January 15, 2024 · Watch the official trailer
Whether audiences will like or burn the new “Mean Girls” remake is entirely dependent on what sort of film they believe they are walking into.
Fans who grew up with the 2004 original from Tina Fey starring Lindsey Lohan and Rachel McAdams might find this new iteration’s lack of dry, sardonic humor to be underwhelming or out of touch, while others who know this to be an equal translation of the 2018 Broadway adaptation and are ready for as much of a musical as a comedy will find it much more appealing.
The story remains relatively the same regardless of inspiration as “Mean Girls” follows a naïve Cady Heron as she moves from a homeschool life in Africa to enter the world of superficial, plastic American high school and is pitted between genuine outsiders Damian and Janice against the popular girls led by the infamous Regina George.
While it’s impossible for anyone who has seen the original not to compare these two films, this version of “Mean Girls” attempts to modernize and update the narrative both on a pop culture and thematic level as there’s a definite progressive pop rock style to the film’s presentation that’s grounded in the film’s musical numbers but also pervades the way in which directors Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne film their tale as well.
In keeping with this twist on a revered comedy, the focus shifts from Cady as the traditional lead to showcase the magnetic, scene-stealing performance of Reneé Rapp as the villainess Regina George, who portrayed the character on Broadway and completely outclasses everyone else in “Mean Girls” with a lightly sardonic, twisted take on the character originated by McAdams.
While her traditional acting is on par with the cast, it’s clear that Rapp is a next level musical performer and the songs she’s featured on rise to the forefront of the film’s best moments. Though much of “Mean Girls” should be about wanting to see the story reimagined and hear classic jokes told in the new way, large chunks of the film feel like filler until Rapp can sink her teeth into another pop punk rock song.
This should not take away from the fact that Angourie Rice’s Cady is actually incredibly expressive in her physicality and she wears Cady’s naivety on her face at all times in a performance that is unquestionably better than Lohan’s original and further proves that Rice deserves a vehicle more suited to her talents than this awkward smash of music and comedy, neither of which she is entirely at home in.
The film’s ensemble cast does have quality moments, especially “Moana” voice actress Auli’I Cravalho in her first major film role to appear on screen in, giving a wonderful supporting turn as Janice that highlights her ability both vocally and as an actress in her own right, while Jaquel Spivey often provides the film’s most clever and funny line deliveries as Damian.
The other “plastics” Karen and Gretchen played by Avantika and Bebe Wood each also have their moments, but don’t rise quite to the same level as original cast members Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried.
On the whole, “Mean Girls” can be fun, but the fatal flaws come from audiences being able to see the seams in the filmmaking as inexperienced directors Perez Jr. and Jayne don’t really know how to handle the mixture of tones between musical, comedy and drama.
They bring a lot of bright ideas to the table, especially visually. The cinematography and production design really provides an updated, stark contrast to the original and swings for the fences in both good and bad ways. Throughout the film cinematically, Regina is showcased on a level unlike any other character to the point where she receives her own aspect ratio to draw audiences into Rapp’s magnetic allure.
Overall, this iteration of “Mean Girls” is certainly something that younger audiences not as familiar with the original will find themselves attached to and it’s a decent enough movie for the dearth of January releases that could make it an early box office hit although there’s nothing so engaging about the film that it could be considered a must-see in theaters.
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