Mean Girls

Cady Heron moves from a nontraditional upbringing into the high school ecosystem where popularity is everything. She gets welcomed by The Plastics, the elite clique led by Regina George, and quickly learns the group's unspoken rules. When Cady starts dating Aaron Samuels, Regina takes notice and things get messy. With Janis and Damian at her side, Cady tests how far she’ll go to upend the hierarchy while trying not to lose who she is. The film keeps the schoolyard politics front and center, with pranks, shifting alliances, and social maneuvering shaping the experience more than any single plot twist.

This 2024 adaptation is directed by Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne, drawing on the original Tina Fey material and the stage musical by Nell Benjamin and Jeff Richmond. It foregrounds a younger ensemble, led by Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, and Avantika, updating familiar beats for a new cast and creative team.

Critical and audience responses have been mixed, reflected in an average score near 5.9 out of 10 from users. Reviewers tended to praise the cast energy, especially Rapp and Rice, while noting the film sometimes struggles to balance satire and sentiment. The movie keeps returning to themes of belonging, social performance, identity and the ways teenagers police one another.

Mean Girls remains a recognizable cultural property, and this version taps into that legacy without pretending to replace the original. Its connections to the stage musical and the 2004 film mean lines, scenes, and character archetypes still get referenced across social media and pop culture, helping sustain interest in remakes and reinterpretations.

The film saw a broad release aimed at both theaters and streaming audiences, and its commercial results were steady rather than record breaking. It found its biggest momentum among fans of the franchise and younger viewers curious about an updated, more musical-tinged take on high school politics.