Get in loser; it’s time to review “Mean Girls” (2024), the musical film written by Tina Fey, Nell Benjamin and Rosalind Wiseman and directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. Inspired by Wiseman’s book, “Queen Bees and Wanna Bees,” Fey wrote and released the iconic original of “Mean Girls” in 2004. 13 years later, after “Mean Girls” became a cult-classic, Fey wrote a musical adaptation of the hit movie. Her musical rendition premiered on Broadway and received critical acclaim. Now, in 2024, Fey returns “Mean Girls” to the silver screen; this time with theatrical and outlandish musical numbers. Every replay, re-iteration and re-imagination runs the risk of becoming less substantial with each reincarnation but will each redo live up to the original? Here, some of the young actors triumph and some fall flat. But overall, this year’s edition entertains, is laugh-out-loud funny and worth your time.
Rating: 3/5
The movie’s promising lead, Cady Heron, played by Angourie Rice, fades into the background because her supporting ensemble completely outshines, out-dances and out-sings her. Rice’s biggest fault by far, and by no fault of hers, is not being Lindsay Lohan. Lohan, in the 2004 classic, “made” the movie. She led the movie hilariously and flirtatiously. While Rice moved the plot along, Lohan embodied the plot, the charm, the scenery and the magic. Rice gives an utterly unremarkable performance, from her shrill singing to her “hopeless” devotion to Chris Briney’s rendition of dreamboat Aaron Samuels. There was more chemistry between me and my popcorn than between the two leads. Briney’s emotionless and one-dimensional portrayal of Aaron sucked the life out of the character and the whole theater. On the screen, he seemed out of place, uncomfortable and anxious to leave. He sped through all of his lines and his “charming” smiles looked more like grimaces. Really Cady and Regina? You’re fighting over this guy?
The movie’s supporting ensemble saved it. With young actors, it’s easy to tell who has that intangible “it” factor. Without a doubt, Reneé Rapp has “it.” She leaps from the screen with her soaring vocals, despite lackluster material, and is perhaps the only person who could rival Rachel McAdam’s fearlessly scathing performance in the original. But the two cannot be compared because both actresses make their performances entirely their own.
Avantika Vandanapu glows as Karen Smith. Her open-mouthed, dumb rendition of Smith provides the majority of the movie’s laugh-out-loud moments. The most entertaining song in the entire movie comes from her character’s, “Sexy.” Vandanupu singing, “This is modern feminism talking, I expect to run the world in shoes I cannot walk in,” while stumbling in heels marks an instant classic, quotable moment.
Janis Sarkisian and Damian Hubbard, played by Auli’i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey respectively, carried the plot on their backs. Rather than using an internal narration from Cady (like in the original), the movie chooses to use the songs, especially ones sung by Cavalho and Spivey to answer questions and build conflict. Although his role stereotypes the “too gay to function” best friend, Spivey embraces that wholeheartedly and comes closest to modern humor. For example, in his talent show performance, he sings the “iCarly” theme song, dramatically and in French! Alongside Spivey, Cravalho, known for being the voice actor for “Moana”, created a witty, winning character who says sayonara to the high school nonsense and steps fully into her quirky individuality.
Writers Tina Fey, Nell Benjamin and Rosalind Wiseman choose to take out certain elements from the original that haven’t aged well. For example, they eliminate Coach Carr’s inappropriate relationships with underage students and a line about “sexy Rosa Parks.” Some changes were good, especially because society as a whole has realized movies can be funny without constant slurs and discrimination; but there were times when the movie stuck too hard to the original, even when it didn’t make sense with the cast. For example, the script kept the plotline of Regina constantly wanting to lose weight and eating Kalteen bars unknowingly, even though Rapp, who plays Regina, is considered mid-sized. This part of the movie was particularly disturbing because of Rapp’s offscreen struggles. During her stint as Regina on Broadway, Rapp suffered from vicious comments, even from her costars, about her body. She developed an eating disorder as a result. In a movie where so many changes for inclusivity and positivity were made, why was there still an expectation to uphold the skinny, hot girl narrative?
“Mean Girls” catapults off the success of the original movie. Although promoted as a new spin, take out all of the musical numbers and the new version treads old ground, just with TikTok and generation-Z jokes added in. Not all of the performances are good, but certain standout actors steal the show. The original movie’s charm came from its realistic depiction of high school and “girl world.” The new version did a good job of representing the world of high school as it is today but failed to recapture the original’s charm.
Ticket Sales:
In theaters through January
https://www.fandango.com/mean-girls-2024-233984/movie-overview?date=2024-02-01
