Mean Girls (2024)

This Mean Girls is a movie based on a musical based on a movie, and somewhere in all those handoffs the teeth fell out. The story is the one you know. Cady, homeschooled in Kenya, lands at North Shore High, gets the cafeteria map from Janis and Damian, and goes undercover with the Plastics. The Burn Book, the Halloween party and the Candy Cane-Grams are all here, now with phones and show tunes. Reneé Rapp walks off with the whole thing as Regina George. She owns every scene she’s in, and she isn’t in nearly enough of them. Revenge Party is the best number, and a few others land with a thud. Critics liked the cast more than the songs, and the whole thing feels safe, a version with the sharp corners sanded off. It holds a 69% on Rotten Tomatoes and a B CinemaScore. A 5.1 because Rapp is a force and the movie is a rerun with a soundtrack. $81.86 says you rewatch the original within a week just to compare the lunch table scenes.

What works: Reneé Rapp is a ferocious Regina George, and Revenge Party is a genuinely fun number.

What doesn’t: It plays the original story so safely that most of the bite is gone, and too many of the songs are forgettable.

Who it’s for: Theater kids who already know the cast album and want to see Rapp’s Regina on a big screen.