A film adaptation of a stage-musical adaptation of a film (
Tina Fey
's landmark 2004 teen comedy), 2024's
Mean Girls
distills the 2018 Broadway musical into a movie with a soundtrack that, at 34 minutes, has half the runtime of the cast album. (A few short musical numbers that do appear in the film, such as reprises, "Kevin G's Rap," and the Christmas routine, were omitted from the soundtrack.) On what remains, the main soloists include seductive powerhouse vocalist
Reneé Rapp
as leader of the Plastics (the mean girls), demure-voiced
Angourie Rice
as formerly home-schooled new girl Cady, and
Auli'I Cravalho
, aka
Disney
's original
Moana
, as combat boots-sporting Plastics nemesis Janis. All three leads are strong and distinct, and they're joined here by impressive one-off soloists
Bebe Wood
as Gretchen (self-conscious highlight "What's Wrong with Me?") and
Avantika
as Karen (the not-self-conscious "Sexy"), as well as by supporting cast members like
Jaquel Spivey
as Damian Hubbard and
Tim Meadows
, who reprises the role of Mr. Duvall from the original film. While the casting is solid, and some updates were made to both characters and content even since 2018, the source material's casual and weaponized fatphobia endure. Notably, the film's two new songs concentrate wholly on self-love, if from different angles (
Rice
's "What Ifs" and closing pop song "Not My Fault" featuring
Rapp
and
Megan Thee Stallion
). Both the 2018 cast album and the 2024 soundtrack landed in the Billboard 200. ~ Marcy Donelson