Twenty years ago Tina Fey’s subversive and instantly quotable “Mean Girls” became an instant teen cult classic. It clawed its acrylic, pink-hued press-on nails into the pop-culture zeitgeist with merciless ease and became the entire personality of a large swath of millennial youths. The film, its iconic characters, and snappy one-liners took on a life of their own, even spawning a Broadway musical of the same name in 2018 that would go on to be nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Now, in the year of our Lord Regina George 2024, Hollywood released a revamped “Mean Girls” (with a subtle “blink-and-you-miss-it” musical note indentation in the “A”). It would be more adequate to describe it as a hybrid of the 2004 feature film and the 2018 musical.
The question is, who is the audience for this new iteration? The marketing would suggest it was for a new generation of “plastics.” Still, the finished product would confirm it is merely a 20th-anniversary high school reunion for the same plastics cultivated by the previous installments.
Does Mean Girls: The Musical Stand on Its Own?
Does the film work on its own terms? Well, yeah, sort of. Is it essential viewing for the initiated and/or the uninitiated? Not particularly, but that’s not to suggest it is not without its own appeal. I went into this film as an avid fan of the original but with tempered expectations. I was pleasantly surprised by how much it worked for me. It captures the spirit of its predecessor while finding creative ways to modernize some of the well-known jokes. The new cast (mostly) excels at doing their own thing (Renee Rapp, Jaquel Spivey, and Auli’i Cravalho being the notable standouts). It is also nice to see the return of veteran comic talents like Fey and Tim Meadows reprising their respective roles.
There may be 3 or 4 too many songs for my taste, but I enjoyed the musical numbers more than I anticipated (I even downloaded a few of the more memorable earworms – looking at you Apex Predator and Sexy).
The Recommendation
I’m not sure the new version makes a STRONG case for needing to be made. It doesn’t surpass the original in virtually any department (but, then again, how could it?). However, it is still wickedly entertaining, funny, charming, and a solid companion piece that applies a fresh coat of nail polish to the beloved original. That’s about the best thing you could ask from something that appeared to be a shameless cash grab. It has merit. So, in the spirit of Gretchen Wieners, I guess this carbon copy reimagining “can sit with us.”
Hear more on Mean Girls(2024) from Laron Chapman and other Cinematropolis contributors on The Cinematic Schematic.
