REVIEW: ‘Mean Girls (2024)’ Is Not A Grotsky Little Byotch

Like many millennials, Mean Girls and Cady Heron are a core memory. The original 2004 film helped shape my humor and also helped me find some catharsis for school bullies. Because the story is so integral to a generation of pop culture fans, I didn’t know how to approach Mean Girls (2024). The marketing omitted all of the musical bits, and ultimately, I had no idea that there was ever a version of Cady feeding Regina Geroge Kälteen Bars to a tune.

Mean Girls (2024) is pretty much the same story that we know from the iconic original; only the largest changes and focus come from the musical adaptation, which debuted in 2017. The film is directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. and written for the screen by Tina Fey. In it, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called “The Plastics.”

The group is ruled by the queen bee and “big deal” Regina George (Reneé Rapp). The minions in toe are the co-dependent Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and too pretty to function Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she becomes someone she doesn’t recognize and pays the price for it.

Mean Girls (2024) thrives because it strikes the perfect balance between honoring the source of the original story, adapting the musical, and carving out its own path. From casting choices that are different but perfectly embody the characters—particularly with Reneé Rapp as Regina, Jaquel Spivey as Damian, Avantika as Karen, and Auli’i Cravalho as Janis—to changing up situations to make it okay to just not like someone without it being a moral failing or a large revenge scheme, changes to the story work.

While the film’s story and its songs are great, it’s the work that the cast puts in that makes the musical film extraordinary. Rabb is stunning as Regina, a fitting successor to Rachel McAdam’s beauty and ability to shoot daggers with a stare. Her voice is stellar, and her chemistry with everyone, both when charismatic and when being an absolutely terrible human, is what Regina is about. Karen is the type of annoying that only the prettiest of people can be, and Avantika plays her with such camp and assuredness that she shines.

Perhaps one of the original film’s most iconic characters, Damian, is still equally as iconic when played by Jaquel Spivey, whose sense of comedic timing and knowledge of physical comedy is unmatched. He steals every scene and puts his own stamp on the character that is glorious. And then, there is Janis who finally gets her due.

This is bolstered by Janis’s big song. “I’d Rather Be Me,” after the iconic trust fall exercise. In it, Janis sings that she is better without the person causing her anger. She is better off alone. She is better off not allowing the thoughts of others to weigh her down. With this, Janis becomes a character who isn’t just about revenge and isn’t just reliving her childhood trauma of being outed. Here, she’s accepting that she can’t control what mean girls think, which helps no one. Instead, Janis has a date to prom and just lives her life. It’s a choice that ultimately changes the character for the better and shows how approaching this story with 20 years of growth can have a great impact.

Even the changes to the story all make sense with how the characters have been adapted in this context. Perhaps the wildest of changes is that Regina George, despite her Disney villain-worthy theme song, isn’t actually the villain in the end. Instead, it’s how girls are taught to handle their grievances.

Honestly, “I’d Rather Be Me” sums up the core of what Mean Girls (2024) is trying to say far better than any line of dialogue in the film. In the aforementioned song that Janice sings, she notes that girls are supposed to smile while boys get to fight it out and move on. The fact that girls and women are supposed to be quiet and hold it all in, smile, and never let it eat them up is the issue.

The film ends with a call for empathy. It points out that even the people you hate are just trying to get through it all and that you should “get off their d__k.” It’s salient. If anything, it’s a moral tale that offers a new generation of young women permission just not to engage and to leave people alone.

Mean Girls (2024) still has iconic moments. Damian is still too gay to function. Glenn Coco still has everything going for them. And the limit still doesn’t exist. But the film wears those iconic moments without being consumed by them. Instead of reminding the audience of the past, they bolster just how much the casting room got right and add heart to changes.

Truthfully, Mean Girls (2024) isn’t made for me. Its in-jokes are to a culture I don’t understand now as a 33-year-old woman, and seeing Ashley Park as a French teacher made me audibly turn to my friend and whisper, “Oh no, I am a hag.” Yet somehow, detached from the small nuances I’m sure Gen Z viewers will appreciate that I just can’t, I do love Mean Girls (2024). 

The film has awkward pacing that is clearly the result of wanting to cram in as many songs as they could without sacrificing the story, but that’s really its only flaw. Unless you’re a Latina like me and thought the awkward insertion of Spanish spoken by Gretchen was more “check box diversity” than anything meaningful, but that’s the most minute of nitpicks. This review is also hard for me because I can’t stop using the word “I”—a no-no in writing. That said, if you, the reader, are a 30-something who is a curmudgeon about reboots, adaptations, and revivals of things you love, I implore you to give this musical take a chance.

It’s easy to expect it to prove why it deserves to exist. Mean Girls (2024) has to answer the question of “Why are we doing this again?” or “Why make a musical?” It has to prove itself based on the weight of being iterative of a pop culture juggernaut. And it does. Boy, does it live up to the very high bar. It’s fetch. But I’m sure it won’t be for everyone because that’s how stories work. If that’s the case, remember its closing words and get off its d__k.

Mean Girls (2024) is available now on Paramount+.