“Mean Girls” provides viewers with a comedic and nostalgic watch with the added dimension of the Broadway soundtrack that refreshes aspects of the original 2004 film. While charming and fun, the movie misses the mark with its depiction of Gen-Z’s use of social media and fashion sense.
The movie follows teenager Cady (Angourie Rice) as she attends an American high school for the first time after moving from Kenya and navigates friendships, cliques, and crushes in her new world. She meets Plastic clique leader Regina, played by Reneé Rapp, who performed the same role in Broadway’s “Mean Girls” from 2019-2020. Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) take Cady under their wings and ask her to spy on Regina to gather humiliating information about her in order to dethrone her. Cady teams up with Janis and Damian to turn Karen (Avantika Vandanapu) and Gretchen (Bebe Wood), the other two Plastics, against Regina.
While heavily marketed, the film was not portrayed as a musical in much of the promotional material. As a result, some viewers may be caught by surprise by the frequent outbreak of song and dance. The music and choreography elevated the already comedic elements and gave the movie a goofy and lighthearted touch. Rice and Rapp both boast mesmerizing vocal talent alongside their co-stars. Song and dance number highlights include “Someone Gets Hurt” and “Revenge Party”. Some songs, like the opening “A Cautionary Tale”, when Janis and Damion speak directly to viewers, break the fourth wall. Audience members are literally invited into the plot, making “Mean Girls” an engaging watch.
“Mean Girls” checks every box to make it an effective remake of the original. Tina Fey, the mind behind the screenplay of the film, returns as Ms. Norbury and Tim Meadows returns as the school principal. Classic lines such as “Get in loser, we’re going shopping”, “On Wednesdays we wear pink”, and “That’s so fetch” hit with the same impact they did twenty years ago.
Where the film falls short is its attempt to add flair of the current digital age through references to TikTok and cameos of influencers that appear throughout the movie. From Chris Olsen to the Merrell Twins, the presence of real-life influencers and references to TikTok take viewers out of the fictional plot of the movie and distract from the events in the storyline.
The costuming, additionally, was not on par with the standard set by the original and for many characters, did not align with their personalities. Regina wore multiple outfits that represented a significantly different sense of fashion than the one demonstrated by the character in 2004. The outfits worn by the Plastics on Broadway and in the original were a classy Y2K look that certainly could be sported in the 2020s, but costume designers took a different route for Regina’s clothing. Her style does not represent 2020’s teenage fashion, but rather a tacky outsider take on it.
Viewers looking for a good laugh and to reminisce on a film so integral to the early 2000s will enjoy the new “Mean Girls”. However, the film would have benefitted by incorporating fewer elements that put such an obvious timestamp on the film. Without the frequent influencer cameos and odd costuming, “Mean Girls” may have been as timeless as its predecessor.
