New Mean Girls movie musical reviews

The first reviews have dropped for the new movie musical adaptation of Mean Girls.

A film adaptation of the stage show, itself based on the original 2004 movie of the same name, comes to cinemas this month.

The new Mean Girls movie features music by Jeff Richmond, lyrics by Nell Benjamin and a book by Tina Fey, who wrote the screenplay for the original movie.

Making up the cast are Reneé Rapp as Regina, having previously played the role on Broadway, with Angourie Rice as Cady, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis, Jaquel Spivey as Damian, Avantika as Karen, Bebe Wood as Gretchen and Christopher Briney as Aaron.

But what did the critics make of it all?

Mean Girls movie reviews

The Daily Beast

"While it still has no decent reason to exist other than to make a few bucks off of nostalgic millennials and curious newcomers, Mean Girls prevails by leaning hard into its own pointlessness and letting its stars live out their catty dreams—even if their claws don’t scratch hard enough." - Kristen Lopez, read the full review

The Wrap

"The biggest problem Mean Girls 2024 has is its uncertainty with regards to its audiences. It clearly wants to cater to fans of the Broadway show and Gen Zers who love Renee Rapp, but also wants the millennial fanbase that still quotes the original film. But the script, which Fey returned to write, is so lean as to have no story at all." - Coleman Spilde, read the full review

Next Best Picture

"Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should, though, and now Mean Girls doesn’t feel so much like a fresh take on a beloved film as it does a take on its own opening number, A Cautionary Tale: This is how not to adapt a Broadway musical to the big screen." - Dan Bayer, read the full review

Entertainment Weekly

"At first glance, successfully remaking seemed about as likely to happen as 'fetch.' But thankfully, the new iteration — complete with a fresh screenplay from Tina Fey — manages to make life with the Plastics pretty darn fantastic." - Maureen Lee Lenker, read the full review

Hollywood Reporter

"All the effervescence and fun have been drained out of the material in this labored reincarnation, a movie musical made by people who appear to have zero understanding of movie-musical vernacular." - David Rooney, read the full review

Variety

"You can rest assured that Mean Girls, the movie musical, sticks close to the spirit and to the letter of the movie that updated and mythologized the culture of gossip and backstabbing for a new generation." - Owen Gleiberman, read the full review

Deadline

"The film struggles to justify its existence beyond surface-level changes and ultimately falters in delivering a coherent, impactful story that offers little new or compelling." - Valerie Complex, read the full review

Slant

"At its best, when it leans full force into the heightened movie-musical landscape, this Mean Girls can feel audaciously reinventive" - Dan Rubins, read the full review

The film is set for release in cinemas from 12 January 2024 in the US. In the UK, the new Mean Girls movie will be released on 17 January.

Meanwhile, the original stage version of the musical is coming to London. Mean Girls The Musical opens in the West End, opening at the Savoy Theatre from June.