It’s a badge of honor for a movie to be made into a stage musical. It’s an even bigger badge of honor for that musical to be adapted back into a movie of its own. But here we are – 20 years after Mean Girls hit theaters and six years after the show hit Broadway, Mean Girls the musical is now a movie.
Mean Girls is about a teenager named Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) who, until now, has been homeschooled by her mother while Mom does research in Africa. Cady finally gets a chance to attend a regular high school, and it goes about as well as one would expect. To put it plainly, Cady is socially awkward.
She meets a pair of like-minded misfits named Janis and Damian (Auli’i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey), but she also catches the eye of “The Plastics,” a group of popular girls led by the ruthlessly shallow Regina George (Reneé Rapp). Janis and Damian see this as a chance to use Cady to get an inside look at The Plastics for their own gains, while Cady is left wondering who her real friends are.
Oh, and there’s a popular boy named Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney) involved.
And everyone sings about it.
Those who are familiar with the original Mean Girls will recognize right away that this version sticks pretty closely to that story. Which is a good thing because that story would be tough to top. This adaptation of an adaptation of Mean Girls seems to have been a passion project for writer Tina Fey (who also reprises her role as Cady’s math teacher, Ms. Norbury, from the original, which she also co-wrote), and her wickedly sly sense of humor comes through wonderfully.
Directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. seem to share that sense of humor, also injecting a good dose of the post-millennial anxiety that was so prominent in their short film series Quarter Life Poetry into the mix. So Mean Girls feels sympathetic towards its high school heroes while simultaneously poking fun at them. A great combination of heart and humor.
Mean Girls is also perfectly cast. If there was a way to improve upon the casting of the original, this movie found it. Angourie Rice is a great Cady, with an arc that takes her from naïve newcomer to full-fledged popular girl. Reneé Rapp’s Regina George is brilliant as well, the kind of character that makes the audience want to slap her, and her performance is helped immensely by the fact that Rapp is the strongest singer of the ensemble. The most improved character, however, is Jaquel Spivey’s Damien. The hysterical young actor has a presence that steals every scene he’s in.
And then, there’s the music. Not to throw shade at The Color Purple, but that movie musical didn’t exactly work. The music was good, and the story was good, but together, they clashed. With Mean Girls, the music and story mesh. The songs are all catchy modern pop, and each one feels like an extension of the character who sings it. Whether it’s Cady singing about being “Stupid With Love” or Regina singing about watching the “World Burn,” you know exactly who you’re dealing with when they break into song.
To say Mean Girls is fun is an understatement. It’s uproarious, raucous, hilarious fun. This is a Mean Girls for the new generation. Even if the old generation will love it just as much.
Grade – B+
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Teen Drinking|Strong Language|Sexual Material)
Running Time: 1 hour 52 minutes
Release Date: January 12, 2024
Studio: Paramount Pictures
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