It’s the 2024 movie that is inspired by the 2017 musical, which was inspired by the 2004 film that was based on the 2002 book Queen Bees & Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman. Initially slated for a direct-to-streaming release on Paramount +, the decision was made to take it to cinemas first, and for what it’s worth, this is a good decision for the generations of fans that have loved the book, movie and musical over the last twenty years since it first graced our screens. Translating a popular movie like this to Broadway and having it be successful is no easy feat. Waiting till the 20th anniversary and then essentially remaking the movie with a mixture of old and new cast members while incorporating the musical elements is ultimately what this film attempts to do in celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the original film’s release. While the majority of the musical elements fall completely flat, it is the fresh cast and modernisation of some of the elements of the original that make this a worthwhile trip to the cinema.
This film follows almost scene for scene the original movie. The main character Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) has just moved from being home schooled by her mother in Kenya, to a middle school in the USA after her Mum accepts a new job. Having been homeschooled her whole life, Cady has no idea about high school cliques, social interactions and the pressures of being an American high school teenager. Cady immediately makes friends with Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jacquel Spivey) who show her the ropes around the school. The jocks, the nerds, the theater geeks and then the plastics. They are led by Regina George (Renee Rapp) the queen bee of the school and her two besties Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika).
When Regina invites Cady to sit with them for a whole week of lunches and offers to “help her” fit in, Janis encourages her to do this so they can makes the Plastics implode and destroy Regina after an incident a few years earlier that still upsets Janis to this day. They do things like give Regina a diet bar that they say helps you lose weight, instead it helps you gain weight and using special skin cream made of lard to help your pores. It’s all very high school. Things start to fall apart when Regina catches onto their plan and the entire school is shocked when they learn the existence of the pink Burn Book the plastics use to write horrible things about people in.
For the last 20 years Mean Girls has stood as a rare example of a teen movie that had a strong and important message behind it. The cast of the original have gone on to have solid careers and the constant throwbacks to the brilliant writing and comedic timing of the original film grows more and more as each generation coming up discover it. This is helped in part by the writing team of Rosalind Wiseman and Tina Fey. Fey wrote the treatment for the musical and this version of the script for the 2024 film. Also appearing as Ms. Norbury, Fey’s trademark humour is all through this, with some interesting updates incorporating social media and some more relevant references to offer audiences some new laughs.
The film does falter in its musical numbers. This should really have been called Mean Girls the Musical because, make no mistake, like last year’s Wonka, this is a genuine musical. Also like Wonka, most of the songs are entirely forgettable. While they are delivered with high energy and are visually stunning (in particular, one house party scene where Regina sings to Cady and her ex-boyfriend while the crowd are slowed down is an inventive piece), the songs themselves fall relatively flat, and only one remains in my memory. This song is called World Burn, sung by the character of Regina George who is played by Renee Rapp. The song is haunting and is reprised a few times throughout the film, really giving the character of Regina her own theme song. It is a shame that the others are not as memorable.
Rapp completely steals the show as Regina George, giving the character a depth and edge that no other actor has been able to nail. Rapp can go from the funny and charming side of Regina to the icy, cold and truly terrifying, don’t mess with me side of Regina that is really hard to get the balance right. Rapp’s voice is incredible and her chemistry with Wood, Avantika and Rice is absolutely perfect. Replacing Lindsay Lohan is no easy feat, Rice does take a little to warm up to, the opening scenes of the film do feel a bit rushed and once she catches her breath after the first 20 minutes or so, she is able to give a depth to Cady that makes you want to see her succeed. Cravalho is a perfect Janis 2.0 and her voice is able to deliver those powerful notes that make this character so memorable.
Other notable newcomers are Busy Phillips as Regina’s mum, replacing Amy Pohler was no easy feat, and Phillips puts her own spin and energy into the character to deliver a lot of laughs. Having some of the original cast return like Tim Meadows as Principal Duvall and Fey as Ms. Norbury was in keeping with the original and it was great to see these characters get some extra touches that weren’t there in the previous film.
Mean Girls 2024 feels completely unnecessary, but will win you over with its fresh new cast who have completely dived into these characters that we have loved for 20 years and evolved them into a new space. There are plenty of new laughs to be had here with the introduction of social media and how this plays into the high school experience. While the songs do not always work and are here for fans of the Broadway production, there is still enough here to warrant grabbing your friends and heading to the movies for an incredibly fun movie experience you don’t want to miss.
