“Mean Girls,” released Jan. 12 in theaters, is a modern-day rewind of the 2004 teen comedy. Featuring Reneé Rapp as Regina George, queen bee of North Ridge High School, and Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, homeschooled fresh meat discovering the ruthlessness of high school through her new superficial friends “the Plastics,” the film takes on the humongous task of remaking a 2000s cult classic.
The incorporation of the Broadway songs into the movie was disappointing. Even though the film’s run-time was a cool two hours, far too many songs were cut entirely from its tracklist, including fan favorites “Where Do You Belong” and “Stop.” Songs that were left in were shortened and morphed in unpleasant ways, manifesting the changes through strange rhythms and note-swaps. The most egregious alteration was the swap of “It Roars,” the jungle-esque intro to Cady’s discovery of the animal kingdom that is high school, to the subpar original song “What Ifs.”
The best numbers ended up being the ones closest to the Broadway originals, like the hit Halloween pop “Sexy.” Movie musicals have proven to be audience-pleasing and critically successful in the past (i.e. “Hairspray” with a 92% on the Tomatometer and 84% on the audience score and “La La Land” with a respective 81%), so the movie failed on only going halfway on what could’ve been an even fresher and vivacious new twist to the original.
The film featured plenty of standout performers (even though they all looked like college students), but unfortunately, the cast’s talent was dragged down by Rice’s lack of vocal power; the contrast between the weight of Cady’s songs in the 2024 movie and the Broadway musical are stark. In comparison, Rapp carried in the vocal department by showcasing her true musical theater talent. In addition to her voice and impressive belt, Rapp’s Regina will get the most laughs out of anyone in the theater.
Other standout performances by “too gay to function” Damien (Jaquel Spivey) and “pyro-lez” Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho) in the acting, vocal and humor departments also gained the movie a few more positive points. Other characters such as ditzy sidekick Karen (Avantika Vandanapu), babbling informant Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and first-crush Aaron (Christopher Briney) helped the movie with their solid depictions of modern teens.
The worst offenders of the movie were the exhaustion of modern technology and the horrendous product placements. The decision to use TikToks clips showing the school body’s reactions to the main plot events rather than seeing their unfiltered reactions felt cheap and having the main actors themselves take you through whole songs as if they were recording a TikTok also felt out of place. TikTok cameos from people like Megan Thee Stallion were fun in the moment, but only succeeded as easy grabs of the viewer’s short-term attention, mimicking the feel of a TikTok rather than the satisfaction of a long motion picture experience.
Additionally, the abhorrently obvious product placements of brands like Secret Deodorant, Bubly and SeatGeek broke the immersion one desires to experience while watching a film. Product placements in movies aren’t inherently bad, but the film’s choice to shove branding in the audience’s face with the actual products rather than use more subtle marketing methods like billboards or shops in the background hurts the viewing experience.
“Mean Girls” also featured a few too many distorted facial close-ups, manifested in odd 360° camera spins and poorly thought-out montage shots. The film attempted to convey a fresh level of camp that the old version nailed through cinematography choices, but fell short of achieving its goal. Additionally, the new dialogue also tried to lean into the kitschy style, but it lacked the punch the film needed for it to work. Because of the lack of follow-through for iconic scenes popularized by the previous iterations of “Mean Girls” (for example the tossing of the burn book pages in the original vs. the sad drop of the whole book onto the floor in its successor), the script failed to have a solid basis of self-awareness the original film had to build off of.
While not an unenjoyable movie, the film lacked the crispness, wit and iconicness of the first movie. It felt like a remake and a subpar Google translation of the original, which a viewer unfortunately needed to watch first to fully understand the plot and references. The movie was slower compared to the fast-paced speed of the Broadway version, but if you have no background knowledge of the musical, you won’t know what you’re missing.
Verdict: The 2024 remake of “Mean Girls” aimed too hard to be camp and overall fell a little flat. The musical lacked the punch of the original by overusing a TikTok-like digital style, seeping in product placements and not fully committing to the musical aspect.
