Mean Girls (2024) dir. Samantha Jayne & Arturo Perez Jr. | Showgays

0:03 [Music] my name is Regina George and I am a massive deal welcome back to another episode of show gaze Movie music podcast where we discuss movie Musical that are currently in the theaters this is probably the closest you will ever get this is it this is after this even sooner than Color Purple yeah yeah because this this came out two days ago it's Sunday the 14th of January that we're recording this this movie came out officially on January 12th we were invited to watch a

0:49 very we were selected we were selected by paying for tickets for an advanced screening because you know people yes cuz people respect us want us to give well we're part of the we're part of the cultural conversation we are we are we're big Cal we really do we set the tone we set the we said what's important I want to know boys what was the General makeup of the audience at your early screening wom a lot of women lot of gires there were actually there were a few gays a few H theater gays so we watched this at the AMC Evanston so right at the heartbeat of Northwestern University and they have a Northwestern you know when the Northwestern joke came out the girls were gooped and gagged

1:35 they were gagged there were there were like a few like old uh like like old dragons like us like around where we were sitting like older gay men were the women also around your age or the women were definitely like young our age younger okay yeah um I would say there were a there were at least some people who knew the original Musical well if you're a Northwestern girl those bfas are tun I would say that there were a couple moments where we heard people not singing along okay per se but like you do the thing where you mouth it but then like certain certain consonants still have a sound but they they kept themselves together to some extent yeah to some make sense yeah yeah okay my um

2:21 I went to the AMC I think it's called AMC La Hoya it's not really La Hoya oh we didn't ask Molly but thank you Jesus Adam got a Stanley knock off now he feels like okayge power yeah so now he Regina George bag there there was a lack of Stanley in this film I'll say that um lack of Stanley yeah I went to I think it's called AMC La Hoy but it really it's in University City so over by University of Southern California or not not Souther that's that's USC University of California San Diego yeah UC San Diego um and I would say that the crowd was exactly who I would expect to go to a Trixie and Kaa show it was like majority women my age who I think love the original Mean Girls and then there were some 12-year-olds and their moms

3:06 and then there was a healthy dose of millennial days yeah yeah it was a good it was a good vibe it checks out it checks out for sure um well let's uh okay so I I adjusted I don't know if you saw Molly I adjusted the spreadsheet for the summaries because of how we [ __ ] I [ __ ] up when I did Umbrellas of for um taking credit or taking so I'm going to doability do it today and then the umbrellas I also do and then it'll go back to you and then RJ and then I have it thank you I was nervous as I was setting up that it was going to be me but I also feel like I could get a summary down pretty quickly for this one it's not too difficult it's I mean this movie lives in our bones as Millennials

3:52 it does yeah uh there's something the it's very that like do not tell me the tale I was there when the prophecy was foretold which yeah um okay all right so Adam this is your one minute summary of the 2024 Mean Girls your time starts now Katie Heron a new student to Northshore High School who previously homeschooled by her mom in Africa is thrust into a hierarchical society of clicks that she has to learn how to navigate she befriends Janice and Damen a pair on the fringes of the incrowd due to being quote unquote weird they warn her about the Plastics a group of pretty popular girls who are fake and vindictive the Plastics are made up of Regina Gretchen and Karen who adopt Katie into their group Janice persuades Katie to join them to spy on what goes on in their Inner Circle Katie develops a crush on

4:40 Aaron Regina's ex but at the Halloween party Regina rekindles their own flame in front of Katie even with the knowledge of Katie's Crush Katie swears to take revenge and slowly over time uses multiple tactics to ruin Regina's life and get Aaron but in the process ends up becoming the exact exact thing that she despised which causes a rift in her and Janice and daman's friendship uh the Plastics burn book A book the girls used to gossip about the other girls at the school is planted by Regina in the school for the public to find after she has painted herself as another victim in its Pages the girls have an assembly where they must learn to trust each other but afterward Regina gets hit by a school bus Katie takes accountability for her actions and sets everything right again after helping them athletes win the state championship and getting kissed by Aaron at the Spring Fling dance wow apt I would only take issue with I think

5:25 you said Janice and Daman are on the fringes of The In Crowd I think they're on the fringes of the whole school like they're it's not like they're a little bit popular they're like completely they're like the lowest part of the totem pole in terms of Social Capital yeah yeah I weirdly like I didn't know how to describe their click cuz they're not it's almost like you want to call them loners but obviously they have each other so they're not loners but it's that kind of thing and I think they call themselves The Art freaks is like what they refer to themselves as yeah gross yeah um Art's gross Art's gross um there's some other PL stuff but that's that's the big that's the we can also add by the way that Katie specifically moves there from Kenya and that was one change I was thrilled by because as far as I know from what I have seen of the

