Mean Girls

Hey everyone and welcome today we will be talking about the film Mean Girls. Fun Fact, Tim Meadows who played Mr. Duvall is the only person to be in all three of the mean girls films. This film came out in 2024 and stars Angourie Rice, Renee Rapp, and Auli’i Cravalho and was directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. So without further ado let’s get right into it.

Mean Girls follows Cady Heron who transfers to North Shore High School from Kenya. She struggles to make friends but catches the attention of the super popular and super mean Regina George who invites her to join her crew, the plastics. As time goes on they quickly move from friends to enemies and Cady is set on taking down Regina but doesn’t realize how many people she will hurt in the process.

Mean girls is a remake of a classic that is a musical comedy. It has similar vibes to Mean Girls, Legally Blonde, or Do Revenge

The Mean Girls film from 2004 is a classic and I was a little hesitant when they announced they would be making a remake of it based of the musical . From the first trailer I thought that it looked funny and I would give it a try but the one thing that irritated me was that there was not a hint at all in the first trailer that it would be a musical and opted to use an Olivia Rodrigo song and dont get me wrong I enjoy me some Olivia but the movie is filled with songs and non of them are with Olivia so why would you use that and not one from the actual soundtrack. The music is something that shows that this movie will be different besides the fact that it’s a more modern take on the story. Another thing is that it was marketed showing so much Regina that I thought it was a movie from her perspective when its still from Cady’s perspective but it thought Cady was going to be more of a supporting character only to find out she is the main star still. The movie was still enjoyable but I just feel like the marketing could’ve been better and thank god for some of the stars being a big draw for younger audiences and the name Mean girls being something that would get people talking.

I love how this movie started off with Janice and Damian narrating and giving us the story from their perspective. I thought this was a cool way to introduce the audience to the film considering they play a big part in introducing Cady to the cliques of the school and explaining the social hierarchy but also because they are the ones that influence her to destroy the plastics from the inside. Besides the fact that they narrate they also sing really freaking good. Im also glad that Janice is a lesbian in this movie because to be honest it makes sense for her character to be a lesbian.

Cady is where we start off the movie and to be honest at first I wasn’t sold on whether I enjoyed the character because I wasn’t really feeling the song from when she was in Kenya but she slowly grew on me. The scene where she is singing the song about Aaron Samuels was hilarious to me and I loved how it really didn’t try to be serious but leaned into how funny and a little bit weird her obsession with him was becoming. It was interesting to see her character change throughout the movie even though I knew she would become the next Regina George and I thought that Angourie did a decent job stepping into this role.

Renee Rapp was just chefs kiss as Regina George. She played the role in the musical and after watching this movie you will understand why she got it. She embodied the role of this Queen B and my god can she sing. Regina George is an iconic character already and I feel like Renee came in and made it her own and added her own little twist to the character. Also her on the press tour so far has been so entertaining to watching and when I see her answer questions she seems like she is unapologetically herself and the interviews are so funny which makes me like her more. I was glad that she also made a new song for the soundtrack with Megan Thee Stallion which was great.

Karen was pretty funny and Avantika had great delivery of her lines to elicit the funny response. Her song sexy which lead into the halloween party scene was one of my favorite parts because it starts off as this quirky funny song that’s off key but then she steadily gets on key and brings out the vocals and then she had some amazing choreography during the performance and even had a little dance break. I just love how with all the drama in the plastics going on she was still going to be a airhead and say something that would catch you off guard but have you laughing.

I kind of felt bad for Gretchen in this movie because she actually seemed nice but often times let Regina speak up for her and didn’t speak up for herself. I love how she was smart still and showed that being smart and popular can go hand in hand. I realized that she is like the record keeper for the plastics, like if you ever wanted to know how to become a plastic she would be the person who could explain it to you.  I was laughing at her keeping secrets but also telling people that she knows the secrets while spilling the secret she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.

I had mixed feelings when I found out who was Aaron Samuels but when I watched the film I thought he wasn’t that bad. I think when casting this particular role you have to think about who is popular to the age group you’re aiming for and I think with the success of The Summer I Turned Pretty Chris Briney became a name that was thrown in that pot and I thought he was good in this film. I did wish that we got a song with him because he was one of the only main characters who didn’t give us a full on performance. I feel like he nailed Aaron being a nice guy who was just always willing to help and that you would be shocked to see dating someone as mean as Regina George.

The 2004 mean girls is iconic to say the least and there are some things from that movie that just stand out and many people reference and I was glad they kept it in this film. While the film is not a copy and paste they still mention fetch, Glen Coco, She doesn’t even go here, On Wednesdays we were pink, and October 3rd being the day Aaron asked her what day it is. I think when making a remake of something as popular Mean Girls you need to understand what are some things people would want to see return and I think these were some of the things that would of stood out and they did a good job incorporating them while also seeing Tina Fey and Tim Meadows returning. Another callback that wasn’t in the orginal movie is that during the talent show Damien says Thank U, Next which is reference to the Ariana Grande song considering one of the movies that Ariana Grande used for reference for that music video was Mean Girls. These call backs not only pay homage to the classic but are a nice surprise to people who liked the orginal and lets them know that it hasn’t been forgotten. Oh also the biggest callback which was spoiled to be before the movie was seeing Lindsay Lohan coming back and being the one who does the mathletes tournament which was lovely to see and had my theatre cheering.

There are a lot of changes to the story which are fine to me but the biggest thing that’s just kind of noticed throughout the film is that it takes place in modern times. I think this is a small but important detail to target a wider range of audience because while I may not be aware of what high school is like now, I have seen the orginal so I have an idea of the plot and while someone younger may not have seen the movie from 2004 they may have an idea of what high school is like now or was in the last couple of years and might connect with some references in the film and so the age range of people who will enjoy this movie is expanded. Social media obviously plays a big part now as it should because you can’t have something set in high school in modern day and not mention social media and I love how they use social media as a way for the burn book stuff to get distributed to the school and cause a whole discourse online and they even included a handful of social media stars and Megan Thee Stallion as well.

My favorite part of this film was Jaquel Spivey as Damian, he was just so funny and truly stole every scene he was in. One of my favorite mean girls line is the she doesn’t even go here and I love how he changed something so small because in the orginal its whispered to hide the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be there either but in this one he screams it loud with this irritated tone and it was just hilarious. I also love the scene of them trying to pick a French name and him just going through different ones and seeing him and Ashley Park go back and forth. There were so many scenes that I just loved with him in it and I’m glad that he was cast in this role.

Mean Girls the musical is funny movie that you will have fun watching and even some of the songs are funny. While I think the marketing for this movie could’ve been done better, I enjoyed the cast and even though they had big shoes to fill I think they stuck the landing and I love the line at the end where Damien and Janice say people you don’t like are just trying to coexist.