“Get in losers, we’re going to the movies.”
In the past year, movie-goers have had the opportunity to wear pink to the cinema twice. First, for the 2023 hit Barbie and now in 2024, for the remake/ musical adaptation of Mean Girls.
Every adaptation of a renowned classic generates high expectations among enthusiasts. So, you can imagine the new movie based on the 2004 Mean Girls (dir. Mark Waters) and the 2017 musical, (dir. Tina Fey) of the same name accumulated a large and diverse fan-base with specific expectations and hopes.
One movie cannot possibly satisfy the musical fanatics who are only going to see Renée Rapp, the original 2004 movie fan, and the movie-goer with no knowledge of the Mean Girls world.
The 2024 Mean Girls stretches itself thin trying to appease all these expectations and as a result, the girls aren’t mean and the songs don’t hit as they should.
With that being said, each specific format (the original movie and the musical) has perfected the Mean Girls formula. But when all blended together, it’s a bit messy – like copy-pasting the same lyrics into various languages in Google Translate many times. Each started with the same lines, but ended with contorted results.
Here is a bit more on the hidden history of Mean Girls. Both the 2004 movie and 2017 musical are based on Rosalind Wiseman’s 2002 book Queen Bees and Wannabes. The book serves up self-help advice for teenage girls navigating the battlefield that is highschool. Of course, the issues are blown out of proportion and dramatised in the adaptations.
All that to say, this story has been twisted, adapted, and re-produced several times.
You could compare Wiseman to Shakespeare, if you are so bold. The themes and characters are commonly portrayed in popular culture and few people know where they come from (think 10 Things I Hate About You and The Taming of the Shrew).
References to the 2004 movie are made in daily life. “You go, Glen Coco!” , “She doesn’t even go here” and, of course, “On Wednesdays, we wear pink” are instantly recognizable phrases used by Gen-Z and Millennials.
Heading into the theatre in my pink outfit (alas, on a Saturday, not Wednesday), I had seen the 2004 original movie and not the musical. But, I am a fan of Renée Rapp and Tina Fey.
I think you need to see both the movie and the play to accurately judge the melding of the two interpretations.
The movie features choppy TikTok montages in an obvious attempt to modernise the movie. It ultimately fails to achieve this goal, instead becoming a distraction from the plot.
Interestingly, as a fan of musical theatre, I found the adaptation was too ‘theatre’ for the movie screen. The choreography and lighting works well on a stage, but not on camera — so you end up with none of the magic of the theatre or limitless opportunities that movies provide.
But given the exhaustive adaptation of this story, why make this movie now?
Critics scream, “Renée, of course!” Fair. The emboldened blonde, who portrayed Regina George on Broadway, brings the sass and voice necessary to fill the high heels of the leader of the Plastics. I have to say, I prefer Rapp’s own music as opposed to her portrayal of Regina.
Maybe it’s because I tend to listen closely to lyrics, but I found the songs in the 2024 movie were over the top cringey, which was probably on purpose. But I could hardly laugh at how ridiculous they were.
In “Stupid with Love”, Cady sings “I’m filled with calcu-lust” and I sigh with disappointment. In “Apex Predator”, Janis sings “Like a lioness/Only with less fur/Do not mess with her/She’s the apex predator” and I bury my head in my hands.
Although Avantika Vandanapu, who plays Karen, singing “I can be a sexy doctor, and cure some sexy cancer” in “Sexy” is admittedly hilarious.
With that being said, my favourite song from the movie was “World Burn”. If you like Renée’s voice and R&B with a hint of pop, you should check her new album Snow Angel.
Overall, the casting is perfect. I especially hope to see Auli’i Cravalho, Vandanapu, and Jaquel Spivey in more things going forward. While I think the 2024 movie tried to accomplish too much, now we have the musical memorialised. And that is totally fetch.
