Did we need a Gen Z Mean Girls movie?

The new Mean Girls movie premiered globally on Jan 17 and, PSA: it is very much a cinematic musical. To be clear, the 2024 film is an adaptation of the 2018 Mean Girls Broadway show that was an adaptation of the 2004 cult classic movie that was still another adaptation of a 2002 book, cringely titled Queen Bees and Wannabes. Yes, there’s a lot going on here and as the trailer suggests, the new film is “not your mother’s Mean Girls”.

Despite efforts from screenwriter Tina Fey and directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., the movie isn’t our Mean Girls either. In trying to be a musical and a nostalgic banger that is somehow still relevant to the times, the film comes out as a confused, often cacophonous mess. Let’s break it down. On the face of it, the new Mean Girls is a Gen Z green flag, after all it stars the pop princess (and press tour queen) Reneé Rapp as Regina George.

Instead of baby tees and mini skirts, Rapp wears baggy pink denims, mesh tops and corsets while playing the baddest mean girl we’ve ever known. In a hilarious turn of events, Rapp as Regina briefly revives the Y2K-inspired wet look that took TikTok by storm. 10/10 for the reference. The makers also sprinkled in some Gen Z-beloved diversity by casting Indian actor Avantika Vandanapu as ditzy minion Karen Shetty while Jaquel Spivey plays the sassy art geek Damian Hubbard.

Hate to be a hater but that’s where the goodness of the film – as a Gen Z remake – begins and ends. While the costume designer adapted Regina’s wardrobe, the other characters remain frozen in the past. Auli'i Cravalho’s costumes as alt-artist Janis 'Imi'ike were almost direct parallels to the original film. In the riotous Halloween scene, good girl gone bad Cady (Angourie Rice) revives the scary ex-wife costume; fake teeth and terrible make-up included.

If there’s one thing the internet generation loves and adores, it’s a themed party, and absolutely no one would do it as grave an injustice as that hideous look. In another scene, Regina tests Cady’s mean girl capabilities by making her walk to class in hot pink stilettos. Not Uggs, Adidas Sambas or Commes Des Garçons Converse – laced with satin bows – but soul-crushing, pointy heels that no young person (nice or not) would be caught dead in.

Beyond the fashion, the film tries to pander to the youth through filming techniques; several scenes are expressed as TikTok videos. When Regina gets hit by a bus, the school mocks and responds with nasty reaction TikToks, while Karen’s musical number, Sexy, begins as a GRWM make-up tutorial. Imagine braving the cold and buying a movie ticket (during cozzie livs, too!) only to have the big-screen shrink to a vertical mobile view every time something social media worthy happens. Ouch.

To make things worse, Mean Girls kicks off with ‘the Gen Z shake’ – you know, that moment at the start of a video when young content creators pretend like their screen shook or fell to add a taste of candid authenticity. “I’m not a fan of the camera shake in the beginning, I’m watching the film to get away from my phone and TikTok so that’s a rough start,” TikTok trend analyst Coco Mocoe said in her review of the film. “This movie felt like everything that Gen Z will be critiqued for in the future. It’s going to age poorly, in the same way that people make fun of moustache fingers and millennial humour today.”

For reasons unknown, the filmmakers forgot the new Mean Girls was Gen Z, when it was deciding on the clique’s rules. The trio still wears pink on Wednesdays and tracksuits on Fridays, as if the athleisure boom never existed. There’s no mention of Depop, vintage Vivienne Westwood or banned side-parts. They write mean things in a burn book (and not a finsta) and consider a pimple a sin, instead of a fun day to break out the Starface spot stickers.

When Cady, Janis and Damian plot Regina’s downfall, it’s dictated by weight-gain Kalteen bars yet again, bringing fat-shaming front and centre. The only queer character is mocked and isolated while Regina still cheats on Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney) with another brawny jock. With Rapp, that’s a potential bisexual moment wasted.

The new Mean Girls tries hard to immerse itself in Gen Z speak and for brief moments, it gets it right. See: Rapp’s Regina or the iconic wet look. But it takes other elements too far, like the excessive use of TikTok and the camera shake. The film focuses so much on its superficial, aesthetic value that it struggles to nail the cultural touch points that influence young people today. There’s no denying that the present generation has a host of catty, terrorising mean girls, just like decades past. The only difference is, they don’t look, sound or behave anything like the movie would have us believe.

Mean Girls is out in cinemas worldwide.