The new take on Mean Girls has finally hit the big screen! So, does this film adaptation of the Broadway show of the classic early 2000s film really work?

“Why are you so obsessed with me?”

What did they change, and what did they keep the same? And… why did they try so hard to hide the fact that it’s a musical in all of the promo?! Let’s dive into all of those questions and more!

“Get in, loser.”

MAKING NEW MAGIC

The 2024 version follows the basic plot of the original pretty much exactly: fish out of water Cady Heron is thrust into the new, scary world of high school drama, makes friends (and frenemies), and learns some hard lessons on the way to figuring out how to be herself in this wild world. One big difference though, of course, is that this version is a musical – it’s based off of the Broadway version Fey helped create in 2017 (we’ll get more into that later!) Rebooting beloved films is always tricky, but this allowed the team the opportunity to give this version a very different look and feel from the original. But… did it work? Let’s start by taking a look at the positives!

The film doesn’t just occasionally see a character or two breaking out into song, it’s pretty much a stream of music videos with a few lines of dialogue spliced in between. This gives it a fun, bright, and fast paced vibe that definitely separates it from its predecessor. The lyrics themselves often leave something to be desired, but the charisma and vocals of the performers keep the film soaring. The obvious standout is Renee Rapp. Playing such an iconic character that people have such a specific vision of in their minds can be a tall task, but Rapp managed to go in a totally different direction and make Regina her own. And her raspy vocals bring life to the best songs in the film (which makes sense, since she’s a pop star in real life, too!) Auli’i Cravalho, best known for lending her powerhouse voice to Moana, also has a star turn as Janis.

In addition to its faster pace, the new film was also updated for modern times in a number of other ways as well. A big one is the incorporation of TikTok (or, at least, an unidentified but clearly meant to be TikTok app) throughout the film. While gossip might have spread through word of mouth or notes passed in class back in the early 2000s, now everything is happening online. (Even Regina’s downfall is showcased through a montage of TikTokers internet sleuthing through the ‘facts’ and canceling her.) Much of the cinematography is flashy and bright, and often dips into TikTok-esque mood lighting. The film is also self-aware, not only referencing the original film itself

“That is so fetch!” “What is fetch?” “It’s slang… from an old movie.”

But also even media that the film has inspired in the years since, like when Damien calls out, “Okay, Thank U, Next!” during the talent show performance. And while much of the script pulls directly from the original, Damien and Karen at least do get some funny new lines. Janis is also now openly, actually queer instead of just being mocked for it and then ending up with a guy at the end.

The new film also thankfully gets rid of some big problems from the original film. One issue even big fans of the original movie have always had is its undercurrent of racism. The new version is both more diverse in its casting and deliberately moves away from the negative stereotypes that the original leaned into, for instance trading in the ‘Unfriendly Black Hotties’ for ‘Woke Seniors’. Coach Carr, who is this time played by Jon Hamm, also thankfully doesn’t have any inappropriate interactions with students this time.

While many of the changes make a lot of sense both to update the film for modern times and to make it feel like its own fresh take, there is one thing that didn’t work quite so well…

MEAN GIRLS… WITHOUT THE MEAN?

While remakes and reboots pretty much always have an uphill battle when it comes to acceptance, many were kind of surprised at just how not into the film so many critics seemed to be.

“You let it out, honey. Put it in the book.”

No one seems to think the film is bad necessarily, it just seems to be… missing something. So what is the spark that this version didn’t quite manage to capture?

Well, to be honest… none of the Mean Girls are really that mean. The original film really worked to get into the psyche of every girl, analyzing how each one of them had the capacity to be mean in her own way. Girl World really felt like a place in which one had to kill or be killed, to build up a strong shell in order to survive.

“Evil takes a human form in Regina George…”

The new film just doesn’t have the same fire. The characters parrot many of the same lines but without any of the bite – both because every character has been softened down to a much more amiable, nicer version and because the new film decided to Kidz Bop-ify lines it lifted from the original.

New Cady seems almost too sweet and too self-aware. In the original version, you could really feel Cady getting lured in by the pull of the Plastic’s power and popularity and the way it blinded her to everything else going on in her life, even her own bad behavior.

“I know it may look like I’d become a bitch, but that’s only because I was acting like a bitch.”

And, when Cady became a Plastic, it really felt like she had fully let herself go to the dark side. Lindsay Lohan was able to play both the doe-eyed new girl and the hot HBIC taking over the school. In the new film, it almost feels like they were afraid to let Cady be too bad since she’s the protagonist, and so even as she dips her toes into the pool of the Plastic life, you never really believe she’s changed to any meaningful degree.

This trepidation around leaning into genuine mean girl behavior also affects Janis’ characterization. Her entire arc in the original film is about unpacking the reality of the uncool mean girl and how a desire for revenge can lead you to perpetuate some pretty nasty behavior, too. You can really tell how being outcast and bullied by Regina has deeply affected Janis, and led her on a path of vengeance and quest for power and control that’s parallel to Regina’s herself.

“God! See, at least me and Regina George know we’re mean!”

