Star Cast: Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Avantika, Bebe Wood, Christopher Briney, Tim Meadows, and Tina Fey
Advertisement
Director: Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr.
Advertisement
What’s Bad: The songs are a massive aspect of the movie, but many are not particularly good or catchy.
Loo Break: If you get tired of listening to the many lame songs, the start of a musical number might be the best moment for a long break
Watch or Not?: If you are a musical or Mean Girls fan, this is a must-watch.
Language: English (with subtitles).
Available On: Theaters
Runtime: 113 Minutes.
User Rating:
Mean Girls, the original 2004 film, is one of those movies that have transcended its original target audience and has become part of popular culture, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that studio executives see it as a potential brand that should never die. The result of that line of thinking is this 2024 version of Mean Girls, which, thanks to a talented group of artists both in front and behind the camera, manages to avoid the fate of being a simple cash-grab and ends up becoming a cute and fun movie to watch in its own right.
Mean Girls sees our main character, Cady, arriving at a new school and soon finding out she doesn’t fit in. When trying to get closer to the boy she likes, she gets the attention of Regina George, Queen of the Mean Girls, instead, and then a frail and strange relationship develops between them. This is the basic premise of the original Mean Girls, and the remake runs with it as expected. However, it changes enough details on the journey to make it feel new to justify its own existence.
Mean Girls 2024 sees Cady also arriving at a new school and everything else, but in this case, high school is a very different place, and characters like Janis, who were only suggested to be gay in the previous movie, are shown to be so entirely in this one. The world is a very different place, and this new version of the movie knows how to change things around so that it might become more relatable to the new generations who will watch the film.
Another significant element in this movie that is not present in the original is social media, which exploded between the release of the original and this newer version. Having social media integrated into the plot feels like the right move, and it totally mixes well with the bullying aspects of the story and how, in this day and age, bullying might be even worse than it was 20 years ago. The entire movie is a lot harsher when depicting bullying, which only reflects what is happening in the real world.
Most of the plot stays the same, with some minor details here and there that end up adding a brand-new angle to some of the characters, and this is the best aspect of the film’s story, as it might be one of the best reasons to make a remake in the first place, to update the tale without forgetting what made it great in the first place. Mean Girls isn’t precisely the most fantastic story ever, but the actors, the directors, and everyone else are taking the mission very seriously.
Advertisement
The movie is not perfect, but one of the best things in the film, and probably the one element everyone will agree on, is that the cast is pretty amazing. Starting with Cady, our main protagonist, played by Angourie Rice, who we have seen grow on screen since her appearance in The Nice Guys. Rice is the perfect Cady thanks to her innocent looks and solid acting ability, making her descend into darkness as the movie progresses a bit more jarring than in the original.
Reneé Rapp is also a standout as Regina is the film’s main villain. In this instance, the character is much more evil, and Rapp nails it. She might not have the charismatic qualities of Rachel McAdams, but she has something else instead: an intensity that makes Regina a true villain. Avantika also kills it in the role initially played by Amanda Seyfried, and we can only hope that Avantika can have a career like Seyfried in the future, if not better.
Advertisement
Mean Girls comes around as the first feature film from directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., and it is quite a fantastic calling card for both directors, as you can see that they manage to get as much as they can from each one of their resources. The movie doesn’t have the high budget quality of some of the greatest films, but it doesn’t look cheap. It stands between being a movie for theaters and streaming, and thankfully, it leans more toward the former.
However, only some things are perfect, as the movie itself, a musical has few good songs. This is a big problem but also a subjective one, as some people might end up loving the songs in ways I didn’t. I couldn’t find a song that was actually catchy, but at least the movie is never dull to watch because the musical numbers end up serving the surrounding songs.
Advertisement
Mean Girls is a surprisingly fun film that proves that the original film is a classic for a reason. The choice to make the movie a musical is quite risky, as some people like myself might not be fans of the genre or might not end up liking the song. Nevertheless, it is hard to avoid the fact that the movie was clearly made with love for the source material and that the entire cast is filled with excellent performers, many of whom will probably have this movie as the breakthrough project of their careers.
Mean Girls releases on January 15, 2024.
Share with us your experience of watching Mean Girls.
Must Read: Time Bomb Y2K Movie Review: A Journey Back To Pre-Millennial Anxieties
Follow Us: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Google News
Advertisement
