Comparing the movie musical to the original is simultaneously necessary and absolutely futile. The thing about teen movies is that they are often our most honest cultural time capsules — films that are looking to capture the zeitgeist of the exact moment, without any attempt to remain timeless. The fashion, slang, music, and pop culture references are a reflection of the coolness du jour, which is why we’re often so nostalgic for them. 2024’s “Mean Girls” is loaded with plenty of fan service for fans of the original, but the film does so at the expense of the Broadway show. It’s a necessary compromise to hopefully appease multiple generations of fans, but I personally would have preferred it if they just went all-in on the musical.
The story beats are the same, with Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) entering the terrifying jungle of high school after a lifetime of homeschooling. After being taken under the wing of queer outcasts Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), Cady is quickly targeted as the pet project of Queen Bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp), with her sidekicks Gretchen Weiners (Bebe Wood) and Karen Shetty (Avantika) in tow. Janis and Damian see this as the perfect opportunity to spy on the popular clique but when Regina shows her true colors and betrays Cady, her friendship with the Plastics turns into a revenge plot.
Part of the longevity of “Mean Girls” was its unapologetic presentation of how girls can be, well, mean, which has been seriously nerfed for this new take on the material. But at the same time, the teenage landscape is not the way it was in 2004. Teenagers can still be awful and high school can still be hell, but the execution of that ferocity has evolved. As much as it irked a part of my brain to hear “Regina George is a fugly cow” instead of “fugly slut,” this is a reflection of an evolving culture. This is “Mean Girls” for the youngest members of Gen Z and the oldest of Gen Alpha.