REVIEW: Mean Girls is a good musical remake, but not a fetch film

The 2004 cult classic Mean Girls cemented Rachel McAdams as one of the best new actors of the 21st century. It also became a beloved film about the struggles of high school and its cliquey nature. It’s not surprising that in the current cinema climate that it would eventually be remade, and with a hit musical that came from it is it really a surprise?

For those who haven’t seen the original, Mean Girls is the story of a home-schooled girl called Cady Heron (played by Angourie Rice from Mare of Easttown) moving to America and finally going to high school. She’s courted by two different groups of students, one filled with outsiders and the other known as the Plastics. Led by the school’s queen bee Regina George (played by Reneé Rapp from the Sex Lives of College Girls), the Plastics seem less appealing to Cady but with the help of her new friends she decides to infiltrate and take them down.

Ultimately the 2024 version of Mean Girls’ biggest issue is just how much it loves the first film. It’s not made as a new take trying to bring younger audiences in, but instead a loving tribute to the original that is constantly referencing it from the beginning. This remake is not a film made for Gen Z, but for millennial theatre kids who always dreamed of putting on a sexy Santa costume and dancing in a pageant. From the first minute, the film assumes the audience’s familiarity with the original text. So if you’ve never seen the original, a lot of the jokes won’t land.

That’s not to imply this adaptation is a failure. While it fails in modernizing the story, it does modernize the aesthetics and make a good musical out of that. While I can’t speak to how similar this is to the Broadway musical, this film does an excellent job in combining the mediums of film and musical theatre, especially when portraying social media as a Greek chorus-of-sorts. The choreography is well done, and immaculately shot. Making a film out a musical must be more than just filming a musical, it has to engage and use the medium of film. Film can transport you anywhere instantly, and this film does understand and utilize its medium.

Of the cast, everyone is serviceable but the one who excels the most is Rapp. Having played the role on Broadway previously, she obviously has a lot of experience. And unlike Ben Platt who played a popular high school role on Broadway and then did the same in the film adaptation, she actually passes for a teenager. The trick to playing Regina is a mix of superiority, envy, and sympathy. We say we hate Regina, but it’s because we want what Regina has. Rapp excels in showing the highs of ruling over a school, and the lows that come speeding towards her.

The new version of Mean Girls is exactly the kind of loving tribute that fans of the 2004 cult classic will love, especially if they’ve never seen the stage musical. But younger audiences or those who don’t know the joy of Tina Fey’s fantastic high school comedy probably won’t enjoy this as much. More than likely, they’ll only enjoy it through doing the homework of watching the original. And not to discourage people from checking out older films, but why make a film that only seeks to entertain the audience of its original? I give this film a 2/5, you can watch it in cinemas now.