Mean Girls (2024)

I missed Mean Girls on initial release. I distinctly remember my friend Paul raving about it in math class, and talking about seeing it in theaters three straight weekends. But as I’ve talked about before, I was strongly influenced back then by culture’s conviction that boys shouldn’t see “girly” movies, so a tale of high school girls didn’t appeal to me one bit. Over the years, people continued to speak super highly of it, so as I shed that ridiculous notion, I knew I needed to fill in that blind spot. This was during a time I would only watch a handful of movies a year (the amount I now catch in a week or two), so it took my partner showing it to me to finally resolve. And unsurprisingly, I loved it! We were even fortunate enough to catch it on the big screen a few years later. So for once, I’ll be able to compare a remake to the original!

Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) has just moved to town, and quickly befriends school outcasts Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damien (Jaquel Spivey). That’s before she’s adopted by the Plastics, a group of popular girls who more or less run the school’s social scene. Well, Regina George (Reneé Rapp) runs things: Karen Shetty (Avantika) and Getchen Wieners (Bebe Wood) are her acolytes. Regina seems friendly enough at first, but slowly her manipulative and vindictive nature comes out. When that escalates into a personal slight against Cady, she schemes with Janis and Damien to bring Regina down.

That plot is the exact same as the 2004 iteration, which was also written by Tina Fey. But as this is specifically an adaptation of the musical (also written by Tina Fey, and adapted from that 2004 film), this time we get songs. Other than that…basically nothing is different.

Nothing important, anyways. Cady’s father isn’t referenced, some characters are gay, Regina seemingly randomly beckons Cady over, and more details like that. Oh, and it’s of course updated for 2024, so there are a bunch of shoehorned in references to more modern people and movies and such. Not to mention the prevalence of smartphones, which leads to a handful of plot points being depicted through a montage of their classmates’ TikTok videos.

You’ll note all of these are minor things, or pure style. The movie seems largely terrified of deviating from the original film. So at every chance it has to subvert your expectations, either as a filmgoer or as a Mean Girls (2004) fan, it refuses. Plot points, framing, even individual jokes. Hell, Fey and Tim Meadows even reprise their roles as Ms. Norbury and Principal Duval, respectively. It has seemingly no ideas of its own. In fact, most of the plot deviations are minor streamlining or omissions in order to make room for the musical numbers, and it still feels rushed and unsubstantial despite being longer than than original.

That film wouldn’t win any awards for complex or nuanced characters. But they were at least fleshed out enough for you to develop some connection to them. It’s a part of why that movie remains so quotable: great lines said by characters we take to heart. Which makes the thinness and how little we get to know then in the 2024 redux even more disappointing.

Even the promise of more audacious and blunt and aggressive comedy (what I rightfully or wrongfully think of as “Gen Z humor”) failed to deliver. Which I guess shouldn’t be surprising, as Tina Fey is not Gen Z. I was hoping for the vibe of Bottoms but applied to a Millennial classic. There were some lines which managed to capture that, but the movie refused to go far enough, to really push the envelope in any way that landed. In the same vein, there were a few points where it started to push a bit meta, referring to things from the original as if they happened in this movie’s past. But again, Fey didn’t want to push far enough for it to work. So instead, it was a collection of “Hey, remember Mean Girls?!” mixed in with a poor approximation of what the kids are like these days.

I’m honestly having a hard time evaluating the performances without bias, due to my strong association of these characters with the original cast. But I do think everyone is doing a great job, along with being well cast. The one standout is Avantika, who somehow manages to rival Amanda Seyfried’s brilliant portrayal of Karen from twenty years ago. She was hands-down the most consistently funny part of the movie.

It’s quite possible that as a standalone movie, this will be plenty good. After all, a lot of what bugged me was that I knew almost every single joke and plot point that was coming. The uninitiated will likely get more mileage out of it. As will those who love musicals. While I’d say the songs are mostly whatever, everyone is a baseline capable singer, with a few such as Rapp reaching greater heights. So if Broadway is your wavelength, there’s definitely something here for you.

But I can only do so much to account for my personal taste. So I can’t help but be left feeling this is a pale imitation of the 2004 version, which has little reason to exist.