by Louisa Nordberg ’27
March 4, 2024
The opinions expressed here are strictly those of the writers and do not reflect the views of University School of Nashville or the Peabody Press.
One of the first movies released in 2024, Mean Girls is an adaptation of both the original movie from 2004 and a subsequent Broadway musical. Each successive adaptation has virtually the same plot line, but all have featured distinct groups of actors.
The original movie, a teen comedy, starred Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron and Rachel McAdams as Regina George. It was so popular it was followed by a standalone sequel released in 2011, a Broadway musical adaptation in 2018, and a movie musical—the subject of our review. This new adaptation stars Angourie Rice as Cady Heron and Renné Rapp as Regina George. Rapp previously played Regina George in the Broadway adaptation from 2019-2020.
Every Mean Girls incarnation has shared one common denominator: Tina Fey’s comedic writing. They all also follow the same plot: the homeschooledprotagonist, Cady Heron, moves from Africa, to Chicago and attends an American high school. She befriends artsy outcasts Janice and Damien; they introduce her to all the cliques at the school, the most revered being the Plastics.
This group consists of Regina George, Gretchen Weiners, and Karen Smith. When the Plastics welcome Cady into their milieu, Janice sees an opportunity to exact revenge on Regina, her middle school tormentor. Hijinks ensue, and eventually Cady must confront the tension between her desire for popularity and her true values. Unlike previous adaptations, this modern version of Mean Girls includes the use of social media, where the characters make TikToks that would get many views and comments on who they side with or what they think of the situation with the plastics.
Some of the best performances of this movie are those of Jaquel Spivey and Auli’i Cravalho (who played Damien and Janice, respectively). They understand the characters that they are playing and show their emotions well. Angourie Rice does not live up to the original Lindsay Lohan; while she is a good actor, she does not portray the innocent-to-mean progression of the character as well as Lohan does in the original.
Renné Rapp also makes a good Regina George. In the original Mean Girls, Regina seems delightful on the surface, but she actually talks behind everyone’s back. In the new adaptation, she isn’t as nice, which marks a turn for the character.
Karen, originally played by Amanda Seyfried, did a great job of portraying the “dumb friend” archetype, using a whispering voice and facial expression that made the character more believable. Avantika Vandanapu played the new Karen. Her version felt a little more forced, but still played well.
One of my least favorite parts of the movie was the song “Sexy,” sung by Karen during the halloween party. Unlike the musical’s rendition of “Sexy,” this song is aligned much more with the clichés of pop, making the sequence feel less like a musical and more misplaced—like many other songs in the movie. While watching the movie, it felt like the actors were always singing the same songs that had simple and boring lyrics. There were too many songs; it got very repetitive and almost none of the songs were catchy enough to even remember after the movie was over.
Overall, Mean Girls was fine. The music does not feel like a musical, the actors did an okay job but do not fill the shoes of the original characters. The movie is not bad but didn’t not keep me intrigued even while being a fast paced movie.
I give the new Mean Girls 6/10.