6:11 stage show they they kept it to just Africa still and I was like y'all I think we've Advanced enough as a society that we could name a country in Africa it doesn't just have to be Africa you know what yeah I listen to the musical today the stage version for the first time uh they do it is Kenya does say Ken in the St vers I think there's maybe some music where they just say Africa and that's fine if you also refer to it as Africa or whatever but like yeah I think that that's um one part that's pretty problematic looking back at the original I constantly when I introduce myself to people I say I'm from the Americas yes yeah yeah yeah exactly from North America yeah yeah yeah I'm North American I do that to some extent so that people think I'm from Canada and may have a a slightly times when that's when that's to our benefit for sure it's

6:58 a privilege with my accent people would definitely believe I'm Canadian oh for sure oh for sure um okay so I'll go first I weirdly have no relationship to this musical obviously I think we're all going to be pretty similar in that we know the movie extremely well a real 180 from Color Purple where none of us had see the um however I think I'm assuming that none of us rewatched the original film for this in the way we all were like we should have watched legally blog but we didn't um we're going to do that again um so yeah so I know the movie I never saw or listen to the musical I only heard that it was like fine and the music wasn't great that was like the big consensus that I got from it so I was

7:43 like okay it's not for me and I saw the Tony's performance but I was like not impressed really um yeah that was me too I just seen the Tony's performance I this was the same year that I believe bands visit won for best musical because it was up against me girls and SpongeBob and so it was The Big Year of like IP will art win but it's like the band visit technically is still adaptation from a movie to a musical so it's like does it matter isn't it wild that SpongeBob is not most famous for that guy cheating on his wife with Ari Grande absolutely knew song you know honestly she ate she did of course I loved her being like I don't care I don't care girl it's his marriage it's not mine I mean it was also her marriage but yeah yeah that's right they were

8:30 both in marriages um yeah and I so I just knew that kind of like notoriety in that year that that was the big Broadway conversation was like is there no original music anymore is there no original ideas for Broadway anymore and it's just like I who cares I don't know it only certain people can afford Broadway so it's like it's and the problem of people want to go see a familiar title where they feel sure that they're going to like it I feel like has been maybe it's worse now but like I feel like it's been a thing for a long time yeah I I care I want there to be new musicals but I also don't think we should like freak out every year necessar like got to look at a longer span of time before we Panic yeah yeah Molly Molly so I funnily

9:18 enough have seen multiple Junior versions of this musical oh wow um so my old job we did this was like so fun we did a cabaret version so it was like a teen camp and they got to come and they just learned some of the song from it and then they made up the little intials that went between it so it was like themed around high school but not the story of Mean Girls necessarily it was actually one of my favorite things we did that summer because they did such a beautiful mix of like funny little skits and then also like really genuine sharing about their experiences as teenagers so it's really really great show um and then also the camp I work at now the theater camps did a junior version as well for the like I think like middle schoolish age one so it was like me and girls junior so it's all you know edited and take out some of the language stuff like that um so I haven't ever seen the real show on stage but

10:03 I've seen multiple kids performing parts of it um and then my only other knowledge of it was a Sarah Zed video which I'm going to link in the show notes um where she talks about basically why she thinks it's not good and that it's a worse version of Heathers the musical so my impression of Mean Girls is always just it'd be better to go watch Heathers yeah yeah yeah well I think I don't I I was not I didn't really look up the cultural conversation around Mean Girls in in 2004 the original film when it came out but I remember people being or at least know to some extent that people were like oh it's the next generation's Heathers like just the movie itself the and and this Sarah Zed's criticism was of comparing the two musicals she wasn't really talking about the films I think that the personally I enjoy the movie Mean Girls

10:48 more than I like the movie Heathers and I think that might just be a generation like if I had been in high school when hea we were in what middle school when me girls came out so yeah yeah um if I had been that same age when Heathers came out that would be the one that would be in my in my brain as like the movie right um but I do think that the music in the musical he Heathers is better than the music in Mean Girls yeah um and it's weird it's funny because the musical came out around the same time like they kind of got developed in in tandem almost I felt like and I think it's Barrett Gilbert weed or something I think that's her name I don't know but the girl who was um with the main character in Heathers the non Heather the Winona Rider oh Winona ryer yeah she so the girl who

11:34 played Winona ryer also played um Janice in the original Broadway cast so it was also pretty hard not to compare them because there was like even a famous actor in those roles yeah huh um well let's talk about some her stre wait did RJ share his relationship yeah I just tagged on the tand on mine uh so this is not this is one of your classic Musical based on a movie based on a musical based on a movie based on a book so let's start at the very beginning a very good place to start me uh queen bees and wab bees helping your daughters survive clicks gossip boyfriends and other realities of adolescence is a 2002 book written by rosin wisman uh rosin wisman you may say to yourself this must be you know a doctor

