i like janis’s outfits as outfits but i hate how janis’s gothness was stripped away completely. the original musical has that problem too though. honestly janis was done so dirty in both the musical and the new movie and i hate it
I love how realistically dumb Karen is in the original, the "if you're from Africa, why are you white" quote is something I could picture younger me asking 😭
Literally me trying to make sense as to how there can be white Mexicans and then later wondering why people from Spain don't look like people from Mexico🤣
I know the 4 way call doesn’t work in today FaceTime era. But I wish we had a scene like that to show. All the plastics were mean and fake to each other. Not just Regina towards them.
What I was waiting for was a Plastics group chat that Cady is invited to, but then she somehow discovers a second group chat with the OGs called "better plastics" or something
@@drewnicornyea and they couldve just made it so one call is on like a laptop or something and the other is in their phones and they just mute eachother
@@b8376 why can't some nepo babies just start from the bottom? Or at least pretend, gain some experience before going for main roles? It's just a bad move in general, especially nowadays with ppl getting more upset about it
@@heyitsmira17 honestly, i’ve seen her other stuff and she isn’t that bad but i think that’s because she was always a side character. i think she needs more time until she plays a main character
Saying that they didn't make Regina dress as feminine bc they wanted men and women to be attracted to her is crazy to me, because like, do they know how many sapphics are obsessed with her lol?
To be honest, I actually prefer the original storyline of Janis's sexuality being a rumor. I thought it really demonstrated how 1. Regina cuts people out of her life once they call her out on the mistreatment, since Regina started the rumor after Janis stood up to her repeatedly blowing her off and 2. how much influence Regina has with the student body since everyone immediately believed it and exiled Janis. It felt very realistic to how dictators handle those who they feel are threats. However, I understand that in this day and age it would also seem pretty unrealistic for people to use that as a reason to make her an outcast.
Spot on; the fact that it wasn’t true yet turned Janis into a complete social outcast was the point, and made it well. For this they could have played up the stalker/obsession aspect which is still frowned upon for any sexual orientation. The rumor would be that she is a crazy creep of a lesbian, not just a lesbian. Side note, as a lesbian myself it was so cringe-inducing to hear the costume guy’s “logic” for not making this Regina so feminine. OG RG had NO trouble inducing lesbian lust, and yes a big part of that is just Rachel McAdams but it’s so dumb to think gay women are only attracted to masculinity. Wtaf
I feel the need to point out people still get bullied for being queer. My friend was in high school less than ten years ago and received horrific bullying before they were even out to themselves. People suspected they weren’t straight and mistreated them.
I mean in the OG it could've been a (real)rumor but she could've just also bi in the OG... she was rumored to be lesbian and she's shown with abf at the end , it leaves lesbian out of the rumor but she could've been bi too not just straight. 🤔 I always thought it was not that clear wether it was just a rumor aka she being straight, queerbaiting or she being bi. It's all open possibilities we'll never know.
It also shows that u dont have to take to stereotypes. Janice wears suits and kinda “manly” clothes, but she isnt lesbian she likes men. Shes still feminine just in her own way.
Exactly my thoghts. The OG Regina would tear appart this new girl. Its crazy that modern ejecutives think that a huge and tall girl like her could be the most popular and hot girl of school😂😂 she is too big and not even that pretty.
Honestly, if they had gotten the euphoria costume designer, the looks in this movie would’ve been probably iconic just like the original. I don’t even know why Tom would bring up euphoria high that just makes him look terrible. In comparison euphoria is a TV show and the looks are better and hit harder than this full budget movie
Dude yes. The plastics are supposed to be aspirational, not relatable or "normal high school kids." That defeats the whole purpose of their existence. Fashion content creators on tiktok put together wayyyy more cohesive and fashionable looks than whatever this was.
euphoria looks so good because they stole the aesthetic from Petra Collins, ever since that came out Im kinda suss about everyone working on that unfortunately
My biggest movie pet peeve is using “realism” as an excuse for everything. The original plastics don’t look realistic- most teens aren’t walking around in tiny skirts, heels, and designer brands everyday. Not to mention this movie isn’t realistic to what “popular” girls wear. Where’s the lululemon?
I think a lot of modern shows & movies fail because they’re trying to look too relatable. Idk about others, but I don’t watch media for relatable fashion. I want the fantasy, the drama! I don’t want everyone on my screen to look like they’re a normal person running errands. It’s so dull, boring, and lacks vision, imo. The original mean girls’ wardrobe was fantastical! What high schooler is running around in 4” stilettos and microminis? This drab look works for indie films but for something like this, I want the drama found in the script to extend to the fashion as well. Some fancy eyeliner isn’t enough. It is interesting to me that a lot of these movies with “relatable” fashion look always so out of date after just a couple years, whereas movies with more exaggerated looks (even trendy ones) seem to last (such as Jawbreaker, euphoria, the original Mean Girls, etc).
Yeah, not to be mean but the performance of Cady was pretty shocking. Especially coming after Lindsey Lohan who was so iconic in a subtle way in the film, the new Cady fell completely flat sadly. Honestly she kind of was one of my biggest issues with the film because it was impossible to feel connected to the main character.
Her win over Regina felt undeserved. Reneé Rapp is a powerhouse and, honestly, I was rooting for her Regina all the time. I think Auliʻi Cravalho would made a better Cady, but I guess the writers (tina fey) didn't want to get into the mess of intersectionality with race and the topics of the movie bc she doesn't have the best track dealing with other races (Jane Krakowski portraying a native woman in Unbreakeable Kimmy Smith for example)
Seconded, I love Angourie Rice, but she just felt miscast here. Her acting was decent, but her singing just felt weaker in comparison to the other cast members, and she seemed uncomfortable in the role at times.
I haven't seen it yet, but the focus is so utterly on Renée Rapp that you basically forget about Cady being a character in this film. Whereas, Rachel McAdams' phenomenal portrayal of Regina overshadowed Lindsay Lohan in some ways, Lindsay still held her own and they ultimately stand toe-to-toe as main characters of the film and arguably pop culture history as well.
agreed. If I were one of the plastics and I saw LiLo’s Kady walk into the room… yeah I’d want to befriend her too. her looks, charm and personality is a huge threat to Regina and that’s obvious the moment she comes on screen. Kady is so clearly confident in herself and her abilities, which is almost unheard of in high school lol. It’s no surprise that Regina immediately wanted to befriend her so she could ensure Kady wouldn’t outshine her. Angourie Rice’s Kady… not so much. I don’t blame the actress as much as I blame the director, as I can only assume they wanted her to act that way. but her portrayal of Kady is way too timid and insecure. That’s not to say the original Kady wasn’t insecure at all, just that she didn’t wear on her sleeve and that’s what attracted so many people to her. I just don’t understand why someone like Regina would want to be friends with someone like Kady. The remake’s Kady doesn’t really seem to pose much of a threat to Regina, so Regina’s entire plan to control Kady loses it’s meaning.
Hyperfemininity is important for the plastics. The movie and book are about power dynamics in girl world. And exploiting femininity is one source of power. It doesn't work if it's not toxicly over the top. The original explains how Regina's tyranny works, looks are an important part of it.
A big part of why it looked so damn cheap I think was because no one was watching the lighting. That math class had like 12 different lightings across the movie, sometimes two scenes set a day apart would have it go from brightly lit and then the lights may have well been turned off. Sometimes it felt like a student film where they couldn't afford lights for the hallways.
Also, this was supposed to go directly onto Paramount+. I heard they made a last minute decision to release it theatrically. It's filmed like a streaming movie.
I noticed the hallway lighting too. It was dark in a few, which I think if they were consistent with, it could’ve been dark the entire movie but then it was brighter in others
this is true of the musical too but I honestly wish they hadn't done away with the more "problematic" elements of the original. janice being canonically a lesbian and then that NOT being the reason she was ostracized by regina is such a miss imo. homophobia is not a thing of yore and I think it would have been so interesting to see how covert it is now and it would have strengthened the original's message of "mean girls fight underhandedly." I could definitely imagine regina being an ally™. (imagine regina purposefully outing janice to cady like, "janice is a lesbian. omg you didn't know that? I mean there's nothing wrong with that. I'm an ally, obviously. she did try to kiss me once and I had to tell her I wasn't like that but I totally support her lifestyle uwu.") basically, I kind of wish they had actually leaned MORE in to the darker elements of the original (mean girls was originally rated r after all). kinda like heathers the musical did. I just think a darker tone combined with the hyperfeminine and all the pink would have been such a cool contrast. it's sad because there's so many ways this musical could have been great but a combination of the source material (i.e. the musical not the og movie) being already not that great imo, plus everything you already mentioned just makes it feel like a low effort nostalgia cash grab. it's not hairspray (2007) that's for sure
As a teen, I absolutely agree with this. While being queer is more accepted, homophobia didn't just die out, it just got a lot quieter. I also have always thought that any iteration could've added so much depth to Regina and the story, by having Regina herself be queer in some form and having some form of internalized homophobia, though I 100% see the appeal in having a plain old villain.
Yeah there was a lot of homophobia at my highschool and I graduated a couple of years ago. Today it wouldn't have destroyed Janis's reputation unless she lived in a really conservative area, but it could have done damage, especially if Regina leaned in to stereotypes about lesbians when talking about Janis. The 'popular' kids at my school were the most homophobic too and even recorded themselves being homophobic for lols.
Maybe I’m biased due to my upbringing, but the way literally no one cared about being gay or lesbian when I was in school. It would’ve carried no weight. And I graduated in 2016
That's true. That's not the issue I have with the movie though. I don't even mind the questionable lyrics or outfits. I feel like this version lost the point of the original movie, all because they wanted to portray gen z as being "more progressive" than they actually are, or because they're afraid of addressing the fact that a lot of the issues that teens dealt with and the way adults treated kids in 2004 have barely changed.
It feels like certain directions, lines, and scenes that the musical movie took did a disservice to the message of Mean Girls. The film kinda forgot what it was trying to say in the first place.
completely agree. i think one of the worst examples of this was the change to publicly humiliate Regina and make her go “viral”. The original Mean Girls was so iconic because of how relatable and real it felt. making Regina’s downfall so dramatic misses the point completely imo because the reality is that girls like Regina always seem to win at the end of the day. even when Janis and Kady’s plan starts to work, she still doesn’t lose any popularity or clout long-term. she is still THE Regina George after all. she got hit by a bus and still somehow managed to benefit from that. this adaptation is a huge eye roll for me personally.
Agreed, it felt like this film was made by people who didn't really understand why the original worked so well, but merely wanted to cash in on a popular trend.
@@tomb411 Tina Fey was a producer and wrote the screenplay. that doesn’t mean she had complete creative control over the film. the screenwriter might write the script, but it still needs to be approved and modified before it’s finalized. my guess is that Paramount wanted the movie to be as inoffensive and politically correct as possible, and that’s (part of) the reason the movie was so disappointing compared to the first. we see the drastic changes between movies made 20 years ago compared to today, and it seems like a lot of studios are restricting their writers in hopes of reaching the widest audience possible. can’t blame it all on Tina. i refuse to believe someone as smart and witty as her could come up with such a terrible script all on her own. contracts will do that to you tho🤷♀️
@crab2195 most of the problems with the writing of the movie musical are holdovers fr9m the musical - which Tina was also heavily involved in. Mean Girls was 20 years ago and Tina has had many weird controversies since then. The uncritical worship you seem to have for her is unnecessary. People change. She's not some new indie writer. She's the screenwriter and producer.
teens go to malls but only because there's nowhere else to go. they never buy anything... its all designer clothes and things that aren't catered to teens now. maybe one hot topic but hot topic is also getting expensive
I dont care for it at all but I dont think it's terrible lol like it would've been serviceable as a standalone TV movie if it wasn't associated with Mean Girls
Oh god. I remember watching that movie and LEGITIMATELY FORGETTING it was a suppose to be a Mean Girls sequel until I heard the maincharacter call the film's "regina" a bitch 💀 It caught me sooo off guard bc my brain thought it was a circa 2012 Disney Channel original movie lol.
