Review Of The Musical Remake Of The 2004 Teen Comedy
The story has not changed much. After spending her childhood in Africa and being homeschooled, Cady goes to a real American high school for the first time. There, she meets the eclectic Janis and Damian, who teach her about the school’s exotic universe of cliques. Preps, jocks, band geeks, and, on top of the food chain, the Plastics: Karen, Gretchen and the queen bee Regina George. Janis and Damian convince Cady to befriend them so they can make fun of them together, without knowing that high school may turn into a real jungle.
Starring Lindsay Lohan as Cady and Rachel McAdams as Regina, Mean Girls (2004) is one of the most iconic films of the 2000s. It had great acting, legendary one-liners, and effective plot devices. Even if you watch it now, the film’s qualities hold up to this day.
In 2013, Tina Fey, who wrote the movie and played Mrs. Norbury, announced that a stage musical adaptation of Mean Girls was in the works. It received positive reviews after its premiere five years later and was even nominated for twelve Tony Awards, including Best Musical. So it’s no surprise that Fey announced once again a big-screen adaptation of the musical in 2020.
Fey and Tim Meadows come back as Mrs. Norbury and Principal Duvall. Lindsay Lohan even makes a cameo appearance. Other than them, the roles were distributed among newcomers in the franchise, except Renée Rapp, who plays Regina and starred as the replacement for the original Broadway cast member.
Review ★★☆☆☆
It’s not all doom and gloom. Some of the choreography and set design are interesting. Nor is the film unpleasant to watch. The qualities that save it, however, are not its own.
Its faults are. In the first film, the characters were developed and played with nuance and realism. The costumes and sets looked like they’d come out of a real high school. Twenty years on, the actors have no chemistry, the school seems to be made of cardboard and the costumes don’t look like anything 16-year-olds would wear. The film tries to include the dynamics of social media, but it sadly feels out of touch.
Apart from the songs, this remake doesn’t add much to the original. It’s true that following in the footsteps of such an iconic and much-loved film isn’t easy, but the best scenes in Mean Girls 2024 are those modeled on the 2004 version. We laugh at the jokes with a sense of déjà vu: they’re exactly the same as in the original. It makes you wonder why watch this instead of the first film. Perhaps Mean Girls 2024 would have seemed a better film if it hadn’t had such a brilliant masterpiece as its point of comparison.
CREDITS: Malena Cortizo A.
