Movie Review: The ‘Mean Girls’ Musical Remake Adds New Dimensions to a Familiar Story

Rating: 94/100.

Twenty years after Tina Fey’s Mean Girls became one of the most surprising hit comedies of all time, Fey returns to double dip in the popular franchise. The 2024 version of Mean Girls is less a remake and more of an adaptation of the Broadway musical version of Mean Girls that Fey collaborated on with her husband Jeff Richmond. The result is a whole new version of a 20-year-old story, one that doesn’t follow the original beat-for-beat but rather finds ways to add new dimensions to the story that weren’t there in the original.

Much like in the original, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is a naïve young teenage girl who grew up in Africa where she was homeschooled by her research scientist mother (Jenna Fischer). When Cady’s mother takes a job in the United States, Cady starts attending North Shore High School. There she’s befriended by Janis ‘Imi’ike (Auli’I Cravalho) and Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey) who warn Cady to beware of the evil “Plastics,” the superficial girls who rule the school: Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Wood), Karen Shetty (Avantika), and the queen bee herself, Regina George (Reneé Rapp).

However, Regina takes a liking to Cady and invites the new student to join the Plastics at their lunch table. Janis, who has a complicated past with Regina, comes up with a plan to use Cady to sabotage Regina’s popularity, but the plan backfires as Cady gradually becomes the new queen bee of the school, taking Regina George’s place.

The new version of Mean Girls finds ways to really expand on the relationships between the characters and give them meatier backstories. Gretchen’s solo number “What’s Wrong With Me?” really gives us a chance to understand how Gretchen became such a fragile person and why she bases her entire self-worth on her relationship with Regina.

The relationship between Janis ‘Imi’ike (who was Janis Ian in the original and Janis Sarkisian in the musical) and Regina George gets a much more fleshed out backstory that better explains why Janis and Regina had their falling out. Unlike in the original, where Regina perceived Janis to be a lesbian but Janis’ true sexuality is never really revealed, the Janis in this version of the movie is explicitly queer, and that is directly related to why she and Regina stopped being friends.

One of my issues with the original Mean Girls has always been the scene where Janis shows up at Cady’s party that she wasn’t invited to and accuses Cady of becoming one of the Plastics, and calls Cady a “mean girl.” To me, Janis was always complicit in turning Cady into the monster that she becomes. In the 2024 version, it felt like there was more of a concrete decision by Cady to move beyond Janis’ original revenge plot and become the new queen bee, and it felt like Janis was a little more justified in feeling betrayed by Cady. By the same token, the new Janis seems to understand the role she played in making Cady a Plastic and regrets it, even while she feels betrayed by Cady.

Jaquel Spivey is arguably an even better Damian than Daniel Franzese was in the original. Spivey portrays a version of Damian that’s more theatrical and dramatic, and ultimately brings more comedy to the role than Franzese did. Spivey and Cravalho also have much better chemistry than Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzese. Similarly, Avantika is arguably an even funnier version of the dimwitted Karen than Amanda Seyfried was. And, while it’s hard to compete with Rachel McAdams’ original portrayal of the iconic character Regina George, Reneé Rapp absolutely gives McAdams a run for her money.

In fact, I might even go so far as to say that, overall, the 2024 version of Mean Girls is better than the 2004 version. If that sounds like a bold statement, that’s because it is. But the musical remake manages to add new depths that weren’t there in the 2004 version and fixes the few minor problems that the original had. It’s not a whole new story, but it’s a distinctly fresh take on a familiar story that will be a delight for fans of the original and serve as a great introduction to the story for brand new fans. So dress yourself in your favorite pink garb and catch the new Mean Girls because this one is certainly as fetch as it gets.

Mean Girls starts early access screenings tonight and then opens in theaters everywhere on Friday.

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