@@LaRana2315i never watched that but instead watched a video about it years ago and I was just thinking about it recently and thought it was a fever dream and it didn’t actually exist but then I realized that was a real thing 💀
@@CrystalLovesChrist honestly legally blondes is worse because they completely forgot about the whole legacy elle woods built. Mean Girls 2 was awful but atleast it still had some similarities to mean girls. Legally Blondes was just a completely different movie with different themes but because they were related to Elle in a way, it made it ok
I felt that the 2024 Mean Girls was really missing the "center" of its movie: Cady Heron. Angourie Rice fell so far short of the character, I agree she was miscast. No one can really measure up to how amazing Lindsay Lohan was in that role. But not only was Angourie severely lacking, they took away her VO and a lot of character beats. Her singing was horrendous too. I missed the other characters from the school itself, all their classmates. The movie was hyper focused on the Plastics and Cady, it didn't feel like they were adored in the same way. Like Tessa said, they were in such a bubble that the movie lacked a huge emotional core it badly needed. Also, Busy Phillips was just AWFUL. I missed Amy Poehler's portrayal so much.
Thank you! I feel like Lindsay's performance has somehow become quite underrated nowadays because of how popular Regina has become (and Rachel going on to prove just how incredibly talented she is throughout her career as well) which is deserved as it's SO much fun to watch but, as I said in another comment, the Regina character is carried a lot by all the awesome one liners and just its extravagant nature. Cady's a much more nuanced and difficult role to pull of because it's a lot of subtle work required, Lindsay is the reason why all the other outlandish characters work together and she elevated the movie storywise imo Tina Fey herself put it very well recently when she said "the original movie is really Lindsay's movie. As great as they all are, she's the heart of that movie"
The voiceover being gone took out so many contexts and important elements- its almost like you HAVE to have watched the original to know the context that is needed to follow the storyline.
I completely agree, Busy Phillips was not the best choice for Regina's mom. She was over acting so badly that it was distracting. They also styled her far less luxurious than Any Poehler, they made her look so sloppy!
13:40 I'm confused. Does he think queer women are not attracted to hyper feminine women? Cause that's not true. Obviously. Or did I misunderstand that? Either way, I don't think any of the excuses they made for the costumes or story changes worked. They said teens today don't go to the mall. Not wholly false but not entirely true either. Quite a few still do. I think Gen Z as teens went to malls more than millennials did, according to some articles I read. Also, some kids do put a lot of effort into their school clothes. Most don't and some did just go in almost pajamas when I was in highschool, but we have a whole genre of get ready with me videos done by teens getting ready for school on Tiktok and the Plastics are supposed to be the exception of teens, not the rule anyway. I don't think the people behind this film get teens today. Like at all. And to be frank, most of Holllywood doesn't. Glad Janis is a lesbian though.
@@WinterWind I didn't make myself clear enough. That was my bad. Sorry. It was an article from CNBC called "Teens Could Be a Saving Grace for Malls, New Research Shows' from 2019, but a lot could have changed since then because of the pandemic. And I didn't mean to say teens went to malls as much as they did in the 80s. Just that they seem to go more than the people behind the movie seem to think
@@thesealky6445 Thanks! Interesting idea, I keep hearing about mall closures but perhaps that's exaggerated. I have found another article from just a week ago from LA Times which says the same sort of thing re gen Z and interest in in person shopping. I definitely got thrown off when you said more than millenials and I was like hmm surely not?
@@WinterWind Oh, that's because I heard how millennials were killing malls back a few years ago. But I just remembered that millennials were being blamed for killing everything at that time by boomers. Oops. I might edit that part out of my comment.
@@WinterWindI think later millennials and early gen z (zillenials, if you will) were really the ones who really stopped going, especially in the late 2010s with the rise of online shopping becoming popular and it had started earlier as you had said. I agree that the mall closings reporting were too dramatic and exaggerated and I think a lot of adults and families with small kids still go a lot. however I experienced a bizarre thing in that the complete opposite happened to me. in the middle of the pandemic (January2021) I went with my friend on a Saturday to the local mall and most popular one, and I think that was the most crowded (with teens in specific) I had ever seen it, and I’ve been going since I was a child. Admittedly, I live in a smaller city and there’s not a ton to do here, and it was a weekend. But I don’t think that Gen z is as mall averse as the older generations think. I remember even before the pandemic when I lived in the suburbs of a much a bigger city (DC) and I was like, in the heart of suburbia (literally nothing to do) many of my friends wished we had a big mall that was closer than the nearest which was like 20 minutes away, and when we did go, it was always crowded (not as much as when I went during the pandemic ironically) but i did see lots of kids my age and also adults and families. I think what definitely changed and died was the whole “mallgoth/mallrat” culture as I know for sure no one goes on the weekdays but I think with Gen Z’s love affair with nostalgia it’s kind of like one of those “special” things, maybe not nearly as often as the Gen x’ers did but it’s certainly not that we “don’t go at all” it’s just treated differently
I feel like Mean girls just fundamentaly does not work for a modern audience. I think one of the big reasons why the og is such cultural icon is because of its plot lines and witty humour that is of its time. Janis is the perfect example of this because her character simply doesn't make any sense to a modern audience, no one finds lesbians "scary" in the wah used to and the literally most of gen z dress like she does. I think it would have been better if they used the themes from the orginal and made a new story out of it for a new gen instead of copying and pasteing the orginal
i totally agree. i think one of the most clever jokes in the original is that janis was ostracized for being a lesbian...when she isn't even gay she's LEBANESE! which....is...the...whole...joke!! 🥴
I 100% agree with Cady's casting being bad. Even before the movie came out, I could tell that the actress wouldn't be a good fit. Her character in this movie felt very bland and boring.
I liked it. My main problem was that Regina wasn't as glamorous or as mean as she should've been, but Renee killed it nonetheless. Janis felt like a new character altogether, which I liked, but it missed the point that Janis was also a mean girl in the original, in this one she's just an empowered victim. I was hoping they would give us some sort of closure between Janis and Regina, but alas...
i felt like regina was still very mean, she just wasn’t subtle like how she was in the original movie, or as villainous as her portrayal in the broadway cast. the costume design was really horrible and it hardly did them any justice.
The only sort of “closure” we got was a single scene in the ending credits where a medicated Regina and an awkward Janis were hugging gently. That’s all we have 😞
honestly if they were going to do this kinda change to "adapt to the times", I would've preferred that they actually lean into it and do a complete 180 on the original to reflect that now "not like other girls" girls are the popular and sought after characters while a very feminine, girly girl would be looked down on by teens. Like they should've leaned into is and have Cady be this sweet, unassuming white girly girl who was traditionally home schooled and gets a culture shock on how high school is nowadays, with the regina just being the cool queer girl gaslighting her into thinking she is mysoginistic by liking girly things and wanting a straight relationship. And the final message should be "we can root for ourselves even if we are normal people and aren't a victim 24/7" that would be a real reflection on "realistic teens"
as many people have said, its not "mean" enough. if they could have incorporated how messy we are (dramageddon, japan forest) should included more backstabbing drama and problematic behavior. They could have rework the story to fit current and future gens. im making this comment without watching the movie, please dont come for me. i'll wait on it on HBO, prime or netflix
I kinda agree, but it's not as if it's a new problem, movies like "a star is born" and "little women" have been recreated many times and no one had a problem with that before...
@@stretchkitty21The thing is with The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday is that The Parent Trap Is a remake of a 60s film and Freaky Friday is a remake of a 70s film. They at least waited a few decades before rebooting them, so that people who grew up on them wouldn't have so much interest in the reboots per se.
@@kittykittybangbang9367 the movie "a star is born" was rebooted 4 times, once with only 17 years in between them. The original mean girls was zlreafy more than 20 years old.
Also the fact that they didn’t advertise it as a musical. My coworker mentioned she’s seeing the movie tomorow and I told her it’s a musical AND SHE HAD NO IDEA
@@kittykittybangbang9367It’s not hollywood, it’s the viewers :/ and so the viewers don’t give up on a movie just because it’s a musical, they don’t show it…
I walked out of the theatre thinking "I'll never watch that again" 🤣 There were scenes which were word for word, shot for shot the same as the original film yet somehow just worse. The musical numbers felt forced in and people in my theatre audibly told the characters to stop singing lol. Regina was flat and lacked any real underhandedness and the jokes were sanitised to appease a modern audience but I'm not sure it really worked. The characters are supposed to be flawed, have them be problematic🙄
it's crazy to me how in the original, the outfits where clearly extremely expensive yet they didnt look UNIREALISTIC, like of course ill find a super rich girl dressed like that; yet in the 2024 one they did cheaper looks and yet that looks insanely more unrealistic, like its just a very long kpop videoclip. the whole point of the plastics is that they curate their entire image. howcould the costume designer miss that? especially in an era where teens are all about curating their image, where regina herself could have watched a thousand tiktoks until she found the perfect ways to style herself? i wouldnt hire this guy on a teen movie ever again, it's so clear they were dressed by a man who thinks knows teens but doesnt actually understand them
you mention kpop and now i’m wondering why they didn’t take inspo from korean stylists considering a lot of unattainable trends rn revolve around this styling
I'm sorry, Regina's wardrobe was changed because he wanted "both men and women to be sexually attracted to her"? Was... was that a problem last time? As a baby bi girl when the original came out, I do not recall there being a lack of WLW who found the character hot. Did I miss something?
Very goofy tbh , it’s quite a misogynistic view actually , ppl have even said Regina is more intimidating and intelligent in this movie so that’s why she dresses more masculine and in darker colours💀 like let’s analyse what we’re saying here … if they wanted to mix it up they should’ve changed Gretchen or Karen’s style. But that wouldn’t have worked , the clothing in this movie gave primark sales
Regina's clothing makes her look too old and removes any sense of insecurity she has, which is why she bullies people in the first place. I felt like she was Gretchen's big sister babysitting the girls after school
a big issue with these movie is they use the same jokes from the orginal movie but just like in a different font, i wish people would stop seeing this movie knowing its terrible
I think it could be said that the new movie has soften a lot of the characters and that is also reflected in their style. For example what Janice wears is something a normal high school kid would be wearing, but I feel like the whole point of her character is that she doesn’t want to be associated with the vast majority
As a fan of the original musical, I despise how they cut so much of Karen and Grechens character defining songs. Meet the plastics, Stop, ect. were cut even tho it helped a lot of the characters feel alive. Meet the plastics introduced every plastic and showed their differences and I hate how only Reginas part was kept in. Not to mention the pure BUTCHERING of sexy, what electronic MESS is that? Justice for Karen. All of the actors were great tho! World burn was what I looked forward to the most and it was my fav part of the movie. Renne Rapp (I think thats how you spell it) is the perfect regina. BUT THEY CUT A WHOLE VERSE IN MY INTRODUCTION TO MUSICALS (REVENGE PARTY) AND I WILL NOT FORGIVE THEM FOR THAT.
The main issue isn’t that it’s a musical it’s that they never once advertised mainstream that this was a musical! Also the public didn’t ask for a remake. Mean Girls was also on broadway for. Few years and flopped over the years… it’s sad the legacy of mean girls has been tainted however we still have the original to watch!
