Mean Girls is a teen comedy film that was released in 2004. The film follows cliques at North Shore High School and highlights the most popular girls nicknamed “The Plastics.” When a new girl, Cady Heron, enters the mix, a dramatic and hilarious sequence of events follows. After Mean Girls became a huge hit, especially among teenage girls, Mean Girls The Musical was written by Tina Fey. Mean Girls The Musical made its premiere in 2017 at the National Theater in Washington, D.C.. On January 12, 2024, a new Mean Girls film was released. This time, the film was a musical comedy that followed the screenplay created by Tina Fey. 

When I first heard that Mean Girls was being remade, my initial reaction was that it was completely unnecessary. Like many other teenage girls, Mean Girls is a movie that I had first seen in middle school and have re-watched multiple times. Although the movie follows the queen bee of NSHS and borderline bully, Regina George, Mean Girls has become a comfort movie for me. Nevertheless, I was excited to see how the addition of modern elements could enhance the film. 

The movie began with characters Damian Hubbard, played by Jaquel Spivey, and Janis Sarkisian, played by Auli’i Cravalho, creating a TikTok. There were various TikTok montages sprinkled throughout the film with appearances from multiple social media influencers. I found the addition of the TikToks to be quite distracting and they seemed to be a desperate attempt to cater the movie to its Generation Z audience. 

We were then introduced to Angourie Rice, playing Cady Heron, during the song “What Ifs.” I was pretty underwhelmed by Rice’s vocal performance, considering she was playing a leading role in a musical. Rice’s vocals seemed particularly disappointing compared to the performance of Reneé Rapp, playing Regina George. I had listened to some of Rapp’s music before seeing the film and her vocal performance definitely lived up to my expectations. Not only was her voice powerful, but it also captured the essence of Regina George well. 

Reneé Rapp was not the only actress I was impressed with. In my eyes, Jaquel Spivey, playing the role of Damian, was the star of the show. Spivey was hilarious throughout the movie and did wonders with the role of Damian. I found myself laughing out loud at many of his lines throughout the film. Spivey enhanced the sassy and witty nature of Damian, and it was received extremely well by the audience.

It is important to note that in the original Mean Girls, Damian is played by a white actor, and Spivey is African American. The amount of diversity in the 2024 version of Mean girls was noteworthy. Actors Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, and Avantika Vandanapu are all people of color who played characters who were white in the original film. This was refreshing to see and made the film feel more relatable. All of these actors gave powerhouse performances. Avantika Vandanapu fully embraced the ditsy role of Karen Shetty while making it her own. Auli’i Cravalho made the film seem familiar as she played the role of Janis Sarkisian quite similarly to Lizzy Caplan, the original actress who played Janice. 

Although the film was well put together and cohesive, I couldn’t help but notice the poor fashion design. Most of the outfits worn consisted of outdated trends that simply appeared cheap. When watching the original Mean Girls movie, I can’t help but admire the style of the characters, but the wardrobe in the remake left me disappointed. I can understand that the outfits were meant to resemble those that are often worn on TikTok and other social media platforms, but they were so far off from what teens actually wear on a day to day basis. Fashion that made the audience want to wear the same clothes would have made the role of “The Plastics” even more alluring. 

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the 2024 Mean Girls musical remake. I went into the film with very low expectations because of the very negative response I had seen prior. People seemed to find the film “corny” but I think that always comes with a musical. Musicals are meant to be over the top and theatrical which may have thrown some viewers off. If you go into watching the Mean Girls remake expecting it to be the exact same or top the original you will be disappointed, but if you appreciate it for what it is, you will experience a very entertaining one hour and 52 minutes.