Mean Girls Plays to Nostalgia but Doesn’t Add Much to the Story

Growing up in the 2000s, it felt like something of a requirement to have at least a baseline understanding of 2004’s Mean Girls. Committing lines of dialogue to memory and referencing the movie at every possible opportunity was how my peers and I communicated. My high school experience, even 10 years after the film premiered, was full of girls wearing pink on Wednesdays and celebrating October 3 like a national holiday.

Today, the #ReginaGeorge tag on TikTok has over 5 billion views, and swaths of young people have made the film their own. With its impact still ripe in our cultural consciousness and this year being the 20th anniversary of its release, it seemed only right that the creators of this phenomenon would find time to cash in at the nostalgia market. The question was, would returning to North Shore High be worth it?

Damian (Jaquel Spivey), Cady (Angourie Rice), and Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) spy on the Plastics in 2024’s Mean Girls. Jojo Whilden/Paramount Pictures

Part a reworking of the original film and part a showcase of the Broadway adaptation whose run was cut short by the pandemic, the new Mean Girls recounts the familiar story of one teenager’s treacherous introduction to public high school. Our good girl, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), who’s been living and traveling with her mother in Kenya, struggles to find her place in the social food chain when she transfers to the fictional North Shore High. After making friends with the school weirdos, Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), Cady is poached to join the school’s most coveted clique—the Plastics. From here, the story spins into its classic tale of revenge, boyfriend stealing, and backstabbing. Rising pop star Reneé Rapp stuns as Regina George with Tina Fey back as both the film’s writer and as her iconic character, Ms. Norbury.

Incorporating the musical element of this story allows for onetime side characters to shine in moments all their own. Our revenge-seeking but well-intentioned friend Janis (played by Lizzy Caplan in the original) leads much of the story, even providing direct-to-camera narration throughout. Cravalho’s musical numbers are both visually and vocally impressive, though I found the Moana star’s natural sweetness a bit too distracting to make for a believable Janis.

Additionally, I felt there was a missed opportunity in Bebe Wood’s portrayal of Gretchen Wieners. Those familiar with the story will know that the destruction of the Plastics hinges greatly on Gretchen’s unwavering loyalty to Regina. The opportunity to explore why that loyalty exists fails to deliver a return on investment for me in the film’s only real acknowledgment of Gretchen, Wood’s number “What’s Wrong with Me?,” which she performs to herself in the mirror while standing in Regina’s closet. Instead of giving real insight into the character, it offers only a shallow contemplation of her beauty and perceived weakness as a device of the revenge scheme.

I found Regina’s musical numbers to be the most captivating of the film. It is clear that Rapp is an experienced performer, and you can feel it when she takes the reins. Her songs often felt like standalone music videos—it was as if even the production knew that this was the arena where the film would shine. The set design and choreography of her songs seemed to tower over the rest of the film both visually and technically. And, to put it plainly, that girl can sing.

Bebe Wood, Renee Rapp, Avantika as the Plastics: Gretchen, Regina, and Karen. Jojo Whilden/Paramount Pictures

The modernization of the narrative was a bit silly at times. The updates incorporate social media into the story, even having the film open on Janis and Damian talking straight to the camera as if they were making a front-facing video to post. While necessary, these parts feel as if they were written by someone without a real understanding of teens and their relationship to social platforms. I understand why the creators included so much of today’s technology, but it did take me out of the story at times.

Overall, the writing is there in some parts and truly misses the mark in others. Many of the jokes are scaled back and seemed to be made more palatable for a young audience of 2024. Which, again, I can understand—but removing the meanness of a movie called Mean Girls left me wondering why we were even taking the time to revisit this work in the first place. The jokes seem to acknowledge the line between appropriate and not but refuse to take even a step toward it for a chance at something funny.

The film is not without its fun moments. It feels aware of its impact in a way that is rewarding, and it does expand on some more niche character aspects that are exciting and unexpected. The jokes that do land feel earned, and the viewing experience in a group of people was joyful.

But it’s not quite enough. The musical moments, while at times visually stunning, feel disjointed and out of place—instead of a cohesive storytelling device, they feel either hokey or like standalone pieces of work. Defanging the jokes and mean-girl behaviors make the characters’ motivations feel flat. And where the film could have offered a different type of insight into the side characters that drive our narrative, it offers only fleeting glimpses. In the end, Mean Girls relies a little too heavily on nostalgia truly offers nothing new to say.