THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Mean Girls was one of the 2000s' biggest comedies ever made thanks to a brilliant screenplay by Tina Fey. Apart from later success in her career, she made the film immortally relevant when deciding to adapt into a stage musical. With that own separate form of popularity, it was a no brainer on adapting the musical into a motion picture.
PLOT
The 2024 film follows the similar story of the 2004 predecessor but has its changes to spice up the plot. Sixteen year old Cady Heron begins her first day at high school in the United States after spending most of her childhood being homeschooled in Africa. She does struggle to fit in until befriending social outcasts Janis and Damian who explain to her the school's got various cliques and the most popular are the Plastics that include: insecure Gretchen Wieners, dimwitted Karen Smith and queen bee Regina George, the latter that Janis accuses of ruining her life. When the semester progresses, she has a crush on classmate Aaron Samuels but avoids making a move due to discovering he's Regina's ex boyfriend. Although warned by Janis that Regina is evil, she does enjoy hanging out with the Plastics. That all changes when during a Halloween party, George takes back Aaron and resume their relationship out of spite to Heron. Betrayed, Heron joins Janis' in planning to destroy the Plastics' friendship. They do try to ruin her homecoming dress, only for it to be a new social media trend due to her beauty. But she still tricks her to use lard for face cream. Throughout the semester, she has Gretchen go against George which would be at its worst during a Winter Talent Show, and trick her into revealing her secrets, as well as breakup George & Aaron when exposing her infidelity, cheating on him with Shane Oman (Brian Altemus) who she originally dumped him for. She would also have an advantage in spending time with Samuels when pretending to need math tutoring. When getting closer, George admits she ostracized Janis in middle school, making everyone mistake her to be obsessive, which explains the latter's animosity. Heron would even trick her into gaining weight by giving her high calorie snacks and making her believe they're diet snacks. Not having anything else to fit her, she would be banished from the Plastics' lunch bench for violating her own personal dress code. With this making Cady the new queen bee, she chooses to celebrate by throwing a party while her mother Ms. Heron (Jenna Fischer) go out of town. At this party, she would drunkenly admit to Aaron she was pretending to struggle in math just to talk to him. Offended, he calls her out that she's acting like Regina. Janis & Damian would share the same opinion when calling her out for skipping out on her art show, renouncing their friendship in the process. When George finds out what Cady was doing all along, she chooses to get even by distributing photocopies on campus of her scrapbook containing false student rumors, the Burn Book. In the process, she frames the Plastics by inserting an insult of herself to avoid suspicion. When the junior girls see it, it causes chaos throughout the hallways. Thankfully, Principal Duvall and Ms. Norbury restore order by gathering them in the gym to resolve their issues. During this situation, Janis admits to what she and Cady planned from the start. Embarassed, Regina storms out of campus and when Cady tries to apologize, she gets hit by a school bus that fractures her spine. After this incident, Cady takes the blame of the Burn Book due to her false comment on accusing Ms. Norbury of being a drug dealer, which gets her suspended for three weeks. After the suspension, Ms. Norbury gives her a chance to gain extra credit by competing in the Mathletes state championships which the team would go on to win. With the Spring Fling dance going down that same night, she attends and becomes surprised of being voted as Spring Fling Queen. She celebrates her victory by splitting the plastic crown in pieces and sharing it with the other girls in attendance, telling them they are all special in their own way. The film ends with her reconciling with everyone close to her from Aaron to Janis to Regina.
