Known for their harsh behavior and wearing pink on Wednesdays, the “Mean Girls” made a return to the box office with a 2024 remake of the 2004 film. But the movie was not the same; it reflected our society today, but it also showed a simple production that could have been recreated by Netflix.
“Mean Girls” follows previously home-schooled Cady Heron and her experiences moving to an American high School filled with cliques, one of them being The Plastics, a group of girls led by “the queen bee,” Regina George.
“Mean Girls,” the 2024 version, has a large presence of phones, and how they spread gossip and create trends. Rather than one person being influential in one place, they can become influential everywhere. A popular scene in the original “Mean Girls” is when George’s shirt is cut, and this is supposed to ruin her outfit, but instead, she creates a trend within her school. In the remake, George is sprayed with a sprinkler, and “the wet look,” which included mascara dripping down her face and wet, slicked-back hair, caused social media influencers Veronica and Vanessa Merrell, Nia Sioux, Jazz Jennings, Chris Olsen and others to respond and participate in the trend. Additionally, a Snapchat filter was made to imitate mascara dripping down someone’s face.
This movie highlighted how as a culture we have disconnected from our surrounding environments and have become connected to what is happening in other people’s lives. Anything that happens at one simple high school can become global news, and one action a person makes now can have significant effects on society.
This movie is a “period piece,” demonstrating how, within the 20 years from the release of the original “Mean Girls,” the high school experience has changed from being an “in the moment society” where phones did not play a major role in the lives of students, to a society in which phones are embedded in the way most high school students receive their “news” and stay connected. The movie tried to relate to Generation Z more than Gen Z wanted them to; the integration of TikTok videos in the middle of the movie and the e.l.f. makeup brand product placement made the movie feel like watching someone’s TikTok “For You Page.”
The movie created a Regina George that the original Regina George would not be associated with. In the 2024 version of the film, Regina was wearing trendy black leather pants, long-sleeved mesh corset tops, and outfits that looked like they could have been bought from Shein. She uses drugstore makeup (e.l.f) when, in the first movie, she is portrayed as a rich, mean girl. I do not think that a rich, mean girl would constantly use e.l.f.
“Mean Girls” feels like a Netflix Original because of the musical transitions. Monologues begin, and suddenly, music appears. The music was out of musical style and made watching the movie a struggle.
