Buzz surrounded the much talked about revamped “Mean Girls” movie musical after its release on Friday, Jan. 12 — both positive and negative.
Released exactly 20 years after the original movie from 2004, audiences assumed the new “Mean Girls” would simply be another Hollywood remake with updated humor to fit that of today’s generation, but were mistaken.
One of the first sparks of controversy was that the film wasn’t advertised as a musical, which caught many audiences off guard in theaters. This led to audiences flooding social media to report on crowd boos and groans as the first song began.
Fans who knew of Reneé Rapp’s Broadway adaptation of “Mean Girls” seemed to be the only few who knew, but that didn’t stop Rapp from flourishing in popularity after the film’s release.
The singer and actress’s popularity seemed to spark just before the movie’s release, although her first big acting breakthrough occurred when she was cast in Mindy Kaling’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” Rapp’s off-Broadway singing career began with the release of her first album “Snow Angel” in 2023.
Although her acting career has taken off recently, Rapp has stated that she has no desire to continue acting and instead wants to focus on her music career.
“I go back and forth, because I get so anxious on sets and I feel s— about myself, so I feel like I shouldn’t put myself back in that environment,” Rapp said in an interview with LA Times.
Aside from Rapp’s performance, audiences have also been praising Avantika Vandanapu’s performance as Karen Shetty. Her performance of “Sexy” has been circulating on social media since the release of the movie.
“I grew up admiring Kyle’s choreography and his work, and so being able to now learn something from him directly and have him guide me throughout the whole process was really a dream come true for little me,” Vandanapu said about working with “Mean Girls” choreographer Kyle Hanagami in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Audience and critic reception have been mixed — with added criticism because some of the original songs from the Broadway musical were changed to better fit the movie format.
It’s no secret that one of the biggest victims of this was “Stupid With Love,” sung by Angourie Rice. If you’ve been on TikTok recently, chances are you’ve heard this rendition of the song once or twice on your page — and for good reason.
The song was changed to be softer and more of a ballad than what it was in the musical. Content creators have created comparison videos of both versions, and the contrast is clear.
Rice — and the film as a whole — has also been the target of criticism for the camera angle used during “Revenge Party,” and how weird it was that it looked as if Rice had to film on a phone angled to her chin.
Another standout performance was Auliʻi Cravalho as Janis ʻImi’ike. It wasn’t a surprise that Cravalho would be a standout, as her previous musical role was Moana. Her take on Janis being queer was a change for the better, and I’m glad she could make the character hers.
Whether you liked the movie musical or not, the spectacle of the event seemed to outweigh the actual release of the movie. It was a fun moment in pop culture, and one that we’ll probably not remember in a few years, but it was entertaining to be a part of.
