Here at FandomWire, we review the musical remake of the 2004 comedy smash Mean Girls, starring Angourie Rice and Reneé Rapp.
Yes, it’s weird to remake a modern classic—focusing on the term modern—a mere twenty years after Mean Girls’ theatrical release. It would help if you never remade a classic like Casablanca or The Godfather. At the very least, we should cap the action, maybe after three decades, to let fils percolate.
However, we currently live in an age of streaming wars where everyone is looking for content. That’s where Mean Girls was supposed to end up on Paramount+. No one would be the wiser than Tina Fey, who would line her pockets. Yet, something funny happened on the way home from the land of the Taylor Sheridan streaming series.
The remake is very good, with some dazzling musical numbers, earning this version a theatrical release. This Mean Girls does just enough to separate itself from the original and separate itself onto a new path.
Mean Girls’ Plot Summary and Review
The story follows a new student, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), who moves back to the United States after being homeschooled by her mom (Jenna Fischer) in Kenya. There, she meets two free spirits, Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian (a very funny Jaquel Spivey), who welcome her to school by rescuing her from the bathroom stall where she eats lunch.
Cady is a sweet teenager, untouched by high school cliques. That is until she encounters the “Plastics,” an elite group of scheming teenage girls who belittle others without hesitation. Regina (Reneé Rapp) reigns supreme, and crossing her could invite her vindictive retaliation.
Naturally, one should avoid developing feelings for her ex-boyfriend, Aaron (Christopher Briney, who elicited audible gasps from teenage girls when he turned around at his desk at my screening), but Cady’s heart wants what the heart wants. This sets the stage for a rivalry to see who can undermine the other first in a bid for Aaron’s affection.
The ensuing competition tests their maturity and threatens to alter their social standing.
Also Read: Lindsay Lohan or Rachel McAdams, Who is the Highest Paid Mean Girls Star?
Mean Girls is a crowd-pleasing musical comedy!
This musical remake was Quarter Life Poetry: Poems for the Young, Broke & Hangry director team of Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne, making their feature film debut behind the camera. They work with a script from Tina Fey that is a hilarious, crowd-pleasing effort with plenty of heart.
Angourie Rice, the actress who starred in Mare of Easttown and The Nice Guys, is absolutely winning here. The fact of the matter is that Rice has the talent and ability of a young Anna Kendrick. In the Paramount+ film Honor Society, she toed the line from edgy to empathetic. Here, Rice’s Cady jumps from a luminous, even naïve adolescence to trying to find herself.
Rice’s character never wanders too far from Cady’s true nature, which is refreshing. Cady is an evolving character, exploring how she now works in a cutthroat ecosystem compared to her homeschooling. This is the perfect tone for the film, which has a sweet message about embracing inner beauty and being kind to each other by the film’s end. Rice is a joy to watch.
Is Mean Girls Worth Watching?
Mean Girls is worth watching in theaters because of the talented cast. There are some fantastic supporting comedic performances here. Including Avantika, who plays the oblivious, ditzy friend who steals every scene she’s in. In particular, an amusing and entertaining musical number on “modern feminism” is wonderful.
So is Cravalho’s punk rock ballad, “I’d Rather Be Me.” Of course, Rapp’s “Someone Gets Hurt” and “World Burn” at the time set the screen ablaze while still finding the humor in the character’s signature villainous style. The singer/songwriter made a name for herself with a Broadway adaptation and didn’t disappoint here.
Is the Mean Girls remake better than the original Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams comedy? Probably not. The original fanbase, now grown up, may cause some lower-than-expected critic grades and audience reactions. Not to mention, the film may not have the same verve, especially from the Cady side of the story.
However, the added musical numbers now seen through a social advocacy lens give the film a heartfelt quality that is earned over its predecessor. This crowd-pleasing and (if you will) fetching comedy has a winning formula for a new generation.
You can watch Mean Girls (2024) only in theaters this Friday.
7/10
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