time is a construct
72-year-old Cher plays 69-year-old Meryl Streep's mother. 67-year-old Stellan Skarsgard refers to himself as "a man in his 50s." Nothing about Sophie's age makes sense. Meanwhile, the man working the docks doesn't age a day.
5. Colin Firth refusing to dance in "Super Trouper"
And getting the other dads a free pass by extension. They just sort of jive casually and honestly, it works!
6. The entirety of "I Kissed the Teacher"
Whoever decided a Mamma Mia sequel meant digging up ABBA deep cuts like this...touché. Donna sings this at her graduation, and it's super weird!
7. The central trio's hair cuts
Donna sleeps with three dudes on a tight enough timeline that any of them could have fathered her child. Bill and Harry somehow don't sleep together. Pierce Brosnan continues to sing. There's a woman on Kalokairi who is definitely a witch. AND YET:
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8. That time Bill and Donna broke up a wedding
In lengthy and labyrinthine attempts to stall their inevitable hookup, Bill and Donna pick up a fisherman named Alexio (Gerard Monaco) who's desperately sailing fast to break up the wedding of the woman he loves to another man. Not only does this happen, but Alexio comes back later in the movie. Unreal!
9. Christine Baranski forever
Her character Tanya isn't as present in this one as in Mamma Mia! (which gave her a solo song), but she does get in this show-stopping one-liner:
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10. Rosie's love of cake
Poor Rosie's (Julie Walters/Alexa Davies) flashbacks aren't the sunniest as she grapples with Donna's inability to relinquish the spotlight, but Rosie is nothing if not a champ and a loyal friend who knows that men come and go, but cake is forever.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is now in theaters.
Proma Khosla is a Senior Entertainment Reporter writing about all things TV, from ranking Bridgerton crushes to composer interviews and leading Mashable's stateside coverage of Bollywood and South Asian representation. You might also catch her hosting video explainers or on Mashable's TikTok and Reels, or tweeting silly thoughts from @promawhatup.
