February 21, 2024
Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) had been homeschooled her whole life growing up in Kenya with her scientist mother (Jenna Fischer). One day, Mrs. Heron accepted a teaching job in the US, so Cady had to attend North Shore High School. From her first day at a regular school, Cady had much difficulty fitting in. Fortunately, art nerds Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) took pity on her and clued Cady in on the various cliques in their school.
The clique that caught Cady's attention were the Plastics, a group of three rich girls obsessed with their looks and fashion. They were tattle-tale Gretchen (Bebe Wood), dim-witted Karen (Avantika) and their despicable bully leader Regina George (Reneé Rapp). When Cady shared to her friends that she had a crush on her Calculus classmate Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she was warned to forget it because he was Regina's ex.
This was the same exact synopsis of "Mean Girls" (Mark Waters, 2004), adapted from the 2002 Rosalind Wiseman book "Queen Bees and Wannabees" by writer Tina Fey. Its phenomenal success led to the development of a stage musical version with book by Fey, music by her husband Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Neil Benjamin, which debuted on Broadway in 2018. This present film is based on this Broadway version. Fey reprised her role as Ms. Norwood from the original film, as did Tim Meadows as the principal Mr. Duvall.
Fans of the 2004 film will recognize that this new film was practically a scene-by-scene recreation of the original. The biggest difference of course were the catchy pop songs sung in the most unexpected moments. The songs of Janis and Damian like "A Cautionary Tale" and "Apex Predator" provided sideline commentary. The songs of Regina like "Meet the Plastics" and "Someone Gets Hurt" brought in darker elements. A more raunchy song "Rockin' Around the Pole" replaced the innocuous "Jingle Bell Rock" in the Christmas show.
With her innocent face, 23 year-old Angourie Rice plays a high school student again here, after "Senior Year" and "Honor Society" last year. Her sweet singing voice was best heard in "I See Stars" in the finale. Renee Rapp reprises her Broadway-breakthrough role of Regina George. She sung the movie's darkest song, "World Burn," with spine-chilling effect. It was great to hear the powerful singing voice of Auliʻi Cravalho again after she voiced the title character in "Moana" (2016), highlighted in her solo number "I'd Rather Be Me."
Mean Girls (2024): 7/10
Mean Girls (2004): 7/10.
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