They really should have just advertised it as a musical. When I viewed it last night someone in the theatre loudly said “for fuck sake!” Just as they went into the third song. 💀 I actually have no memory of what the song was or about but I just remember it was the third one! 😳
I think something ppl forget is the plastics are ASPIRATIONAL figures like ofc no one actually dresses like that for school but thats the point bc they make u WANT to and at some point u just want everything the plastics own bc theyre shorthand for being cool and fitting in hence why the cutout bra backfires in the original
I thought they made Karen too dumb? I don’t even know if that makes sense but in the OG she’s a little more believable here she just has this constant wide eyed appearance like everything is new to her it’s a little too heavy handed
PLEASE give us a full costume break down in the future! Your analysis is always so spot on and informative and I feel like there's so much to discuss (derogatory) when it comes to these costumes.. yikes. Thanks for another great vid 💓
The new Regina looks like a biker chick, not that there's anything wrong about being a hot biker chick, but the OG Regina George is a fashionista along with the OG Gretchen and Karen. Yeah Biker Chick...I can't unthink on why the new Regina looks like a biker chick... Did I mention she looks like a biker chick? Biker chick.
Biker-chick... I think you nailed it. That chick was put on this earth to ride a bike, like only a biker-chick can. There's just no other way to describe that obvious biker-chick!
I absolutely love Janice in the original, i related to her alot. But the new Janice looked mainstream, the new Regina wasn't having that unattainable fashion, like how Cady says, "Regina's like the barbie doll I never had, she's so glamourous", also the new Regina felt very intimidating to me on the get go.. I guess "your mom's mean girls" wears the crown 🔥
Janis in the original movie is an angry emo from the start. She gets Cady to cut class to show that she doesn't necessarily have her best interests at heart either. Her anger about being evicted from the clique and bullied herself is the motivation to pick on Regina. It seems weird that new Janis.would go to such lengths when she seems pretty apathetic about everything and very nice.
I think that in order to recreate the Mean Girl trope in 2024, they should have done similar to Senior Year (2022). That movie perfectly managed to recreate that trope in a way that fits today’s world. The « queen bee » in that movie was popular because she was conventionally pretty, rich, had a good social media presence and was an influencer. She pretended to care about the right causes and inclusivity and people loved her for it when in actuality it was all performative and a way for her to keep her social status (calling a girl’s Instagram post « body positive » even though it was literally just a picture of her in a swimsuit, acting fake-nice to people who don’t fit into beauty standards, etc.)
Honestly kinda sad they did away with some of the problematic stuff, like coach Karr lmao. Not because its a good thing, but because its a REAL thing that happened at my school while I went there... twice. Also, definitely wish they showed them shopping. Sure, we dont go to small malls anymore, but sephora and aritzia or urban outfitters would have been great!
Stellar point that Janis being the most fashionable/on-trend in terms of costumes *totally* misunderstands the character. If they really wanted to go with sexuality not being big deal they could have had Regina being bisexual. The whole point of Regina's character is meant to be that she's rich, entitled, clever/charismatic AND mean. If she's just rude - and she dresses like any random girl - then what makes her 'unattainable'? They should have taken a leaf out of Scream Queens Chanel's costuming to get a more up to date reference.
Or the other thing they could do is follow the idea of how young people use progressive terms to justify their bullying. So maybe instead the rumour is Janis has done some things that are homophobic. Or better yet, some of the things she has casually done and said are twisted to be homophobic. Even like her "too gay to function" line. Or pick another social trend. I actually liked the thing about Janis being a lesbian in the original. Because she fit every stereotype for a lesbian and then it turned out she was straight. Which shows to not judge a book by it's cover. They could redo that but just twist it to reflect modern values.
they flopped so hard on the styling!! the euphoria excuse is just embarrassing the fashion was so important in the original and is absolutely is a class symbol and should have been utilized. i also find the euphoria excuse bizarre because the whole mocking of euphoria is that the outfits on the show were over the really revealing, over the top, and extreme for high schoolers but it fits into the show because their situations are also extreme and revealing. idk just my thoughts lol
i've listented to the musical a lot. i wouldn't say im a fan tho but i have been avoiding watching it just out of the the tiktok videos comparing the song audio from the broadway versus the song audio from the movie. it was all the Cady audio. i know she doesnt have any vocal training but GIRL, i felt the need to yell that "MORE PASSION, MORE PASSION, MORE ENERGY, MORE ENERGY" tiktok audio.
IK I LOVED STUPID WITH LOVE EVEN BEFORE I HEARD THE FULL SOUNDTRACK. I like the actress who plays Cady but I don't think she's had any musical theater background and I don't really wanna see any clip from the movie so that the only Mean Girls is my mind is the OG 😌
I think the ironic thing about the “This is not a Euphoria high school” comment is that, at least with the first season, the Euphoria outfits and makeup looks were very relatable and affordable while still being fashionable. This aspect of the show could be debated in its season 2, since they decided to put relatability on the back burner in favor of style, but still.
My major issue with the costuming is that Cady almost always was in blue. But not different shades. The same shade of baby blue for every outfit. I got so confused. Like sure she looks good in that color. But the odds of her having that many pieces of clothing that are that colour are so slim. It wouldve been different if every character got a certain colour palette, but nope. Just Cady. Everyone else wears multiple different colours. Cady is stuck blue the whole time.
In all honesty, I have noticed some good points on broadway tok that everyone is making which are that it should have been advertised as a musical because if studios don’t advertise their movie musicals as musicals then it’s going to flop so hard at the box office. And if people don’t like movie musicals then they shouldn’t go see one and I’m saying that as someone who is a theater kid because when Star Trek strange new worlds aired their musical episode called subspace rhapsody in August of 2023, a lot of Trekkies were complaining on how it was a musical episode and I was like, “you don’t have to watch it, if you want a dark serious Star Trek show you can go watch Star Trek Picard or discovery.”
The song "Stupid with Love" in the new movie feels so monotone. There's no emotion at all. She's supposed to be in LOVE, she's supposed to be DRAMTIC. It might just be me but when I'm in love I yell in the mirror to myself about all the cute things they have done and I scream/sing in the shower to love songs and I sing it while thinking of them. It feels like Cady in the new film doesn't really care about her crush.
This movie really kills my vibe because of how much I love the old one, I would love to see a cool new mean girls but this feels like something you would watch free on tubi
How do sequels manage to ignore all subtle details and core messages, having an original version loaded with everything in front of them? What's the point of it?
ironically it's actually pretty homophobic to say that Renee needs to be dressed in a masculine / androgynous way for women to be attracted to her. does he understand what lesbianism or wlw is? women can be attracted to other feminine women, it doesn't have to replicated heterosexual dynamics...
Regarding Edgy Friend's outfit (I am so sorry I can not remember names): The "edgy" style in itself - cutout pants, oversized, black, print stuff - is fashionable today. I think it is harder to REALLY be a fashion outcast w/o looking completely ugly because we have more teen social scenes which are 'accepted' in general.
Cady in this movie has no personality at all. She just has a crush on a boy. Cady in the first mean girls has a lot of personality, that's why everyone likes her. Same problem with Regina in the new one. She's not even mean, she's just rude to people. And Karen and Gretchen both barely even exist in this movie. 😂
11:38 the idea that adults seem to have that teens don’t go to malls anymore is so weird to me because the mall closest to me is the prime hang out spot for all the teens my age, it just feels like a weird excuse to not include one of the most iconic scenes from the og
I do agree that Regina misunderstanding Lesbian for Lebanese was great, but that was in 2004, when it was not as common or widely accepted for people coming out (although Damian was gay with the actor confirming himself to be gay recently.) but in 2024 it is widely accepted (not to mention that joke could come across as a sign behind the times or for those who already know that Lebanese is a cultural background and Language. Not to mention it does not make sense as the Auli’l is Polynesian.
nah i feel like y’all misunderstood. regina thought she was 🏳️🌈 because she was too clingy and acted jealous when she talked to any guy. and mostly cause of the way she dressed.
@@CamillaLessa-fr9zr nope that's a social media post that keeps getting parroted on TikTok without fact. I'm a screenwriter and I've read Tina's book and interviews -- she's a waaay smarter writer than that - plus other older TV shows already made that joke and she's not one to steal. Also, Regina isn't that stupid! lol She's cunning. In the hallway in the original movie Regina explains it happened after Janis held her accountable for ditching her and being a shitty friend to hang with her boyfriend. Regina, being a total narcissistic mean girl, took it as, "God, she's SO obsessed with me. She like wants to date me." Then she used that as fuel to spread a cruel rumor and make Janice an outcast. It's much meaner, smarter, more realistic and better written than a dumb Lebanese joke.
Regina never said that though. Regina said Janice was jealous of her bf and became obsessed with her. She never mentions hearing Janice referring to herself as Lebanese (or lesbian)
Man, hearing that they think teens don't go to malls anymore is just so sad. We WOULD go to malls, but there's nothing to do! Every time I go to my local mall, there's another store shut down. Some malls even don't allow teenagers under a certain age to be there without a parent or guardian. It's not OUR fault we don't have a third place
so when my bestie and i watched the movie and the scene where Regina drops the Burn Book on the floor we were like, “wait where’s the paper that she’s gonna throw around to let everyone know about the Burn Book?” then we realised that oh yes, this is the digital age so they will use their phones to spread the Burn Book 😂 I thought that was actually smart seeing that they had already incorporated Tiktok into the movie, but I also felt a bit old too seeing as I had seen the original movie too 😂😅
Rachel McAdams first big movie was actually a movie called The Hot Chick were she also played a mean girl. Which probably is one the reasons why she got casted in Mean Girl’s.
Back then, actors were typecast. Lindsay was known for her tween-teen films, too. They slipped actors in roles they knew they'd be comfortable in. Nowadays, they don't do that as much.
Avantika's Karen was unironically the best part of the movie. (In my local theater, her scenes were extremely well received, to the point I'd say she almost overshadowed Renee) I think it's probably because Avantika lent a real enthusiasm and all-around "super happy to be here" vibe that gave a certain charm and real energy to her screen time. (One example of what I mean is in her line "every single day" in Sexy. She comes off as so genuine and sweet, that it's easy to forget her character is supposed to be mean.)
@@HawaiiinJune She was mean. She wrote in the Burn Book and told everyone that Gretchen had diarrhea. All the girls were mean, that's kinda the point of MEAN Girls.
Am I the only one who thought the backstory of Regina and Janis was confusing? If I recall well, Janis came out to Regina, she was supportive, but then she started dating this guy and she kissed Janis to turn him on, and then out of the blue she started saying Janis was obsessed with her and she got a doll called Sissy Liz and got everybody to say hi to it everyday and actually Sissy Liz stood for obsessed lesbian and she was making fun of Janis for being gay, and then Janis got upset and set the doll on fire. I thought it was weird and it left me with so many questions : so is regina still homophobic in this version? And if why is it never brought up? Why take away her line about Janis' dream being to jump into a pile of girls? Is their school homophobic or not? If they're not, how come no one even tried to "cancel" regina for bullying Janis for being gay in middle school? How come up Regina wasn't the one getting picked on for doing something so creepy with a doll? In the og version, the story was simple : Janis and Regina were best friends, Janis got upset when Regina started spending all her time with her boyfriend, Regina being a narcissist (and confusing Lebanese with lesbian) and homophobic, she assumed Janis was in love with her and started bullying her and the school joined it cuz it was the early 2000s and blatant homophobia was still considered acceptable. But here it's like Tina Fey didn't really know how to adapt this specific plot point to modern times to you end up with a this confusing backstory
1. I still want regina's bedroom 2. I rather they went more over the top and camp. 3. The original does not feel like its from 20 years ago. While this with all the for you pages in a couple of month when that layout will be updated this movie will already feel outdated.
I agree with everything you said and I’ve seen the original more times than I can count. My biggest issue with this one is that it was just SO unfunny !!! The original is hilarious, every other line is a well crafted joke that has become quotable beyond belief. I laughed maybe a handful of times in this movie. Even the word for word reciting of iconic lines were tainted by poor delivery and/or sanitation for a modern audience.
