The Big Picture

This new version of Mean Girls fails to be remotely special, relying on rigid emulations of past performances. The songs in Mean Girls are generic and lack humor, with disappointing lyrics and no visual panache. Tina Fey’s attempt to update the story for the modern day falls flat, relying on fan service and throwbacks to the original film.

Comedies and musical movies tend to function best when they’re relying heavily on unpredictability. While there are types of songs (the “I Want” number, a round, a villain tune, etc.) you might expect to hear in many classical musicals, the best movies leaning on song and dance routines are wild creations that let their imaginations run wild. Think of the dancing gun-toting gangsters from The Band Wagon or all the surreal potassium-rich imagery from the “Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat” ditty. Mean Girls, a 2024 adaptation of both the Broadway musical and 2004 film of the same name, could’ve been a chance to merge the entertaining volatility of musicals and comedies. Goodness knows that’s just what the song teams behind projects like Flight of the Conchords and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend have done in the past.

Mean Girls Cady Heron is a hit with the Plastics, an A-list girl clique at her new school when she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George. Release Date January 12, 2024 Director Samantha Jayne , Arturo Perez Jr. Studio(s) Paramount Players , Broadway Video , Little Stranger Distributor(s) Paramount Pictures

Alas, directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. and screenwriter Tina Fey have instead opted for a musical movie that, much like the sight of a backup dancer tripping during a showstopper number on opening night, instills a pit in your stomach. As Mean Girls goes on and on, it becomes clear this feature has no intention of really doing anything special or new. This is a tepid cover song of the 2004 film, with a bunch of talented young actors getting throttled by having to do such rigid emulations of iconic performances of the past. Mean Girls echoes Space Jam: A New Legacy and The Flash in its irritating devotion to placating the nostalgia of older audiences rather than harkening back to the creativity of great movie musical remakes like the 1986 Little Shop of Horrors feature. On Wednesdays, the Plastics wear pink, but no matter what day of the week you watch this new incarnation of Mean Girls, it’s bound to be a disappointment.

What Are the Songs Like in ‘Mean Girls?’

Much like in the original movie from two decades ago, Mean Girls focuses on Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) getting transported from a sheltered life to the relentlessly chaotic world of American high school. Initially a social outcast, she befriends Janis ‘Imi’ke (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey) while learning about who runs this school: the Plastics. A trio of popular girls led by Regina George (Renee Rapp), the Plastics are an elite clique that ‘Imi’ke suggests Heron infiltrate as part of a revenge plot. Once inside this group, Heron begins to get a little too infatuated with being popular, a journey brought to life this go-around by a bevy of original tunes with lyrics by Nell Benjamin. The best way to describe these songs is that they immediately conjure up memories of ditties penned by Pasek & Paul, specifically in how much they sound like they’re tailor-made for pop radio.

Generic lyrics abound on the Mean Girls soundtrack and the assorted songs are shockingly benefit of anything resembling humor. A song called “Revenge Party” where characters sing about how “It’s a revenge party/with your two best friends/it’s like a party with revenge” is the height of “wit” here in a tune that only makes one wish they were listening to “Me Party” from The Muppets instead. Most disappointing of all the tunes, though, is a big number for Janis entitled “I’d Rather Be Me,” which wants to be the big self-love anthem of Mean Girls. Needless to say, it does not hit the heights of similar superior songs like “Changing My Major” or “Defying Gravity.” Oddly listless writing (including one instance where the word “bad” is used to rhyme with “bad”) and no sense of specificity to who Janis is as a character makes the entire musical number a waste despite the game vocals of Auliʻi Cravalho.

None of the musical numbers in Mean Girls will be stuck in your head once you leave the theater and few of them demonstrate much visual panache in the way they’re executed either. The most inventive lighting element across all these set pieces comes through kicking off the vengeful tune “World Burn” with shots of Regina George alone in her room draped in ominous red lighting seemingly lifted from a Giallo horror movie. Otherwise, Jayne, Perez Jr., and cinematographer Bill Kirstein opt for showy surface-level flourishes (like trying to capture much of “I’d Rather Be Me” in one-take or constantly shifting aspect ratios) meant to paper over the very rudimentary dance choreography and staging of the various songs. Especially underwhelming is an early inclination to visually differentiate Cady’s “imagined” world from the reality of High School (hence the differing aspect ratios), a plan that gets lost in translation thanks to the minimal variations in lighting between the two planes of existence. Many musical movies have delivered unforgettable images built on the heightened tendencies of song and dance routines. Mean Girls just looks like a TV movie when its characters are harmonizing their problems.

‘Mean Girls’ Has Even Less to Offer Beyond Its Musical Numbers

Unfortunately, this new iteration of Mean Girls doesn’t justify its existence even when the subpar musical numbers finally cease. Tina Fey has many talents as a writer and performer, but unfortunately, having her write a “modern” version of this story was a mistake. She just can’t seem to get a grasp on how to tap into modern-day technology or 2020’s social norms to make this new Mean Girls its own beast. Instead, she opts to make it the same movie as the 2004 film. Only now, a swarm of TikTok videos fill up the screen (and communicate key narrative points) in brief montage sequences. Without a discernible concept for making Mean Girls feel new again, Fey tragically falls back on fan service to carry the day. Two characters from the original movie are revealed in this incarnation to be married (thus fulfilling some niche Tumblr ship from 2009), famous lines from the original film are dragged back out again for extended cringe-inducing callbacks, and meta references to this being a remake are all dropped to tepid results. One should not be reminded of the worst service moments in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker when watching a Mean Girls musical.

In the middle of all these throwbacks to 2004 is a young cast bursting with talent that deserved a better movie to inhabit. Avantika, playing this movie’s incarnation of Karen Shetty, is especially wasted in a lifeless script despite constantly demonstrating glimmers of real comedic chops. She’s got the energy and commitment to pull this role off, so why doesn’t the script ever give her good lines to deliver? The only actor to emerge unscathed is Jaquel Spivey, whose performance encapsulates what this new Mean Girls should be. Getting to play a more outsized iteration of Damian Hubbard, Spivey brings a sense of unapologetic life to this figure that doesn’t echo the original Mean Girls and just feels like its own exciting thing. Freed from the confines of mimicking what worked in the past, Spivey gets to deliver the funniest moments of the film and register as something unique while the rest of the cast mostly comes off as Gen Z performers doing Mean Girls cosplay.

A new generation of performers deserved a lot more anarchic fun and creative freedom to put their own stamp on Mean Girls if this property even needed a musical remake in the first place. At the very least, this cast should’ve been working with a creative team more in touch with the unpredictable nature of musicals. When you have people belting out their feelings in song, you have permission to go anywhere and do anything. Unfortunately, this musical version of Mean Girls doesn’t have greater ambitions than reminding people that there was already a Mean Girls movie and delivering tunes on par with the average track on the Wish soundtrack. The fate of fetch may be up in the air, but Mean Girls as a musical movie? That’s clearly not going to happen.

Mean Girls REVIEW ProsJaquel Spivey gives a wonderful performance that feels like everything this new Mean Girls should be and doesn’t rely on just mimicking what worked in the past ConsNone of the music or songs feel memorable as this Mean Girls instead plays it all far too safe The majority of the otherwise talented cast come off as Gen Z performers doing Mean Girls cosplay Tina Fey, while a great writer elsewhere, is not able to update this material to the modern day save for throwing in some TikTok video montages

Mean Girls comes to theaters in the U.S. starting January 12. Click below for showtimes.

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