After the launch of the new production of Mean Girls that came to theaters, January 12th, 2024, many mixed feelings about the movie were spoken of. Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., along with the screenplay by Tina Fey, this musical teen comedy film is based on the Broadway musical of Mean Girls, which was based on Mark Walters’s 2004 comedy film following along with the same name. The main actors starring in this new production are Angourie Rice, Renee Rapp, Auli’I Cravalho, and Christopher Briney.
To start, the plot follows along with our main protagonist, Cady, who has just moved from Kenya to the U.S with her mother and attends North Shore High school. The whole high school experience is new for Cady hence before living in Kenya with no friends. Right away she becomes friends with two characters, Janis, and Damian. Just like the original 2004 film, this film follows through with the same plot but instead changing it up with the Broadway musical aspect added to it.
Many mixed reviews have been published about this new film though. Honestly, in my personal opinion, I would recommend that if you are not a “musical” fan, then this will probably automatically be a no-go film for you to watch, as plenty of songs and musical like dancing scenes occur throughout the movie. However, a bit of a difference from the two other productions is introduced. This film takes place in our generation, full of social media. For example, a media that is supposed to be TikTok is portrayed through the movie with students filming TikTok-esque skits and transition videos on Halloween.
In a relatable light, the moment a crazy event happens on the school campus kids are rushing to film and upload. Regina George in the movie deals with this exact situation. During her act for the winter talent show she falls, leading to a very embarrassing reveal of certain parts of her lower body. Right away students start filming and uploading videos online which causes so many people across the world to see and make commentary videos about the situation. From this many people of all ages start “canceling” Regina online. Touching up on today’s generation, this illustrates a very close representation of high school nowadays –the instant reaction to film anything crazy happening on campus and causing chaos with it online. I believe this film was a good representation of high school in the 2020’s and even before that, representing the addiction and pressure of social media in teen’s lives. Overall, this movie has much effort put into and is a great watch for groups of friends and family, but as mentioned before if you were not a musical type of person, I would not recommend it.