And learning to overcome this and not let her grudges lead her to hindering her own life was a major point of growth for Janis in the end. In the new Mean Girls, Janis isn’t mean at all – that part of her character is essentially totally removed except for the beats they had to keep to follow the plot of the film. She does set Cady on her path to becoming a Plastic, but in this version it feels less like devious plotting and more like just a fun little game that she doesn’t intend to go too far. This new, softer Janis is still a fun character to be sure, but without her edge it feels like she loses the opportunity to have her own arc and character growth.

Surprisingly, even Queen of Mean Regina herself fell victim to the new film’s buffing down of harsh edges. In the original film, we really got to see why Regina struck fear into the hearts of everyone in her path and had staked out her spot as Queen of the school. She was cold and calculating and terrifyingly manipulative. You get both why people are drawn into her orbit and why they’re afraid to step out of line once they’re in it. New Regina is quite a bit less intense. But thankfully Rapp managed to find a balance with a new, more chill kind of mean that, combined with her charisma and confidence, creates a different kind of power. And the new film does tiptoe closer to some of the same meanness, like when Regina mocks Karen for sleeping with eleven people, calling back to her bullying in the original.

Because this new Regina just doesn’t have the same degree of straight up aggression as original Regina, her arc just ends with her loosening up after taking some pain meds instead of joining lacrosse.

“Regina’s spine healed and her physical therapist taught her to channel her rage into sports.”

Unfortunately we also don’t get to see nearly as much of the dynamic between the Plastics themselves, which in the original movie really served to illustrate the hierarchy of power within the ecosystem and how it crushed everyone within it, even those near the top. New Gretchen, for example, just doesn’t have the same tightly-strung lackey seconds from cracking who finally snaps energy, which makes the splintering of the group feel considerably less dramatic.

“Whatever. Those rules aren’t real.” “They were real that day I wore a vest!” “Because that vest was disgusting.” “You can’t sit with us!!!!”

Because no one is really that mean or bad, no one really changes all that much over the course of the film. Cady still has her epiphany monologue at the end, but it doesn’t seem like she’s really grown or been at all affected by her last several months surviving high school hell.

A big part of the problem is that so much world building and storytelling is lost in favor of songs. Characters conveying their feelings by bursting into song is literally the point of musicals, so it’s disappointing that the lyrics for most of the songs don’t really actually tell us much about anything at all. And then what little actual dialogue is left between the songs is mostly just callbacks to lines from the original film or really basic exposition that also doesn’t do much to flesh out the characters themselves. But… why was it even a musical in the first place?

WHY MAKE IT A MUSICAL?

In the lead up to the film’s release, it kind of became a running joke among fans that the creative team were trying to hide the fact that this new film was in fact going to be a musical. The promotional materials didn’t mention it, many of the trailers didn’t really feature anyone singing, and it really did start to feel like they were trying to surprise people with the music upon arrival to the theater. But most fans were already well aware, because they knew about the Broadway show this film was adapted from.

“At the watering hole, the girls who weren’t nice had to scatter like mice from a jungle cat.”

In 2017, Tina Fey adapted her Mean Girls screenplay for the stage with lyrics by Nell Benjamin and music by Jeff Richmond (who also happens to be her husband.) Critics and audiences alike generally thought that the production worked well, even if it had its problems. While on Broadway, the show began to develop its own cult following consisting of both fans of the original movie and young people for whom the musical was their introduction to the world of Mean Girls. The Broadway production was unfortunately closed permanently during the pandemic, but a national tour helped bring in even more fans. On stage was actually the first time Renee Rapp stepped into Regina George’s shoes, wowing audiences with her killer performance. The film also features cameos by other stars from the stage production, like Ashley Park who played Gretchen.

With Hollywood’s obsession with remakes, it’s no surprise that they were desperate to cash in on Mean Girls again as it approached its 20th anniversary. So, if anything, it’s quite lucky that we got this new, fun version that at least tries to shake things up a little bit and go its own way instead of a literal copy of the original. (Or maybe they just learned their lesson from the last time they tried that…) Making the new film adaptation into a musical allowed the creative team new avenues to explore so that they didn’t get stuck feeling like they had to compete with their original creation. As for why they seemed to want to hide the fact that this musical was actually a musical until its release, the truth is that there have been several recent high profile Broadway musicals adapted into films that have flopped and so the Mean Girls team was probably hoping to lure people in with nostalgia instead of possibly scaring them off with the musical aspect.

SHOULD YOU SEE IT?

With remakes of beloved classics, there’s always a question of if it’s really “worth it” to go see it. So, should you? Of course, if you want to! Even if not everything works with the new version, that doesn’t mean that you won’t like it or that it’s not worthwhile. And there’s no way a new movie can “ruin” the original version, because the original version will always be right there, unless… The new Mean Girls might not be terribly mean, but the film’s main focus is clearly just on having a fun time, and at that it definitely succeeds. And just like the original film, everyone in the cast is incredibly talented, so you’re sure to see them on your screens for years to come. There’s a surprise cameo you’ll be happy to see and plenty of fun moments packed into the 2 hour run time!

“Slay like no one’s watching… but everybody’s watching… because you’re gorgeous!”

If you have already seen it, let us know what you thought about it in the comments! Like, love it, not a big fan? Or just waiting until it’s on streaming? And if you want to lean into the original Mean Girls nostalgia, we’ve got a whole playlist of videos for you to check out!

“You could be really hot, if you changed like… everything.”