On Jan. 12, 2024, Paramount Pictures released a remake of the 2004 movie “Mean Girls.” Filled with adolescent drama and boy trouble, the movie shares a message for many teenagers to be their authentic self.
The remake of the beloved film stars popular actors and actresses with the main characters being, “The Plastics,” who are performed by Reneé Rapp as Regina George, Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, Avantika Vandanapu as Karen Shetty and Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners.
As a flashback to the 2004 film, Lindsay Lohan, who portrays the original Cady Heron, makes a cameo as the proctor in the Mathletes Championship. Tina Fey plays Ms. Norbury again and helped write the movie.
“Mean Girls” features Cady as she moves to North Shore High School. Cady is taken under the wing of art geeks, Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey) and Janis ‘Imi’ike (Auli‘i Cravalho). Later, “The Plastics,” consisting of Regina, Karen and Gretchen claim Cady in their superficial friend group. Cady soon crushes on Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), Regina’s ex-boyfriend, only for Regina to purposely get back together with Aaron to fire up Cady. Cady attempts to still be with Damian and Janis to feed them the “The Plastics” drama, while gaining revenge on Regina for stealing her crush, causing them to break up.
Regina, the queen bee of North Shore, sings a reprised song about her presence as the apex predator on campus. Taking whatever she wants, Regina shows superficiality by caring a lot about appearances and not enough about what is inside.
“My name is Regina George / And I am a massive deal… / I wanna watch the world burn / And everyone get mean,” Regina sings.
As Regina’s selfish pursuits continue, Gretchen sings a song of her insecurities in Regina’s closet, as she spirals into feeling less sufficient than Regina.
“What’s wrong with me / Where’s my mind? / Where does it end? / Maybe I need to find a better friend,” Gretchen sings.
In the movie, Damian and Janis perform the “Revenge Party” song to Cady. They imagine Cady’s future of her getting closer and spying on “The Plastics.” They visualize sabotaging Regina and her ability to get anything she wants just by looking attractive.
“She has everything, she gets everything / Regina! Regina! Regina! / Next we take away Regina’s only achievement / Being a hot person,” Damian and Janis sing.
Cady’s desire to fit in and gain popularity is a prevalent theme, and she pushes others aside, following “The Plastics” cruelty and the rules of “girl world.” She later explains to Aaron that she initially lied to him about not understanding AP Calculus and only asked for help to get closer to him. Her lack of integrity and quote from the 2024 film aligns with a very similar quote in the 2004 movie.
“I pretended to be bad at math so that you’d help me. But the thing is, I’m not really bad at math. I’m actually really good at math,” Cady says.
Friendships fall as Janis complains to Cady for lying to her and becoming a clone of Regina. Janis grows frustrated with Cady for her dishonesty and deems her unworthy of their friendship. Summarizing a common theme in the movie, Janis states that popularity and genuine friendships cannot be valued in the same instance as fake titles.
“I hate Regina’s guts / But here’s what you don’t comprehend / At least she has the guts / To not pretend to be my friend!” Janis sings.
Later in the film, the school discovers the “Burn Book” that “The Plastics” created, consisting of cruel nicknames and rumors about girls they dislike. Once the rumors spiral out of control, Norbury hosts an event in the gym to recenter girl-to-girl friendships. Janis promises to be more kind and honest with her beliefs toward others. She believes that if people do not like her, it is not her problem and would instead be alone, being genuine, than be depressed with other people.
“And if I eat alone from this moment on / That’s just what I’ll do / ’Cause I’d rather be me than be with you,” Janis sings.
In the end, Cady becomes obsessed with being “plastic” and finds herself lonely, so she joins the Mathletes competition, is elected Spring Queen and makes an apology speech to the school. She smooths over her relationship with her true friends, Damian and Janis, and clears up the “girl world.”
Toward the end of the film, Norbury concludes that if one pushes someone to the ground, it does not give them more power. She emphasizes that people should be able to confidently express their genuine selves without feeling the need to put others down, as shown in multiple scenes throughout the film.
“Calling someone stupid doesn’t make you any smarter,” Norbury says.
The new “Mean Girls” explores many themes regarding good friendship, first loves, authenticity and being a loyal friend. One should consider watching it as a new perspective from the “Mean Girls” 2004 movie.