‘Mean Girls’: Review

Dirs: Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr. US. 2024. 112mins

Twenty years after the original hit film, this new Mean Girls – the big-screen version of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical which debuted in 2017 – comes to theatres full of energy, but lacking the depth and charm that made the 2004 comedy so beloved. Making their feature debut, directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. remain faithful to the story of a sheltered teenager who discovers that high school is a labyrinth of  cliques and uncontrollable hormones. But while a few of the new songs are keepers, too often the razzle-dazzle distracts from a familiar but resonant look at the pain and pleasure of adolescence. 

The intellectual property is the main draw, even if reviews prove to be unenthusiastic

Paramount releases this new Mean Girls on January 12 in the US and January 17 in the UK, entering a crowded marketplace already populated by two other musicals: Wonka and The Color Purple. Mark Waters’ low-budget 2004 film was a surprise smash, collecting $130 million worldwide and helping to make stars of Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. This redo does not boast big names but, in truth, the intellectual property is the main draw, even if reviews prove to be unenthusiastic. 

Smart, kind Cady (Angourie Rice) has been homeschooled by her zoologist mother (Jenna Fischer), who raised her in Africa but has accepted a job outside Chicago where Cady is suddenly thrust into the paralysing anxiety and scrutiny of high school. Befriending quirky outsiders Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she eventually attracts the attention of the school’s most popular (and snobby) girl, Regina (Renee Rapp) and her equally mean, pretty pals Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). Regina takes the impressionable Cady under her wing, determined to make her cool.

The original Mean Girls (which was based on the advice book Queen Bees And Wannabes, and like this film and the musical, written by Tina Fey) treated high school like a zoological study, with Cady recognising the similarities between teenagers’ immature antics and the predatory behaviour of African wildlife. Lohan played Cady with such self-deprecating sunniness — communicating both the character’s naivety and also her growing desire to attain the same elite social standing as Regina — that the film offered modest delights alongside a lesson about the importance of staying true to oneself. 

That message remains in this new Mean Girls, but the story’s nuances are glossed over in favour of song-and-dance numbers. Some of the tunes attempt to provide shading to the supporting characters — revealing the buried insecurities of Regina and those in her clique — but, in general, the pop/rock arrangements are unmemorable. Happy exceptions include ‘Stupid With Love,’ sung by a swooning Cady once she meets the cute Aaron (Christopher Briney), who just so happens to be Regina’s ex-boyfriend, and ‘I’d Rather Be Me,’ a stirring salute to self-confidence brought to rousing life by Cravalho’s proud outcast Janis.

But as bighearted as Rice is in the lead role, she does not possess the vulnerability or twinkle that Lohan brought to Cady and, as a result, the character’s journey from nerdy mathlete to vicious popular girl loses its emotional impact. At its core, Mean Girls is about how teenage girls can be far more awful to one another than any boy ever could — and how women can empower each other rather than tearing their peers down. But for that story to work, Cady needs to be an empathetic cautionary tale, and this new film rarely provides Rice enough space to navigate the character’s growing realisation of how shallow and petty she has become in the pursuit of popularity.

Most who see this Mean Girls will be acquainted with the 2004 original, whose plot has not appreciably changed, although Fey (who also reprises her role as a teacher) makes room in the narrative for social media and cell phones — which, the film argues, are merely more ways for teenagers to feel bad about themselves. Jayne and Perez (who previously co-directed the TV miniseries Quarter Life Poetry) take care to incorporate the original’s most quotable lines and memorable moments but, in revisiting the material, the directors only create a sense of deja vu without the spark of surprise. 

Of the large cast, Rapp brings delicious snideness to her portrayal of Regina — she rivals McAdams, who was equally caustic playing the same character in the original — while Cravalho locates the tenderness beneath Janis’ tough exterior. But the new Mean Girls feels akin to attending your high-school reunion; it is nice to see everyone again after all this time, but there is no reason to hang around too long.