Remakes are always tricky. Especially when the original is as beloved as Mean Girls (2004) is. The new musical adaptation of Mean Girls takes the iconic classic, adds some music, and tries to combine our love for the original with some fun new twists. As a fan of musicals (and a fan of the Broadway version the new movie is based on), and Renee Rapp, I was excited to finally see what the film had to offer. However, I wasn’t entirely impressed. There were some really great moments in the film and some pretty cringe-worthy ones.
First and foremost, I enjoyed the music. I liked how they incorporated the musical numbers into the story, and I really enjoyed all of them. “Someone Gets Hurt”, “Revenge Party” and “I’d Rather Be Me” are my top three favorites.
Janis and Damian carry the movie. The way they have been adapted for the new film feels much more like a good homage to the characters, rather than a copy or a complete remake. They’re funny and fit well into the ‘modern’ version of the story. Auli’i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey bring such an amazing twist and comedy to the characters, making them remind us of the Janis and Damian we know and love while giving them new chemistry.
Jenna Fischer as Cady’s mom was also absolutely incredible, despite how small the role was in the big picture. She has a comedy that she mixes well with the maternal moments.
Some of the nods to the original movie warmed my heart. Their choice to make Ms. Norbury and Principal Duvall a couple was very cute and I can really appreciate that as a fan of the original. Lindsay Lohan’s cameo was perfectly choreographed. Her role was a perfect way to include her in the film while not being overly in-your-face. It was done really well.
Now, my problems with the movie…
The movie is titled MEAN Girls, so one would expect the characters to be, well, mean. However, in my opinion, these characters are simply unkind, but not mean. We all remember ‘The Plastics’ being known for having some of the coldest insults we had ever heard. In this new adaptation, the insults feel very surface-level. In fact, the only one who is truly mean is Regina George and even her meanness feels…pathetic, honestly.
The outfits also feel off. There’s nothing particularly notable about them and they all feel like outfits from Instagram influencers (Janis is excluded from this complaint). They feel lackluster and don’t quite feel as exciting as they did in the original film.
While some of the nods to the original film feel very fun, some of them don’t land well. They adapted some aspects of the original to ‘fit the times’ and it feels wrong. Understandably, the original movie had a lot of things that don’t feel like things we would socially accept now but they were so iconic at the time, it feels sad to lose them in this adaptation.
Overall, the film unfortunately had a lot to live up to and didn’t quite hit the mark. Despite the popularity and success of the musical, the movie adaptation has trouble integrating the music and energy of the musical with the wit and bite of the original film.