A Cautionary Tale That Should Have Stayed in 2004 (Mean Girls 2024 review)

After 20 years, the Plastics return in an all-new reiteration of Mean Girls, a cult classic teen drama that should have stayed in the early 2000s. No, it is not a sequel or a re-quel. It is very much a remake that is supposed to appeal to a whole new set of fans, possibly. It is also a live-action take on the Broadway musical that was inspired by the original film which, you guessed it, makes this a musical. Many people were skeptical about this idea, let alone knew it was going to be a musical while fans of the musical were wondering if it would live up to it. 

As someone who hasn't seen the Broadway musical, it is hard to compare because I had never seen that cast, nor have I heard of the musical numbers before this so, I am unaware of that aspect of the film but I have seen the original film that starred Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. As someone who does, to this day, enjoy the original film, the remake does not live up to its standards but mostly for reasons that are not entirely the film's fault. The whole idea of Mean Girls is very dated and something you would expect from a movie from the 2000s. Yes, there is a life lesson to bullying in high school or women being allies to other women but the remake does not modernize any message for modern times. A lot of messages, portrayals, or any other gripes I have with this film will not appeal to the current generation. In fact, it might leave a bad taste in their mouth. It would make sense to see a movie like this in 2004 but in 2024, there is nothing they were allowed to get away with.  

To start, bringing Mean Girls back as a musical is also a slight mistake. Yes, the Broadway show was a success but not everyone loves musicals, which is why you don't see as many in theaters. Mean Girls cannot even qualify to be an exception to good musicals, because it is simply not good as a musical movie. None of the songs were catchy or memorable for people to want to crack open the soundtrack on Spotify. What bothers me more, is that despite having a talented cast, most of them couldn't sing anyway and their acting performances could not save them from it. 

The only highlight of this film is Renee Rapp. She does portray the iconic Regina George in a different light from what McAdams did all those years ago. Rapp was more scary and lived up to the title of the film. Considering that Rapp does have a fanbase of her own considering her background on Broadway and currently, with her music career, she and only she was carrying a majority of this film's most enjoyable aspects as both an actor and a performer. Auli'i Cravalho also does a stellar job because she has killer vocals but that's all she brings to the table. She does nothing new to the Janis character nor does she have any more time to shine other than have her own musical number that was somewhat better than most songs in the soundtrack. Jacquel Spivey also does a good job bringing Damian back to life as he is a great part of the original movie and continues to be great in this version. 

Everybody else in this film was a questionable choice in the case of casting decisions. I love Angourie Rice as much as the next person. She has played, not memorable, but great roles in the past but her portrayal of Cady would have been better if this film was not a musical. She carries that whole transformation Cady goes through from new girl to mean girl very well, an even more jarring transformation than Lilo in the original film. However, she can't sing. Her performances did not let it elevate her at all if not, just made the fact that she was a bad singer even more obvious. 

The same can be said for Bebe Wood and Avantika. They both can't sing, but Bebe Wood is an exception because she portrays Gretchen's frustration with being a part of Regina's posse well. The internal struggle is very much present and 'fetch' continues to be undermined 20 years later. Karen is supposed to be the dumb one, which is, unfortunately, true, and was already an offensive character to begin with when the original movie first came out. Seeing an Indian girl portray Karen in an elevated sense just became a whole other level of 'what were people thinking?'. It just felt wrong that the writers decided to not make any relevant changes to this particular character and it is slightly unforgivable.

That is the problem with the film, though. It wasn't because it was a musical, it just repeated mistakes that should not have been made again. Despite being a modern take on this 'cautionary tale', none of it was modern. Maybe it seemed daunting trying to change any part of the script but why make reiteration when it has nothing new to say. There is no new way to perceive the Mean Girls. You are just going to get a mediocre version of a film that should have stayed in the past, meant only to look back and laugh about. 

Maybe the cast had a blast making the movie but there is no viable reason to watch this. I would rather you watch the original film. The one thing that was present in the tone of the film which interested me was the sense that this was indeed a cautionary tale, from the point of view of Janis and Damian. How Regina commanded the screen whenever she was onscreen or how unsettling Cady's transformation was this time around. There were these tiny details that made the film a little more chilling in a way that I would give credit for but other than that, nothing much to miss here.