You nailed it Calie. Why even bother regurgitating lines from the original when they know we've already seen it and know those jokes by heart? If you can't come up with original jokes, then don't do a comedy.
i’ve noticed that in recent times, people aren’t so creative and imaginative about art no more. most movies and music are just throwbacks to the past decade and such. ie: oversampling & remakes. i love me a good sample but if you use it poorly… skip
I'll be honest, I'd rather watch the new movie than the musical bootleg that I have bookmarked on my computer. I do think the songs in the original are generally better, but I think something like mean girls just belongs on screen. There were so many non singing parts of the stage musical that just were not that good and hard to watch, but came across much better when on a screen in the new musical. While I don't think this is a better adaption musically, I think it's a better adaption for the comedy and non singing parts.
Please please please do a dedicated costuming analysis of this movie, going character by character and suggesting alternates, like you did with the Winx Club
This is ONE OF THE BEST reviews I have seen on this movie, especially your take on Renee Rapp. I get that she has a nice voice but she’s SO try-hard, like, overly expressing how mean she is or how she’s judging you. Regina should be unbothered. She’s not giving you a mean look cause she doesn’t care enough. She knows she’s all that and often does some of her most evil moves while looking friendly. And I’m so glad u covered the outfits - the plastics in the new one were holistically not anything special to look up to, they were not it-girls, looks or personality-wise.
i pretty much _love_ the broadway show. its my discount heathers, one of my guilty pleasures. i dont completely hate the 2024 movie, but its *_bad_* , especially when i went and watched the og musical. while the play doesnt live up to the 2004 og, i feel like it is its own thing, but also an adaptation? idk how to word it lol 😅
Just saw this film tonight. I didn't have any problem with Angourie Rice's performance or the rest of the cast really, but the fact that it was so shoddily directed. I have never seen a musical look so visually dull, so low energy. This should've been directed by Adam Shankman, Kenny Ortega, Jon Chu...heck even Mark Waters, why not bring him back? The original has so much more punch than this. There were moments here and there where the film showed sparks of life but they were few and far between. I guess that's what you get for hiring two people who've never directed a film before but still refer to themselves as a "visionary directing duo" on their official web page.
Cady really dropped the ball here! Totally agree on the singing her songs felt so flat and emotionless. They really should have went with someone with more experience singing theater. I had no idea that she didn’t have a background in music but that really explains her performance.
They really tried to make fetch happen lmao, like the Walmart ads were better. This movie goes right above mean girls 2, I mean I didn’t like it because it was a musical it was how bad it was it felt like a cash grab. I really wish Tina would of worked on this a little harder, just like you said I agree with everything you said.
Avantika and her role, Karen Shetty, carried the entire movie. Like the one song I really play is Sexy. I think the not so strong vocals made it better. Her outfits were also adorable
I think the 2024 film really suffers from the fact cultural values have shifted so much since 2004 that it isn't really possible to present the same story. Hence the drastically watered down 'meanness' of the Plastics - in 2004 a popular girl being casually homophobic and body shaming and sl*tshaming was (unfortunately) very believable, but in 2024 you can't get away with that. Likewise in a 2024 high school an activist 'rebel' like Janice would be hyper popular rather than an outcast.
i don't agree that the old regina george would bully the new regina george. i think she would try but would inevitably look ridiculous. we put the original on a pedestal as we should but we forget that the over the top hyperfeminine looks and mannerisms in young girls only get made fun of in real life. i think if anything the new regina would bully and ridiculize the old one, but the old regina would respond by scheming some evil plan that would end in new regina's permanent psychological damage lmao. cause that's the difference really. new regina is a hot bully but old regina was lowkey a sociopath.
also this goes to show how particular usamericans are (which is fine, and this is a us american movie) but genuinely the original regina george wouldn't last an hour in any latinamerican school without getting her ass brutally kicked, while the new regina is more like a regular intimidating girl that you might think is ridiculous but you're not gonna risk it
It's hard to find modern "star talent" period because up and coming stars have a hard time fully committing to their characters, the writing is dulled into this sort of "whisper natural" talking, and everyone has become too reliant on the visuals and aesthetics to tell the story. I also think the problem is nostalgia. Too many people kept asking for Mean Girls sequels and remakes when it's a cultural staple of its time and was destined to fail. The other problem is what the story means now differs than what it meant upon release in 2004, and that is felt. Now, the Mean Girls are the stars, not "Cady". I think this is why they cast someone forgettable for Cady and stronger talent for the actual Mean Girls. They're actually the people this generation wanted to see, or at least the people who made the musical and this movie think so. Even the posters make Regina front and center. Back in 2004, Cady was front and center, and people went to see the movie for Lindsay Lohan who played Cady, since everyone knew of the "Lindsay Lohan" staple movies that had success among tween-teen audiences (Parent Trap, Life Size, Get a Clue, Freaky Friday, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, etc). People knew Lindsay could pull this type of role off. People got typecast more often back in the day too (especially Hilary Duff, who seemed cast for the same "Lizzie mcGuire" type roles all the time). They were given roles people knew they would be comfortable playing, which is why they acted so confidently in these roles. Nowadays, anyone can slide into the role if they know somebody or have social media clout.
Part of why OG Regina feels so unique is because she came off as older and mature, in contrast to many Mean Girls who feel like the teens they're supposed to be. Renee's version of Regina feels in line with the later, lacking the mature feel OG Regina has.
I saw the new movie was pretty good, especially Regina singing but if you saw the old one, it makes the new one look like 🕊TRASH🕊 and I saw the old one when I was really little and I’ve continued watching it throughout my life because it is just absolutely 💗iconic💗 and I don’t really like how they incorporated social media and just kind of made it seem cringy… honestly, I was expecting it to be way better than this and I also got Gretchen and Karen confused because why did they have to swap the races? I mean that’s just goofy
As a teen I can certify the majority of outings happen in the mall. We have a designated mall where we reunite several times a week . Yes we see our classmates there too
The original characters would bully TF out the new cast!!!!!!!! 🙌🏻 The musical on stage works better live! It falls so flat on screen. Also the new version of the characters are not mean. They are all so dull!!!!!
I saw a tiktok the other day comparing the original broadway version of Revenge Party to Angourie Rice's version from the movie and was stunned by the lack of energy from Rice's vocals. I know she doesn't have a broadway voice but it's like she sing-talked every line. even in the trailer she doesn't stand out and she's supposed to be the lead! thankfully for her, I don't think this performance is going to hinder her career at all, given that her mom is an actress and writer and her dad is a director.
I watched the trailer and immediately was disappointed. I feel like the dialogue was really trying to be relatable to current teenagers and maybe it’s just a me thing but NOTHING irritates me more than that. Also I think everyone can agree that movie remakes are so unnecessary. The original is so iconic that anything else won’t live up to it.
NO FR I HATE THE COSTUMING. I hated all of Regina's clothes, meanwhile I know like 8 people that dress like Janis on the regular
Are you talking about new movie Janis?
@@caitlingill yes
The Regina character would never wear any of these outfits. It's so distracting.
i like janis’s outfits as outfits but i hate how janis’s gothness was stripped away completely. the original musical has that problem too though. honestly janis was done so dirty in both the musical and the new movie and i hate it
Janis so good in the movie!
I love how realistically dumb Karen is in the original, the "if you're from Africa, why are you white" quote is something I could picture younger me asking 😭
Omg Karen you can’t just ask someone why they’re white
Literally me trying to make sense as to how there can be white Mexicans and then later wondering why people from Spain don't look like people from Mexico🤣
I have been asked this when I was younger 😅
I asked this about Charlize Theron xD
Definitely something id say 😭 also i definitely think Karen can’t spell necessarily correctly without adding an extra c
I know the 4 way call doesn’t work in today FaceTime era. But I wish we had a scene like that to show. All the plastics were mean and fake to each other. Not just Regina towards them.
Facts
What I was waiting for was a Plastics group chat that Cady is invited to, but then she somehow discovers a second group chat with the OGs called "better plastics" or something
@@drewnicornyea and they couldve just made it so one call is on like a laptop or something and the other is in their phones and they just mute eachother
Zoom calls exist? Not the exact same thing but still
@@drewnicornwhat OGs?
Hold up. The girl who plays Cady has no prior singing experience? Then, why was she cast as the star of this musical? Wow.
nepo baby. no one knew that she was one until this movie got released 😭
@@b8376 why can't some nepo babies just start from the bottom? Or at least pretend, gain some experience before going for main roles? It's just a bad move in general, especially nowadays with ppl getting more upset about it
@@b8376 That explains so much, she acts and looks so boring too 😂
@@heyitsmira17 yes shes a nepo baby but shes been in a lot of aussie shows since the 2010s so its not like this is her first role
@@heyitsmira17 honestly, i’ve seen her other stuff and she isn’t that bad but i think that’s because she was always a side character. i think she needs more time until she plays a main character
Saying that they didn't make Regina dress as feminine bc they wanted men and women to be attracted to her is crazy to me, because like, do they know how many sapphics are obsessed with her lol?
lmao fr, Reginas always been a queer icon to gay girls since 2004 even when she was hyper feminine
I’m pretty sure they just used Renee’s personal style as a reference point
Yeah, it doesn't make sense. If anything most lesbians and bisexual women I know are attracted more to traditionally feminine women.
so they're implying that being girly is less universally attractive or appealing? jesus christ where is the PR team?
Hyper femme sapphic women has always existed 💀
To be honest, I actually prefer the original storyline of Janis's sexuality being a rumor. I thought it really demonstrated how 1. Regina cuts people out of her life once they call her out on the mistreatment, since Regina started the rumor after Janis stood up to her repeatedly blowing her off and 2. how much influence Regina has with the student body since everyone immediately believed it and exiled Janis. It felt very realistic to how dictators handle those who they feel are threats. However, I understand that in this day and age it would also seem pretty unrealistic for people to use that as a reason to make her an outcast.
Could've been a different rumor. Like turn it on its head and have a Regina be bi, while the rumour is that Janis is homophobic?
Spot on; the fact that it wasn’t true yet turned Janis into a complete social outcast was the point, and made it well.
For this they could have played up the stalker/obsession aspect which is still frowned upon for any sexual orientation. The rumor would be that she is a crazy creep of a lesbian, not just a lesbian.
Side note, as a lesbian myself it was so cringe-inducing to hear the costume guy’s “logic” for not making this Regina so feminine. OG RG had NO trouble inducing lesbian lust, and yes a big part of that is just Rachel McAdams but it’s so dumb to think gay women are only attracted to masculinity. Wtaf
I feel the need to point out people still get bullied for being queer. My friend was in high school less than ten years ago and received horrific bullying before they were even out to themselves. People suspected they weren’t straight and mistreated them.
I mean in the OG it could've been a (real)rumor but she could've just also bi in the OG... she was rumored to be lesbian and she's shown with abf at the end , it leaves lesbian out of the rumor but she could've been bi too not just straight. 🤔
I always thought it was not that clear wether it was just a rumor aka she being straight, queerbaiting or she being bi.
It's all open possibilities we'll never know.
It also shows that u dont have to take to stereotypes. Janice wears suits and kinda “manly” clothes, but she isnt lesbian she likes men. Shes still feminine just in her own way.
The fact that the original Regina George would bully the new Regina George so hard, and not be intimidated by her is so funny.....
I wonder if Mandi from Mean Girls 2 and 2024 (new) Regina George had a argument who would win lol
@@caitlingilli mean mandi is a whole another level of bad
ntm...
Exactly my thoghts. The OG Regina would tear appart this new girl. Its crazy that modern ejecutives think that a huge and tall girl like her could be the most popular and hot girl of school😂😂 she is too big and not even that pretty.
