Bigger, Brassier, and Gayer than its predecessor, Mean Girls (2024) is a saccharine overload of cinematic bombast. Whereas in the original 2004 Mean Girls, Damian was the only openly gay character, here both our narrators, Damian Hubbard (the profoundly campy Jaquel Spivey) and Janis’ Imi’ike (Auli’i Cravalho), are the gay outcasts of North Shore High School. In classical dramatic tradition, they will present the opening number and the closing homily. In a gloriously trenchant rock number, we learn this film will bear witness to someone being run over by a bus; oh yes, and it’s a tale of revenge.
This musical, apart from the brassier and gayer departures, unfolds much like the 2004 original. Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) and her mother relocated to the North Shore area of Chicago after many years in rural Kenya. Enrolling in North Shore High School, Cady has a stupendously stressful first day. The stress continues until Regina George (the luminous Reneé Rapp) and ‘The Plastics clique invite her to join them at a lunch table. As The Plastics are at the top of the High School’s food chain, Janis and Damian encourage Cady to take the clique up on their invitation to lunch with them for a week for spy purposes. There’s some profound bad blood between Regina and Janis stemming from a series of actions that took place in 6th grade, and Janis craves vengeance.
Bebe Wood plays Gretchen, Renee Rapp plays Regina and Avantika plays Karen in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Photo: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures.
“…Janis and Damian encourage Cady to take the clique up on their invitation to lunch with them for a week for spy purposes.”
What transpires is a whirlwind of chaos. Essentially, all the plot points of the original Mean Girls are present and accounted for. They are now reduced to massive song and dance numbers. Your mileage might vary as to the efficacy of the musical medium to tell this High School story.
Personally speaking, I found Mean Girls to verge on excessive. The songs are all well-sung. The choreography is great. The scenes are often too busy and rich with detail to make heads or tails of what’s happening on the screen. Oftentimes, the camera is following Regina or Cady. Meanwhile, one of the plastics, or one of the outcasts, is doing something absolutely outrageous that the camera chooses to stick in the background, so you only receive a brief glimpse of it. While it’s a clever move, the cinematography can be perplexing at times.
Also, North Shore High School has way more elaborate drama programs or talent shows than would naturally occur in the Midwest. Chicago might be the third largest metropolitan area, however I doubt strongly that so many musical outfits ranging in genre from rock to jazz would be available at any high school in middle America. There’s a level of fantasia on display that doesn’t feel entirely earned. However, it did manage to induce maniacal giggling in this reviewer. While I might present gripes, at the end of the day, Mean Girls did, in fact, provide great comedic entertainment.
While this is a PG-13-rated film, I would be loathe to suggest any children below 13 should view it. There’s a raunch sensuality on display at all times in Mean Girls. This is fit for teenagers and no one younger.
So, if you want to relive the glory days (or possibly social nightmare) of your High School years, seek out Mean Girls. It’s proverbially staring at you from its driver’s seat, huskily whispering, “Get in, loser.” And you might as well.