Mean Girls (2024)

If the phrase ‘major disappointment’ had a visual description, this movie would be it. Mean Girls is a fantastic display of how to not make a musical movie. 

The 2024 Mean Girls had my palm on my forehead for the majority of the film. 

To start with, they tried so much to make it relevant to teenagers today by beginning the film with a Tiktok. Oh yes, you read me right. And it only gets more shocking from here. 

I understand that it is a musical movie but they did not need to pretend that they were ‘changing the stage’ by dropping a background. A simple cut transition might be basic but it is used so often for a reason. 

Angourie Rice played Cady Heron in such a way that disgraced Lindsay Lohan’s (the original Cady Heron) iconic performance. Many of her songs were unnecessary to the plotline and her voice pales in comparison to that of Renee Rap. Angourie also gave Cady Heron absolutely no depth. Her character was dull throughout and while she is supposed to represent this homeschooled weird girl finally going to a highschool, Angouries Cady was almost forgettable from how bland her character was. Bebe Wood, who played Gretchen Wieners, was underplayed and had very little personality to her. This Gretchen Wieners could almost be confused with Karen Shetty from how dumb she acts in some scenes. Gretchen is supposed to be a complex character who, despite being ‘friends’ with Regina George, sees how awful it is to actually be friends with the popular queen bee. Her anger and resentment toward Regina is supposed to be visible to the audience and grow throughout the film. Instead, it only shows when Cady attempts to break apart the friendship. 

Gretchen also a very unnecessary song which felt forced and rushed as some sort of attempt to give the character a personality. But of course this failed because she has as much personality as a blank wall in this film. Karen, played by Avantika Vandanapu, felt almost unnecessary as a character. She gave nothing to the group other than stupidity. Her character is supposed to be ‘the dumb one’ who is there to add some humour but this just was not received through this film. While these characters were truly terrible, the characters Janis and Damian were perfect. Not only does the actress who plays Janice, Auli'i Cravalho, have an amazing voice, but her acting was phenomenal. She gave a true tribute to the original Mean Girls along with Jaquel Spivey who played Damien. Their scenes alone are worth the watch. 

Now onto the queen bee herself, Regina George. She was played by Renee Rapp who genuinely carried the entire movie. She was so amazing that the only complaint I have about her is her wardrobe. I had seen many reviews saying that Regina George’s wardrobe looked like it was bought off of Shien and I didn’t believe it until I saw it for myself. The wardrobe designer put Renee Rapp in ill-fitting clothes that simply did not suit her body type or her character. Despite this, the actress still pulled through in her performance. There were some incredibly hilarious moments and some lovely tributes to the original film such as original actors coming back and making an appearance. Overall, this film is worth the watch if you want a laugh but if I were you, I would not pay money to see it. So I suggest you wait until it is out of cinemas or just watch the 2004 Mean Girls that we all know and love.