True XD
Honestly, if they had gotten the euphoria costume designer, the looks in this movie would’ve been probably iconic just like the original. I don’t even know why Tom would bring up euphoria high that just makes him look terrible. In comparison euphoria is a TV show and the looks are better and hit harder than this full budget movie
Dude yes. The plastics are supposed to be aspirational, not relatable or "normal high school kids." That defeats the whole purpose of their existence. Fashion content creators on tiktok put together wayyyy more cohesive and fashionable looks than whatever this was.
euphoria looks so good because they stole the aesthetic from Petra Collins, ever since that came out Im kinda suss about everyone working on that unfortunately
ironically the lighting and color grading looks just like euphoria
My biggest movie pet peeve is using “realism” as an excuse for everything. The original plastics don’t look realistic- most teens aren’t walking around in tiny skirts, heels, and designer brands everyday.
Not to mention this movie isn’t realistic to what “popular” girls wear. Where’s the lululemon?
I think a lot of modern shows & movies fail because they’re trying to look too relatable. Idk about others, but I don’t watch media for relatable fashion. I want the fantasy, the drama! I don’t want everyone on my screen to look like they’re a normal person running errands. It’s so dull, boring, and lacks vision, imo. The original mean girls’ wardrobe was fantastical! What high schooler is running around in 4” stilettos and microminis? This drab look works for indie films but for something like this, I want the drama found in the script to extend to the fashion as well. Some fancy eyeliner isn’t enough. It is interesting to me that a lot of these movies with “relatable” fashion look always so out of date after just a couple years, whereas movies with more exaggerated looks (even trendy ones) seem to last (such as Jawbreaker, euphoria, the original Mean Girls, etc).
Yeah, not to be mean but the performance of Cady was pretty shocking. Especially coming after Lindsey Lohan who was so iconic in a subtle way in the film, the new Cady fell completely flat sadly. Honestly she kind of was one of my biggest issues with the film because it was impossible to feel connected to the main character.
Her win over Regina felt undeserved. Reneé Rapp is a powerhouse and, honestly, I was rooting for her Regina all the time. I think Auliʻi Cravalho would made a better Cady, but I guess the writers (tina fey) didn't want to get into the mess of intersectionality with race and the topics of the movie bc she doesn't have the best track dealing with other races (Jane Krakowski portraying a native woman in Unbreakeable Kimmy Smith for example)
Seconded, I love Angourie Rice, but she just felt miscast here. Her acting was decent, but her singing just felt weaker in comparison to the other cast members, and she seemed uncomfortable in the role at times.
fr. her acting and singing were awful. they also completely massacred Cady's songs
I haven't seen it yet, but the focus is so utterly on Renée Rapp that you basically forget about Cady being a character in this film. Whereas, Rachel McAdams' phenomenal portrayal of Regina overshadowed Lindsay Lohan in some ways, Lindsay still held her own and they ultimately stand toe-to-toe as main characters of the film and arguably pop culture history as well.
agreed. If I were one of the plastics and I saw LiLo’s Kady walk into the room… yeah I’d want to befriend her too. her looks, charm and personality is a huge threat to Regina and that’s obvious the moment she comes on screen. Kady is so clearly confident in herself and her abilities, which is almost unheard of in high school lol. It’s no surprise that Regina immediately wanted to befriend her so she could ensure Kady wouldn’t outshine her.
Angourie Rice’s Kady… not so much. I don’t blame the actress as much as I blame the director, as I can only assume they wanted her to act that way. but her portrayal of Kady is way too timid and insecure. That’s not to say the original Kady wasn’t insecure at all, just that she didn’t wear on her sleeve and that’s what attracted so many people to her. I just don’t understand why someone like Regina would want to be friends with someone like Kady. The remake’s Kady doesn’t really seem to pose much of a threat to Regina, so Regina’s entire plan to control Kady loses it’s meaning.
Hyperfemininity is important for the plastics. The movie and book are about power dynamics in girl world. And exploiting femininity is one source of power. It doesn't work if it's not toxicly over the top. The original explains how Regina's tyranny works, looks are an important part of it.
Looks are all that matters. If you come to school wearing a disgusting vest, you're sitting with the art-freaks!
@@mylesmarkson1686 And don't even get me STARTED on wearing sweatpants on Monday!
CORRECT!
A big part of why it looked so damn cheap I think was because no one was watching the lighting. That math class had like 12 different lightings across the movie, sometimes two scenes set a day apart would have it go from brightly lit and then the lights may have well been turned off. Sometimes it felt like a student film where they couldn't afford lights for the hallways.
Also, this was supposed to go directly onto Paramount+. I heard they made a last minute decision to release it theatrically. It's filmed like a streaming movie.
I noticed the hallway lighting too. It was dark in a few, which I think if they were consistent with, it could’ve been dark the entire movie but then it was brighter in others
this is true of the musical too but I honestly wish they hadn't done away with the more "problematic" elements of the original. janice being canonically a lesbian and then that NOT being the reason she was ostracized by regina is such a miss imo. homophobia is not a thing of yore and I think it would have been so interesting to see how covert it is now and it would have strengthened the original's message of "mean girls fight underhandedly." I could definitely imagine regina being an ally™. (imagine regina purposefully outing janice to cady like, "janice is a lesbian. omg you didn't know that? I mean there's nothing wrong with that. I'm an ally, obviously. she did try to kiss me once and I had to tell her I wasn't like that but I totally support her lifestyle uwu.") basically, I kind of wish they had actually leaned MORE in to the darker elements of the original (mean girls was originally rated r after all). kinda like heathers the musical did. I just think a darker tone combined with the hyperfeminine and all the pink would have been such a cool contrast.
it's sad because there's so many ways this musical could have been great but a combination of the source material (i.e. the musical not the og movie) being already not that great imo, plus everything you already mentioned just makes it feel like a low effort nostalgia cash grab. it's not hairspray (2007) that's for sure
As a teen, I absolutely agree with this. While being queer is more accepted, homophobia didn't just die out, it just got a lot quieter. I also have always thought that any iteration could've added so much depth to Regina and the story, by having Regina herself be queer in some form and having some form of internalized homophobia, though I 100% see the appeal in having a plain old villain.
Yeah there was a lot of homophobia at my highschool and I graduated a couple of years ago. Today it wouldn't have destroyed Janis's reputation unless she lived in a really conservative area, but it could have done damage, especially if Regina leaned in to stereotypes about lesbians when talking about Janis. The 'popular' kids at my school were the most homophobic too and even recorded themselves being homophobic for lols.
EXACTLY
This is such a brilliant analysis and it's exactly the gripe I had about the movie.
Maybe I’m biased due to my upbringing, but the way literally no one cared about being gay or lesbian when I was in school. It would’ve carried no weight. And I graduated in 2016
People keep ragging on this going from movie to musical to movie musical, as if Hairspray didn’t go through the exact same thing (but better)
Also Little Shop of Horrors
I believe the producers did it too lol
but this is bad
That's true. That's not the issue I have with the movie though. I don't even mind the questionable lyrics or outfits. I feel like this version lost the point of the original movie, all because they wanted to portray gen z as being "more progressive" than they actually are, or because they're afraid of addressing the fact that a lot of the issues that teens dealt with and the way adults treated kids in 2004 have barely changed.
Literally. It was fun. I enjoyed it. It’s not really supposed to be anything more than that
It feels like certain directions, lines, and scenes that the musical movie took did a disservice to the message of Mean Girls. The film kinda forgot what it was trying to say in the first place.
completely agree. i think one of the worst examples of this was the change to publicly humiliate Regina and make her go “viral”. The original Mean Girls was so iconic because of how relatable and real it felt. making Regina’s downfall so dramatic misses the point completely imo because the reality is that girls like Regina always seem to win at the end of the day. even when Janis and Kady’s plan starts to work, she still doesn’t lose any popularity or clout long-term. she is still THE Regina George after all. she got hit by a bus and still somehow managed to benefit from that. this adaptation is a huge eye roll for me personally.
Agreed, it felt like this film was made by people who didn't really understand why the original worked so well, but merely wanted to cash in on a popular trend.
this film was made by Tina Fey...@@trinaq
@@tomb411 Tina Fey was a producer and wrote the screenplay. that doesn’t mean she had complete creative control over the film. the screenwriter might write the script, but it still needs to be approved and modified before it’s finalized. my guess is that Paramount wanted the movie to be as inoffensive and politically correct as possible, and that’s (part of) the reason the movie was so disappointing compared to the first. we see the drastic changes between movies made 20 years ago compared to today, and it seems like a lot of studios are restricting their writers in hopes of reaching the widest audience possible. can’t blame it all on Tina. i refuse to believe someone as smart and witty as her could come up with such a terrible script all on her own. contracts will do that to you tho🤷♀️
@crab2195 most of the problems with the writing of the movie musical are holdovers fr9m the musical - which Tina was also heavily involved in. Mean Girls was 20 years ago and Tina has had many weird controversies since then. The uncritical worship you seem to have for her is unnecessary. People change. She's not some new indie writer. She's the screenwriter and producer.
I just love how they were like “Teens today don’t go to the mall.” Umm… have they BEEN in a mall lately? It’s 90% teens now 🤣
there are malls?
my cousin (who is almost 13) literally just went to the mall today lol
LITERALLYYY like teens still go to the mall!! It’s so out of touch it’s crazy
definitely depends on the area but yeah teens still go to the mall but are we BUYING as many things? no unfortunately 💔💔
teens go to malls but only because there's nowhere else to go. they never buy anything... its all designer clothes and things that aren't catered to teens now. maybe one hot topic but hot topic is also getting expensive
“it is better than that horrendous sequel from 2011” girl everything is better than that movie 😭
I dont care for it at all but I dont think it's terrible lol like it would've been serviceable as a standalone TV movie if it wasn't associated with Mean Girls
Oh god. I remember watching that movie and LEGITIMATELY FORGETTING it was a suppose to be a Mean Girls sequel until I heard the maincharacter call the film's "regina" a bitch 💀
It caught me sooo off guard bc my brain thought it was a circa 2012 Disney Channel original movie lol.
@@LaRana2315i never watched that but instead watched a video about it years ago and I was just thinking about it recently and thought it was a fever dream and it didn’t actually exist but then I realized that was a real thing 💀
Everything except for maybe “Legally Blondes” lol. I can’t even decide which is worse tbh
@@CrystalLovesChrist honestly legally blondes is worse because they completely forgot about the whole legacy elle woods built. Mean Girls 2 was awful but atleast it still had some similarities to mean girls. Legally Blondes was just a completely different movie with different themes but because they were related to Elle in a way, it made it ok
I felt that the 2024 Mean Girls was really missing the "center" of its movie: Cady Heron. Angourie Rice fell so far short of the character, I agree she was miscast. No one can really measure up to how amazing Lindsay Lohan was in that role. But not only was Angourie severely lacking, they took away her VO and a lot of character beats. Her singing was horrendous too.
I missed the other characters from the school itself, all their classmates. The movie was hyper focused on the Plastics and Cady, it didn't feel like they were adored in the same way. Like Tessa said, they were in such a bubble that the movie lacked a huge emotional core it badly needed.
Also, Busy Phillips was just AWFUL. I missed Amy Poehler's portrayal so much.
Thank you! I feel like Lindsay's performance has somehow become quite underrated nowadays because of how popular Regina has become (and Rachel going on to prove just how incredibly talented she is throughout her career as well) which is deserved as it's SO much fun to watch but, as I said in another comment, the Regina character is carried a lot by all the awesome one liners and just its extravagant nature. Cady's a much more nuanced and difficult role to pull of because it's a lot of subtle work required, Lindsay is the reason why all the other outlandish characters work together and she elevated the movie storywise imo Tina Fey herself put it very well recently when she said "the original movie is really Lindsay's movie. As great as they all are, she's the heart of that movie"
The voiceover being gone took out so many contexts and important elements- its almost like you HAVE to have watched the original to know the context that is needed to follow the storyline.
I completely agree, Busy Phillips was not the best choice for Regina's mom. She was over acting so badly that it was distracting. They also styled her far less luxurious than Any Poehler, they made her look so sloppy!