THOUGHTS
I did not know a single person that wanted this movie to happen and neither did I, so excitement level was low on seeing something that should’ve been left alone. I bothered giving this a chance because it’s only fair to give criticism towards something after seeing it yourself. Having said that, I have to admit this is one that’s in the middle for me because it’s not the worst thing ever made nor is it a masterpiece. It is overall entertaining because the directing pair of Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. made something refreshing enough to get the message across. The singing numbers are timed right because a part of you starts to imagine how can they portray a scene like so until it happens. And with that in mind, it reminds the vibe on how fast paced high school is and has been for many teens. Surprisingly, it’s just the way I did in a good way. It was even smart with its comedy when avoiding singing numbers knowing the plot doesn’t it. So when Ms. Norbury gets our hopes up on purpose for her to sing, you know that was well played. Speaking of which, it was gladdening to see Fey return as Ms. Norbury because the success she gained from adapting the novel Queen Bees and Wannabees does not happen without her involvement. It was even a bonus for Tim Meadows to return as Principal Duvall because his presence as well as Fey’s reminds us the theme to not make the mistakes your enemy makes because it won’t make you any better. I respect the intent to be lighthearted by removing the taboo sub plot of Coach Carr (Jon Hamm) sleeping with female students because that just doesn’t fit a musical intended to be joyful. The big takeaway I had with the cast was some tried too hard in recapturing the flair that was made in ‘04. Like it’s one thing to notice Rajiv Surendra doesn’t feel natural with his energy for Kevin Gnappor, but I got really irritated on how Avantika Vandanapu played Karen. Rather than making her innocent in lacking self awareness the way Amanda Seyfried did, she makes her straight up stupid to the point of mistake her to be related to Brick Tamland from Anchorman whose mentally retarded. All of her blank stares were just so weird I wasn’t sure if she was sleeping with her eyes open or staring at the camera. And who the fuck cares on what your BO smells like? No one wants to know that shit. And having Halloween every day would be as bad as if you asked for every day to be Christmas. You’re ass is asking for mass hysteria. I don’t want to hate on Avantika, but she deserved to flex more with this role. And I’m nowhere jiggy with Busy Phillips as Mrs. George because even she tries too hard to match Amy Poehler’s energy. Now as for the rest of the cast, they actually keep me on board on seeing the rest of the story’s execution. It’s hard to be at the standard left behind by Lindsay Lohan who originally played the lead Cady. While it was nice for Lohan to have a cameo as the Mathletes tournament moderator, Angourie Rice is arguably the only one from this cast to make the role her own. When listening to her sing ‘What Ifs’ and ‘Stupid with Love’, you’re reminded how curious of a person she is because she never prepared for change and just wants to fit in. With every bad decision she made to better herself, it blew up big time because that’s what it took to accept severe changes aren’t necessary to be happy. Since Christopher Briney is still able to make Aaron a smart guy the way Jonathan Bennett did because he’s self aware compared to the women, being smart enough to fall for those who make decision for attention’s sake. He still chose to kiss Cady at the end because he saw how truthful she finally became at the end. Auli’i Cravalho & Jaquel Spivey were a great pair for keeping the spice going in this new setting. When hearing ‘Cuationary Tale’ open up the film, you know for sure familiar grounds we’re gonna be different. Even when describing Regina’s personality with ‘Apex Predator’ and preparing their plan with Cady in ‘Revenge Party’, the chemistry is well matched on both sides. Jaquel even had a great delivery in the line “She don’t even go here” when it could’ve backfired. Besides being great at the singing area, they’re still good people deep down because they don’t want Cady to be humiliated the way Janis was. Making Janis gay in this version definitely made the rivalry personal, which only made us sympathize her more because getting ostracized in teenage years is one of the worst situations to be in and no one should go through discrimination for choosing to live differently. Having said that, it makes the song “I’d Rather Be Me” all the more powerful because it’s the reminder on how being comfortable with yourself is enough to be happy. No one can ever top the legacy Rachel McAdams left behind as Regina George, who many consider an iconic bully of a character. This was the role that had the highest expectations and surprisingly, Reneé Rapp held it down. When she sings ‘World Burn’ you’re reminded how manipulative she is to be at the top and will not forget those who cross her. She’s got her insecurities and she takes it out on everyone in front of her including Cady. You can say getting hit by a bus helped her change her ways, but it was so off putting that it took her to be medicated to make amends with Cady because it made the ending extremely rushed. Last but not least, I do think Bebe Wood did a great job in matching Lacey Chabert’s previous energy as Gretchen whose got her own insecurities on maintaining attention and feels like hanging with the queen bee will do the trick no matter how upsetting it would be for her. But once she cut ties with her over a ridiculous dress code rule, she quickly picked up she didn’t need anyone but herself to be satisfied. I just wish she her relationship with Jason got to be better fleshed out. Now having said as much good as I could, there are a handful of things storywise that bothered me. Rather than fixing problems that come from the original, they make new ones instead. Like ain’t it a little dumb for the teacher to tell Cady to have a seat when there weren’t any seats left? And why was Mrs. George looking through her daughter’s room to find the Burn Book? That is a real pointless to set up the fallout between all junior girls. And Regina not locking the custodian’s room to sleep with Shane is just as dumb as the idea no one overheard Janis openly talking to Cady in class about sabotaging the Plastics. Also, I feel like Janis shouldn’t be surprised with Cady’s Spring Fling Queen nomination when she helped her become Queen Bee in the first place. I then wonder how come no school employee finds the Burn Book before students do. That’s more unreal than the school not having alarms/cameras when Regina snuck it in at night. If you can ignore these said flaws to have a smile, then I respect your taste. To wrap up, 2024’s Mean Girls is fetch enough to be a watchable musical. Whether you’re a fan of the book or the original film, this adaptation is honestly worthwhile.
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