I think Sabrina Carpenter or Rowan Blanchard could’ve pulled off a good Cady performance
@@BriarPatchNyra sabrina actually had a brief stint as cady i believe during the broadway season that got cut short due to covid
"Do Revenge" should have been the costuming for Mean Girls, those outfits were epic and I'd buy every single one of them!
100% AGREE that Regina’s clothes should’ve been more expensive/“cooler”.. loved the costuming in Do Revenge!
13:40 I'm confused. Does he think queer women are not attracted to hyper feminine women? Cause that's not true. Obviously. Or did I misunderstand that? Either way, I don't think any of the excuses they made for the costumes or story changes worked. They said teens today don't go to the mall. Not wholly false but not entirely true either. Quite a few still do. I think Gen Z as teens went to malls more than millennials did, according to some articles I read. Also, some kids do put a lot of effort into their school clothes. Most don't and some did just go in almost pajamas when I was in highschool, but we have a whole genre of get ready with me videos done by teens getting ready for school on Tiktok and the Plastics are supposed to be the exception of teens, not the rule anyway. I don't think the people behind this film get teens today. Like at all. And to be frank, most of Holllywood doesn't. Glad Janis is a lesbian though.
Where are you getting the mall attendance data from? Malls rose in popularity around the 80s and began declining in the late 2000s
@@WinterWind I didn't make myself clear enough. That was my bad. Sorry. It was an article from CNBC called "Teens Could Be a Saving Grace for Malls, New Research Shows' from 2019, but a lot could have changed since then because of the pandemic. And I didn't mean to say teens went to malls as much as they did in the 80s. Just that they seem to go more than the people behind the movie seem to think
@@thesealky6445 Thanks! Interesting idea, I keep hearing about mall closures but perhaps that's exaggerated. I have found another article from just a week ago from LA Times which says the same sort of thing re gen Z and interest in in person shopping. I definitely got thrown off when you said more than millenials and I was like hmm surely not?
@@WinterWind Oh, that's because I heard how millennials were killing malls back a few years ago. But I just remembered that millennials were being blamed for killing everything at that time by boomers. Oops. I might edit that part out of my comment.
@@WinterWindI think later millennials and early gen z (zillenials, if you will) were really the ones who really stopped going, especially in the late 2010s with the rise of online shopping becoming popular and it had started earlier as you had said. I agree that the mall closings reporting were too dramatic and exaggerated and I think a lot of adults and families with small kids still go a lot. however I experienced a bizarre thing in that the complete opposite happened to me. in the middle of the pandemic (January2021) I went with my friend on a Saturday to the local mall and most popular one, and I think that was the most crowded (with teens in specific) I had ever seen it, and I’ve been going since I was a child. Admittedly, I live in a smaller city and there’s not a ton to do here, and it was a weekend. But I don’t think that Gen z is as mall averse as the older generations think. I remember even before the pandemic when I lived in the suburbs of a much a bigger city (DC) and I was like, in the heart of suburbia (literally nothing to do) many of my friends wished we had a big mall that was closer than the nearest which was like 20 minutes away, and when we did go, it was always crowded (not as much as when I went during the pandemic ironically) but i did see lots of kids my age and also adults and families. I think what definitely changed and died was the whole “mallgoth/mallrat” culture as I know for sure no one goes on the weekdays but I think with Gen Z’s love affair with nostalgia it’s kind of like one of those “special” things, maybe not nearly as often as the Gen x’ers did but it’s certainly not that we “don’t go at all” it’s just treated differently
I feel like Mean girls just fundamentaly does not work for a modern audience. I think one of the big reasons why the og is such cultural icon is because of its plot lines and witty humour that is of its time. Janis is the perfect example of this because her character simply doesn't make any sense to a modern audience, no one finds lesbians "scary" in the wah used to and the literally most of gen z dress like she does. I think it would have been better if they used the themes from the orginal and made a new story out of it for a new gen instead of copying and pasteing the orginal
i totally agree. i think one of the most clever jokes in the original is that janis was ostracized for being a lesbian...when she isn't even gay she's LEBANESE! which....is...the...whole...joke!! 🥴
The original mean girls is timeless compared to this new version
well they also race swapped a lot of the cast, including janis @@Bl4k3.
YESSS. this.
Sad to say, some people do still find lesbians scary. But I see your point otherwise.
I 100% agree with Cady's casting being bad. Even before the movie came out, I could tell that the actress wouldn't be a good fit. Her character in this movie felt very bland and boring.
She looked like she was forced to be there. She was a terrible Cady, she was flat throughout.
She just doesˋt has that Main Character Energy lol She Looks Like just a Basic white girl which is in back of the classroom and no one care
I dunno, a 2x4 was a pretty daring casting choice
@@MzPink1992 She looked like a deer in the spaces, so constantly spaced out.
I liked it. My main problem was that Regina wasn't as glamorous or as mean as she should've been, but Renee killed it nonetheless. Janis felt like a new character altogether, which I liked, but it missed the point that Janis was also a mean girl in the original, in this one she's just an empowered victim. I was hoping they would give us some sort of closure between Janis and Regina, but alas...
i felt like regina was still very mean, she just wasn’t subtle like how she was in the original movie, or as villainous as her portrayal in the broadway cast. the costume design was really horrible and it hardly did them any justice.
The only sort of “closure” we got was a single scene in the ending credits where a medicated Regina and an awkward Janis were hugging gently. That’s all we have 😞
honestly if they were going to do this kinda change to "adapt to the times", I would've preferred that they actually lean into it and do a complete 180 on the original to reflect that now "not like other girls" girls are the popular and sought after characters while a very feminine, girly girl would be looked down on by teens. Like they should've leaned into is and have Cady be this sweet, unassuming white girly girl who was traditionally home schooled and gets a culture shock on how high school is nowadays, with the regina just being the cool queer girl gaslighting her into thinking she is mysoginistic by liking girly things and wanting a straight relationship. And the final message should be "we can root for ourselves even if we are normal people and aren't a victim 24/7" that would be a real reflection on "realistic teens"
Yeahh the consensus seems to be “blatantly a different character than Regina, but please notice me Renee Rapp”
as many people have said, its not "mean" enough. if they could have incorporated how messy we are (dramageddon, japan forest) should included more backstabbing drama and problematic behavior. They could have rework the story to fit current and future gens. im making this comment without watching the movie, please dont come for me. i'll wait on it on HBO, prime or netflix
How are you about to make a movie called & about MEAN Girls and then not have them be mean!
I haven't seen it either, but I agree with you on Hollywood recreating movie classics. It's a waste of time and money 🙄
*Cough Cough* DISNEY
I kinda agree, but it's not as if it's a new problem, movies like "a star is born" and "little women" have been recreated many times and no one had a problem with that before...
Lindsay Lohans other big hits, Parent Trap and Freaky Friday, were recreations and did great. Last like 10-15 years though, yeah, so many flops.
@@stretchkitty21The thing is with The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday is that The Parent Trap Is a remake of a 60s film and Freaky Friday is a remake of a 70s film. They at least waited a few decades before rebooting them, so that people who grew up on them wouldn't have so much interest in the reboots per se.
@@kittykittybangbang9367 the movie "a star is born" was rebooted 4 times, once with only 17 years in between them. The original mean girls was zlreafy more than 20 years old.
Also the fact that they didn’t advertise it as a musical. My coworker mentioned she’s seeing the movie tomorow and I told her it’s a musical AND SHE HAD NO IDEA
Why does Hollywood hate musicals? I've heard that Wonka is a musical, but it wasn't advertised as such.
@@kittykittybangbang9367It’s not hollywood, it’s the viewers :/ and so the viewers don’t give up on a movie just because it’s a musical, they don’t show it…
@@CamillaLessa-fr9zrso why make it ?
@@kittykittybangbang9367 WONKA'S A MUSICAL????
@@victoriasweet7870 idk dude
I walked out of the theatre thinking "I'll never watch that again" 🤣 There were scenes which were word for word, shot for shot the same as the original film yet somehow just worse. The musical numbers felt forced in and people in my theatre audibly told the characters to stop singing lol. Regina was flat and lacked any real underhandedness and the jokes were sanitised to appease a modern audience but I'm not sure it really worked. The characters are supposed to be flawed, have them be problematic🙄
We have the same opinion ☺️
For sure one of the worst Movies i watched
it's crazy to me how in the original, the outfits where clearly extremely expensive yet they didnt look UNIREALISTIC, like of course ill find a super rich girl dressed like that; yet in the 2024 one they did cheaper looks and yet that looks insanely more unrealistic, like its just a very long kpop videoclip. the whole point of the plastics is that they curate their entire image. howcould the costume designer miss that? especially in an era where teens are all about curating their image, where regina herself could have watched a thousand tiktoks until she found the perfect ways to style herself? i wouldnt hire this guy on a teen movie ever again, it's so clear they were dressed by a man who thinks knows teens but doesnt actually understand them
you mention kpop and now i’m wondering why they didn’t take inspo from korean stylists considering a lot of unattainable trends rn revolve around this styling
I'm sorry, Regina's wardrobe was changed because he wanted "both men and women to be sexually attracted to her"? Was... was that a problem last time? As a baby bi girl when the original came out, I do not recall there being a lack of WLW who found the character hot. Did I miss something?
Very goofy tbh , it’s quite a misogynistic view actually , ppl have even said Regina is more intimidating and intelligent in this movie so that’s why she dresses more masculine and in darker colours💀 like let’s analyse what we’re saying here … if they wanted to mix it up they should’ve changed Gretchen or Karen’s style. But that wouldn’t have worked , the clothing in this movie gave primark sales
Regina's clothing makes her look too old and removes any sense of insecurity she has, which is why she bullies people in the first place. I felt like she was Gretchen's big sister babysitting the girls after school
Hell, all I could remember from the original *was* how hot Regina looked in her outfit.
@@tonystonem9614 I love the implication that femininity is neither "intimidating" nor "intelligent". 😵💫
@@MsJubjubbird 😭
a big issue with these movie is they use the same jokes from the orginal movie but just like in a different font, i wish people would stop seeing this movie knowing its terrible
I think it could be said that the new movie has soften a lot of the characters and that is also reflected in their style. For example what Janice wears is something a normal high school kid would be wearing, but I feel like the whole point of her character is that she doesn’t want to be associated with the vast majority
As a fan of the original musical, I despise how they cut so much of Karen and Grechens character defining songs. Meet the plastics, Stop, ect. were cut even tho it helped a lot of the characters feel alive. Meet the plastics introduced every plastic and showed their differences and I hate how only Reginas part was kept in. Not to mention the pure BUTCHERING of sexy, what electronic MESS is that? Justice for Karen. All of the actors were great tho! World burn was what I looked forward to the most and it was my fav part of the movie. Renne Rapp (I think thats how you spell it) is the perfect regina. BUT THEY CUT A WHOLE VERSE IN MY INTRODUCTION TO MUSICALS (REVENGE PARTY) AND I WILL NOT FORGIVE THEM FOR THAT.
What? They cut MEET THE PLASTICS? As in the most popular song? That became an actual animation meme?
@@seyspectra AND ONLY KEPT IN REGINAS PART. (Ofc if you dont count Damien and Janis speaking in a normal hushed voice but saying their lines)
Yeah. I sorely missed Gretchen and Karen’s verses, especially Karen’s. “MY NAME IS KAREN. I MAY NOT BE SMAAAAAAART…That’s it.” 😂
@@dizkidliz Justice for Karen and Grechen!
Me too!
The main issue isn’t that it’s a musical it’s that they never once advertised mainstream that this was a musical! Also the public didn’t ask for a remake. Mean Girls was also on broadway for. Few years and flopped over the years… it’s sad the legacy of mean girls has been tainted however we still have the original to watch!
It’s not a remake it’s an adaptation
The Walmart commercials for Black Friday were really good too. They gave us the sequel we needed 😂
I don't think anyone ever asks for a remake.
They really should have just advertised it as a musical. When I viewed it last night someone in the theatre loudly said “for fuck sake!” Just as they went into the third song. 💀 I actually have no memory of what the song was or about but I just remember it was the third one! 😳
Unfortunately, there were some people asking for a modern remake...I would watch them online.
This might be my mild facial blindness talking but the actors they got for Gretchen and Cady look too alike for me
I know--Right?
…and Aa-ron Samuels.
No offense but it is your facial blindness, they look nothing alike at all whatsoever.
@@imthebossmermaid3648no it’s not. They are almost twins in looks and personality
@@onegreenenvy They really aren't I question if you don't have facial blindness too. 💀
I think something ppl forget is the plastics are ASPIRATIONAL figures like ofc no one actually dresses like that for school but thats the point bc they make u WANT to and at some point u just want everything the plastics own bc theyre shorthand for being cool and fitting in hence why the cutout bra backfires in the original
I thought they made Karen too dumb? I don’t even know if that makes sense but in the OG she’s a little more believable here she just has this constant wide eyed appearance like everything is new to her it’s a little too heavy handed
They definitely did. I mean, I did enjoy some of it but it’s like you said about the original Karen. I found that one more charismatic.
PLEASE give us a full costume break down in the future! Your analysis is always so spot on and informative and I feel like there's so much to discuss (derogatory) when it comes to these costumes.. yikes. Thanks for another great vid 💓
The new Regina looks like a biker chick, not that there's anything wrong about being a hot biker chick, but the OG Regina George is a fashionista along with the OG Gretchen and Karen.
Yeah Biker Chick...I can't unthink on why the new Regina looks like a biker chick...
Did I mention she looks like a biker chick?
Biker chick.
Biker-chick... I think you nailed it. That chick was put on this earth to ride a bike, like only a biker-chick can. There's just no other way to describe that obvious biker-chick!
She looks like the girl in that "this is like the butchest girl Twitter can handle before they start getting scared" tweet.
I absolutely love Janice in the original, i related to her alot. But the new Janice looked mainstream, the new Regina wasn't having that unattainable fashion, like how Cady says, "Regina's like the barbie doll I never had, she's so glamourous", also the new Regina felt very intimidating to me on the get go..
I guess "your mom's mean girls" wears the crown 🔥
Janis in the original movie is an angry emo from the start. She gets Cady to cut class to show that she doesn't necessarily have her best interests at heart either. Her anger about being evicted from the clique and bullied herself is the motivation to pick on Regina. It seems weird that new Janis.would go to such lengths when she seems pretty apathetic about everything and very nice.
I think that in order to recreate the Mean Girl trope in 2024, they should have done similar to Senior Year (2022). That movie perfectly managed to recreate that trope in a way that fits today’s world. The « queen bee » in that movie was popular because she was conventionally pretty, rich, had a good social media presence and was an influencer. She pretended to care about the right causes and inclusivity and people loved her for it when in actuality it was all performative and a way for her to keep her social status (calling a girl’s Instagram post « body positive » even though it was literally just a picture of her in a swimsuit, acting fake-nice to people who don’t fit into beauty standards, etc.)
That could totally work and I should know because I’m in my second year of high school right now lol.
Honestly kinda sad they did away with some of the problematic stuff, like coach Karr lmao. Not because its a good thing, but because its a REAL thing that happened at my school while I went there... twice.
Also, definitely wish they showed them shopping. Sure, we dont go to small malls anymore, but sephora and aritzia or urban outfitters would have been great!
Stellar point that Janis being the most fashionable/on-trend in terms of costumes *totally* misunderstands the character.
If they really wanted to go with sexuality not being big deal they could have had Regina being bisexual. The whole point of Regina's character is meant to be that she's rich, entitled, clever/charismatic AND mean. If she's just rude - and she dresses like any random girl - then what makes her 'unattainable'? They should have taken a leaf out of Scream Queens Chanel's costuming to get a more up to date reference.
Or the other thing they could do is follow the idea of how young people use progressive terms to justify their bullying. So maybe instead the rumour is Janis has done some things that are homophobic. Or better yet, some of the things she has casually done and said are twisted to be homophobic. Even like her "too gay to function" line. Or pick another social trend.
I actually liked the thing about Janis being a lesbian in the original. Because she fit every stereotype for a lesbian and then it turned out she was straight. Which shows to not judge a book by it's cover. They could redo that but just twist it to reflect modern values.
@@MsJubjubbirdwhat cool ideas!
Or a lesbian, since that's what Renee Rap envisioned her as, being a lesbian herself.
Why did they make this movie though? Like…. I know the obvious answer is “money” but like… Who on earth is this for? Who can this pull money in from?
I’m assuming it’s for fans of the musical to be able to see the musical anytime they want
? It’s obviously from people who enjoy musicals/the original mean girls. They literally already made a 100 million dollar profits so 😭
@@UobeorYeah that makes sense… Did not really think of that 😅
Plastics should have been dressed similar to Isabel and Brittany from Bottoms. Would have worked so much better
omg yesss your mind >>>
they flopped so hard on the styling!! the euphoria excuse is just embarrassing the fashion was so important in the original and is absolutely is a class symbol and should have been utilized. i also find the euphoria excuse bizarre because the whole mocking of euphoria is that the outfits on the show were over the really revealing, over the top, and extreme for high schoolers but it fits into the show because their situations are also extreme and revealing. idk just my thoughts lol
i've listented to the musical a lot. i wouldn't say im a fan tho but i have been avoiding watching it just out of the the tiktok videos comparing the song audio from the broadway versus the song audio from the movie. it was all the Cady audio. i know she doesnt have any vocal training but GIRL, i felt the need to yell that "MORE PASSION, MORE PASSION, MORE ENERGY, MORE ENERGY" tiktok audio.
IK I LOVED STUPID WITH LOVE EVEN BEFORE I HEARD THE FULL SOUNDTRACK. I like the actress who plays Cady but I don't think she's had any musical theater background and I don't really wanna see any clip from the movie so that the only Mean Girls is my mind is the OG 😌
All of Cady’s ‘awkward’ teen girl-ness and energy out of the new song
why TF would they cast someone w/ little to no vocal training in a movie MUSICAL?? whoever did this casting for cady needs they a$$ WHOOPED.
you're so right about the weirdly yellowish colour grading omg
The best part was when Demian was singing the icarly intro in french
I loved that they added that! It was one of the only nods to our generation today
I think the ironic thing about the “This is not a Euphoria high school” comment is that, at least with the first season, the Euphoria outfits and makeup looks were very relatable and affordable while still being fashionable.
This aspect of the show could be debated in its season 2, since they decided to put relatability on the back burner in favor of style, but still.
My major issue with the costuming is that Cady almost always was in blue. But not different shades. The same shade of baby blue for every outfit. I got so confused. Like sure she looks good in that color. But the odds of her having that many pieces of clothing that are that colour are so slim. It wouldve been different if every character got a certain colour palette, but nope. Just Cady. Everyone else wears multiple different colours. Cady is stuck blue the whole time.
The original movie had her at least changing shades of pink, damn.
She's like the Blue Ranger. 🤣
In all honesty, I have noticed some good points on broadway tok that everyone is making which are that it should have been advertised as a musical because if studios don’t advertise their movie musicals as musicals then it’s going to flop so hard at the box office. And if people don’t like movie musicals then they shouldn’t go see one and I’m saying that as someone who is a theater kid because when Star Trek strange new worlds aired their musical episode called subspace rhapsody in August of 2023, a lot of Trekkies were complaining on how it was a musical episode and I was like, “you don’t have to watch it, if you want a dark serious Star Trek show you can go watch Star Trek Picard or discovery.”
The song "Stupid with Love" in the new movie feels so monotone. There's no emotion at all. She's supposed to be in LOVE, she's supposed to be DRAMTIC. It might just be me but when I'm in love I yell in the mirror to myself about all the cute things they have done and I scream/sing in the shower to love songs and I sing it while thinking of them. It feels like Cady in the new film doesn't really care about her crush.
"😐I'm astounded and non-plussed...I am filled with calculust. 😐"
This movie really kills my vibe because of how much I love the old one, I would love to see a cool new mean girls but this feels like something you would watch free on tubi
How do sequels manage to ignore all subtle details and core messages, having an original version loaded with everything in front of them?
What's the point of it?
and literally the only reason i wasnt bored af was because jaquel and auli'i were literally comedic deities. they saved it for me
ironically it's actually pretty homophobic to say that Renee needs to be dressed in a masculine / androgynous way for women to be attracted to her. does he understand what lesbianism or wlw is? women can be attracted to other feminine women, it doesn't have to replicated heterosexual dynamics...
Right!
Avantika's beauty is out of this world😭 everytime she's on the screen, I can take my eyes off of her and was like "DAMN WHO IS THIS GORGEOUS LADY???"😭
SHE'S AVANTIKA!!!
Regarding Edgy Friend's outfit (I am so sorry I can not remember names): The "edgy" style in itself - cutout pants, oversized, black, print stuff - is fashionable today. I think it is harder to REALLY be a fashion outcast w/o looking completely ugly because we have more teen social scenes which are 'accepted' in general.
Janice? They say all the names a million times in this video bruh
@@melodyspalace I know and I assure you that I feel ashamed that I forget any name as soon as it is spoken
and this is why i think mean girls just doesn't work in today's setting
Cady in this movie has no personality at all. She just has a crush on a boy. Cady in the first mean girls has a lot of personality, that's why everyone likes her.
Same problem with Regina in the new one. She's not even mean, she's just rude to people.
And Karen and Gretchen both barely even exist in this movie. 😂
11:38 the idea that adults seem to have that teens don’t go to malls anymore is so weird to me because the mall closest to me is the prime hang out spot for all the teens my age, it just feels like a weird excuse to not include one of the most iconic scenes from the og
I hate the way they change janice cause the whole movie happened bc regina thought janice was lesbian but she is lebanese
I do agree that Regina misunderstanding Lesbian for Lebanese was great, but that was in 2004, when it was not as common or widely accepted for people coming out (although Damian was gay with the actor confirming himself to be gay recently.) but in 2024 it is widely accepted (not to mention that joke could come across as a sign behind the times or for those who already know that Lebanese is a cultural background and Language. Not to mention it does not make sense as the Auli’l is Polynesian.
nah i feel like y’all misunderstood. regina thought she was 🏳️🌈 because she was too clingy and acted jealous when she talked to any guy. and mostly cause of the way she dressed.
@@realestsienna(and because she was Lebanese) lol
@@CamillaLessa-fr9zr nope that's a social media post that keeps getting parroted on TikTok without fact. I'm a screenwriter and I've read Tina's book and interviews -- she's a waaay smarter writer than that - plus other older TV shows already made that joke and she's not one to steal. Also, Regina isn't that stupid! lol She's cunning. In the hallway in the original movie Regina explains it happened after Janis held her accountable for ditching her and being a shitty friend to hang with her boyfriend. Regina, being a total narcissistic mean girl, took it as, "God, she's SO obsessed with me. She like wants to date me." Then she used that as fuel to spread a cruel rumor and make Janice an outcast. It's much meaner, smarter, more realistic and better written than a dumb Lebanese joke.
Regina never said that though. Regina said Janice was jealous of her bf and became obsessed with her. She never mentions hearing Janice referring to herself as Lebanese (or lesbian)
Man, hearing that they think teens don't go to malls anymore is just so sad. We WOULD go to malls, but there's nothing to do! Every time I go to my local mall, there's another store shut down. Some malls even don't allow teenagers under a certain age to be there without a parent or guardian. It's not OUR fault we don't have a third place
so when my bestie and i watched the movie and the scene where Regina drops the Burn Book on the floor we were like, “wait where’s the paper that she’s gonna throw around to let everyone know about the Burn Book?”
then we realised that oh yes, this is the digital age so they will use their phones to spread the Burn Book 😂 I thought that was actually smart seeing that they had already incorporated Tiktok into the movie, but I also felt a bit old too seeing as I had seen the original movie too 😂😅
Rachel McAdams first big movie was actually a movie called The Hot Chick were she also played a mean girl. Which probably is one the reasons why she got casted in Mean Girl’s.
I love that movie❤
Back then, actors were typecast. Lindsay was known for her tween-teen films, too. They slipped actors in roles they knew they'd be comfortable in. Nowadays, they don't do that as much.
Yeah and then The Notebook came out also in 2004. So if that one had come first, I feel like she would’ve still been considered.
The logic for the new Regina's costuming is CRAZY, every sapphic I know thinks the original is more attractive lol
Avantika's Karen was unironically the best part of the movie. (In my local theater, her scenes were extremely well received, to the point I'd say she almost overshadowed Renee)
I think it's probably because Avantika lent a real enthusiasm and all-around "super happy to be here" vibe that gave a certain charm and real energy to her screen time. (One example of what I mean is in her line "every single day" in Sexy. She comes off as so genuine and sweet, that it's easy to forget her character is supposed to be mean.)
Karen never was mean😭 she was clueless 💀
@@HawaiiinJune She was mean. She wrote in the Burn Book and told everyone that Gretchen had diarrhea. All the girls were mean, that's kinda the point of MEAN Girls.
@@imthebossmermaid3648 womp womp
@@HawaiiinJune Womp womp you're fucking wrong.
Am I the only one who thought the backstory of Regina and Janis was confusing? If I recall well, Janis came out to Regina, she was supportive, but then she started dating this guy and she kissed Janis to turn him on, and then out of the blue she started saying Janis was obsessed with her and she got a doll called Sissy Liz and got everybody to say hi to it everyday and actually Sissy Liz stood for obsessed lesbian and she was making fun of Janis for being gay, and then Janis got upset and set the doll on fire. I thought it was weird and it left me with so many questions : so is regina still homophobic in this version? And if why is it never brought up? Why take away her line about Janis' dream being to jump into a pile of girls? Is their school homophobic or not? If they're not, how come no one even tried to "cancel" regina for bullying Janis for being gay in middle school? How come up Regina wasn't the one getting picked on for doing something so creepy with a doll?
In the og version, the story was simple : Janis and Regina were best friends, Janis got upset when Regina started spending all her time with her boyfriend, Regina being a narcissist (and confusing Lebanese with lesbian) and homophobic, she assumed Janis was in love with her and started bullying her and the school joined it cuz it was the early 2000s and blatant homophobia was still considered acceptable. But here it's like Tina Fey didn't really know how to adapt this specific plot point to modern times to you end up with a this confusing backstory
I know! I was confused by it too and the whole thing of telling it through stuffed animals was just another layer of processing both.
Regina never confused Lebanese with lesbian. That happened in an episode of The Golden Girls in 1986.
Yes!! I love your movie reviews! I feel like I don’t even have to watch the actual movie 😭 thank u guys
you should watch it! It’s so good
Petition to make the Walmart commercials a movie or series
1. I still want regina's bedroom
2. I rather they went more over the top and camp.
3. The original does not feel like its from 20 years ago. While this with all the for you pages in a couple of month when that layout will be updated this movie will already feel outdated.
To be fair “in 2024 so far” isn’t even a month yet lol
'getting distracted by her own boobs" is the funniest line I've heard in ages. That alone makes me want to see this
Well, someone told me once that "they have a mind of their own"!
@@mylesmarkson1686 Yeah, they were probably telling her when it was gonna rain. 😜
I agree with everything you said and I’ve seen the original more times than I can count. My biggest issue with this one is that it was just SO unfunny !!! The original is hilarious, every other line is a well crafted joke that has become quotable beyond belief. I laughed maybe a handful of times in this movie. Even the word for word reciting of iconic lines were tainted by poor delivery and/or sanitation for a modern audience.
You nailed it Calie. Why even bother regurgitating lines from the original when they know we've already seen it and know those jokes by heart? If you can't come up with original jokes, then don't do a comedy.
“Teens don't go to the mall anymore” is one of the biggest lies I've ever heard
i’ve noticed that in recent times, people aren’t so creative and imaginative about art no more. most movies and music are just throwbacks to the past decade and such. ie: oversampling & remakes. i love me a good sample but if you use it poorly… skip
Tbh most remakes nowadays are just the same as the old movie but with technology because everything is online now ig.
I'll be honest, I'd rather watch the new movie than the musical bootleg that I have bookmarked on my computer. I do think the songs in the original are generally better, but I think something like mean girls just belongs on screen. There were so many non singing parts of the stage musical that just were not that good and hard to watch, but came across much better when on a screen in the new musical. While I don't think this is a better adaption musically, I think it's a better adaption for the comedy and non singing parts.
Please please please do a dedicated costuming analysis of this movie, going character by character and suggesting alternates, like you did with the Winx Club
This is ONE OF THE BEST reviews I have seen on this movie, especially your take on Renee Rapp.
I get that she has a nice voice but she’s SO try-hard, like, overly expressing how mean she is or how she’s judging you.
Regina should be unbothered. She’s not giving you a mean look cause she doesn’t care enough. She knows she’s all that and often does some of her most evil moves while looking friendly.
And I’m so glad u covered the outfits - the plastics in the new one were holistically not anything special to look up to, they were not it-girls, looks or personality-wise.
2004 doesn't feel that long ago, but it makes me feel so old! My final year of high school
Finally, the one review of this movie I've been waiting for.
i pretty much _love_ the broadway show. its my discount heathers, one of my guilty pleasures. i dont completely hate the 2024 movie, but its *_bad_* , especially when i went and watched the og musical. while the play doesnt live up to the 2004 og, i feel like it is its own thing, but also an adaptation? idk how to word it lol 😅
Just saw this film tonight. I didn't have any problem with Angourie Rice's performance or the rest of the cast really, but the fact that it was so shoddily directed. I have never seen a musical look so visually dull, so low energy. This should've been directed by Adam Shankman, Kenny Ortega, Jon Chu...heck even Mark Waters, why not bring him back? The original has so much more punch than this. There were moments here and there where the film showed sparks of life but they were few and far between. I guess that's what you get for hiring two people who've never directed a film before but still refer to themselves as a "visionary directing duo" on their official web page.
Def didn’t need more recognizable casting just maybe cast strong singers in ALL main roles
Period, I think Angourie and Bebe could’ve been recast. Angourie wayyy more so tho
Cady really dropped the ball here! Totally agree on the singing her songs felt so flat and emotionless. They really should have went with someone with more experience singing theater. I had no idea that she didn’t have a background in music but that really explains her performance.
They really tried to make fetch happen lmao, like the Walmart ads were better. This movie goes right above mean girls 2, I mean I didn’t like it because it was a musical it was how bad it was it felt like a cash grab. I really wish Tina would of worked on this a little harder, just like you said I agree with everything you said.
I enjoyed the Walmart ads too
as someone who works at a mall it's still a relatively popular hangout spot among teenagers
The fashion REALLY bothered me especially the way they completely neglected Cady’s development but I actually liked the movie a lot
Avantika and her role, Karen Shetty, carried the entire movie. Like the one song I really play is Sexy. I think the not so strong vocals made it better. Her outfits were also adorable
I think the 2024 film really suffers from the fact cultural values have shifted so much since 2004 that it isn't really possible to present the same story. Hence the drastically watered down 'meanness' of the Plastics - in 2004 a popular girl being casually homophobic and body shaming and sl*tshaming was (unfortunately) very believable, but in 2024 you can't get away with that. Likewise in a 2024 high school an activist 'rebel' like Janice would be hyper popular rather than an outcast.
tfw when you watch mean girls for reneé rapp 🥰
i don't agree that the old regina george would bully the new regina george. i think she would try but would inevitably look ridiculous. we put the original on a pedestal as we should but we forget that the over the top hyperfeminine looks and mannerisms in young girls only get made fun of in real life. i think if anything the new regina would bully and ridiculize the old one, but the old regina would respond by scheming some evil plan that would end in new regina's permanent psychological damage lmao.
cause that's the difference really. new regina is a hot bully but old regina was lowkey a sociopath.
also this goes to show how particular usamericans are (which is fine, and this is a us american movie) but genuinely the original regina george wouldn't last an hour in any latinamerican school without getting her ass brutally kicked, while the new regina is more like a regular intimidating girl that you might think is ridiculous but you're not gonna risk it
It's hard to find modern "star talent" period because up and coming stars have a hard time fully committing to their characters, the writing is dulled into this sort of "whisper natural" talking, and everyone has become too reliant on the visuals and aesthetics to tell the story. I also think the problem is nostalgia. Too many people kept asking for Mean Girls sequels and remakes when it's a cultural staple of its time and was destined to fail. The other problem is what the story means now differs than what it meant upon release in 2004, and that is felt. Now, the Mean Girls are the stars, not "Cady". I think this is why they cast someone forgettable for Cady and stronger talent for the actual Mean Girls. They're actually the people this generation wanted to see, or at least the people who made the musical and this movie think so. Even the posters make Regina front and center. Back in 2004, Cady was front and center, and people went to see the movie for Lindsay Lohan who played Cady, since everyone knew of the "Lindsay Lohan" staple movies that had success among tween-teen audiences (Parent Trap, Life Size, Get a Clue, Freaky Friday, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, etc). People knew Lindsay could pull this type of role off. People got typecast more often back in the day too (especially Hilary Duff, who seemed cast for the same "Lizzie mcGuire" type roles all the time). They were given roles people knew they would be comfortable playing, which is why they acted so confidently in these roles. Nowadays, anyone can slide into the role if they know somebody or have social media clout.
Part of why OG Regina feels so unique is because she came off as older and mature, in contrast to many Mean Girls who feel like the teens they're supposed to be. Renee's version of Regina feels in line with the later, lacking the mature feel OG Regina has.
I saw the new movie was pretty good, especially Regina singing but if you saw the old one, it makes the new one look like 🕊TRASH🕊 and I saw the old one when I was really little and I’ve continued watching it throughout my life because it is just absolutely 💗iconic💗 and I don’t really like how they incorporated social media and just kind of made it seem cringy… honestly, I was expecting it to be way better than this and I also got Gretchen and Karen confused because why did they have to swap the races? I mean that’s just goofy
As a teen I can certify the majority of outings happen in the mall. We have a designated mall where we reunite several times a week . Yes we see our classmates there too
When I went to watch the movie and Janice and Cady started singing at the start I was honestly quite disappointed as I didn't know it was a musical
i love your reviews and i completely get what you’re seeing you never miss i wish they had you on set
The original characters would bully TF out the new cast!!!!!!!! 🙌🏻
The musical on stage works better live! It falls so flat on screen. Also the new version of the characters are not mean. They are all so dull!!!!!
None of them are rlly bullies except Regina and Janice I think. And even then Regina is a talking shit behind ppls back which is barely even bullying
@@tonystonem9614 Umm it literally is bullying.
I saw a tiktok the other day comparing the original broadway version of Revenge Party to Angourie Rice's version from the movie and was stunned by the lack of energy from Rice's vocals. I know she doesn't have a broadway voice but it's like she sing-talked every line. even in the trailer she doesn't stand out and she's supposed to be the lead! thankfully for her, I don't think this performance is going to hinder her career at all, given that her mom is an actress and writer and her dad is a director.
fun fact: cady heron in 2004 is now the judge in the mathletes 2024!
the Bill shade is crazy leave him out of this madness 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I watched the trailer and immediately was disappointed. I feel like the dialogue was really trying to be relatable to current teenagers and maybe it’s just a me thing but NOTHING irritates me more than that. Also I think everyone can agree that movie remakes are so unnecessary. The original is so iconic that anything else won’t live up to it.