12:19 a studied academic somebody who really understands what they're talking about nope she's just a lady who was teaching black belt karate and then interviewing young girls that she was working with and decided to write a book about it wow which is fine you're allowed to do that uh she has no daughters she has two sons which again you can also write whatever you want you don't have to like you know whatever blah blah blah I just find it interesting I just read a New York Times article this week about her and the fact that she's doing a lot of workplace like presentations now about these Dynamics sh up in workplaces and they did not mention at any point that she was not a trained psychologist or academic or anything she has a she has a degree in political science huh well um here are her other works okay that she's written since uh since Queen be's and wannab bees okay that was 2002 next one queen

13:06 bee moms and Kingpin dads dealing with the parents teachers coaches and counselors who can make or break your child's future she loves a long title uh that's 2006 owning up curriculum empowering adolescence to confront social cruelty bullying and Injustice in 2009 uh this is so funny they're all so Earnest I feel like and then it become 2010 she writes boys girls and other hazardous materials 2013 she writes masterminds and Wing men helping our boys cope with schoolyard power locker room tests girlfriends and the new rules of boy world uh 2013 the guide managing douchebags recruiting wingmen and attracting who you

13:52 want uh 2020 distance learning playbook for parents how to support your child's academic social and emotional and social learning in any setting and in 2022 she wrote courageous discomfort how to have Brave life-changing conversations about race and racism um so I just think it's interesting because I didn't know I think I may have like remembered that weird fact the Mean Girls was technically based on a book book but I always assumed it was like a Gossip Girl book where it was like kind of the same plot was like the Legally Blonde movie where it was like based on that book that's like Loosely about her experience her experiences this feels yeah because it's like aelf a selfhelp B I think that's really cool that they took something that's so I mean the movie is so creative in making

14:39 a story around it you know um I think that's that's a that's a fun way to but you have f for your movie yeah I can feel that sentiment of like it feels like the movie because of all of the parallels obviously to like the animal like the like the animal hierarchies and everything it feels like a we are looking in like we're like like observing yeah I mean it's very smart to make Katie a full Outsider to the high school experience even so far as to remove her from like what Society in general yeah okay Mean Girls 2004 it's directed by Mark Waters the screenplay was written by Tina Fay it was produced by Lauren Michaels it starred Lindsay Lohan as Katie uh Rachel McAdams as Regina George Tim Meadows as the principal Anna gasty as her mom Lizzy Kaplan who is

15:28 Lizzy in it she's um Janice oh right right right Lizzie Kaplan is Janice Amy polar is Regina's mom and Tina Fe plays Mrs norberry I think her name is so funny in this billing you don't have am Mana am Mana C or Lacy shabar who yeah and then what about the guy plays Daman do we know his name oh yes in the original no I don't remember his name Justin something uh cinematography J blah blah blah I'm not really going to read all this but uh came out in 2004 it's Paramount Pictures film uh it's budget was $18 million and its box office $13.1 million yeah smash Isn't it nice to think about the old like mid-budget comedies it's so charming and quaint to think any mid budget films at all any mid budget would

16:14 be great a super bad you know we really had a r a good run of these like we and also like us as Millennials really clung on to them like the easyas and the the girls like so good so good did is there uh uh do you did you see this movie in theaters we were in middle school so maybe not I saw it as a DVD I think I saw it as a rental yeah I don't remember the first time I watched it cuz I would have been a little too young maybe to officially watch it I don't know if I watched it you know I might have watch it as sleepover and not told my parents or something sorry Rita um because I feel like I watch it pretty soon yeah happy recent birthday happy recent birthday uh yeah I feel like I watched around when it came out but I don't

16:59 remember seeing it in the theater and I don't think I would have been let in necessarily birthday to can you stop trying to hit on my mom it's very [Laughter] weird um but but there is something about our like I feel like our group of of of Youth because it's like we watch it as middle school so we're like where we want to know so much about like what's happening next right and like that like I want to know everything about high school I definitely saw it before I got to high school cuz I I remember watching it in my childhood home which we were still living in but we moved my freshman year of high school yeah I remember watching in the Philippines yeah oh oh wow you were kind of having a Katy Heron experience of is this what Aman look like yeah I came in and was like I'm ready don't be a lesbian you know you

17:45 got unlock okay yeah and I all boy High School I also went to all boy school so um oh wait cuz you Molly did you go to an old girl school I did so I'm the only person who had like a normal high school experience in the the three of us judgmental but yes yeah yeah so is this so this movie for you I mean obviously it's so ex H hyper realistic yes or not hyper uh hyperbolic yeah uh but do is there especially for you Molly did you does there still exists this kind of like were there clicks and hierarchies clicks and hierarchies that's interesting we my class kind of had like a divide of

18:31 like there was kind of a half and half of like there was like a half of the grade that cared about popularity and a half that just didn't and I was in the half that just didn't care about it I learned actually like 10 years after I graduated I was hanging out with some friends from high school and they were telling me about a group that called themselves the alphas that were like all the people who like don't say that word to car about this a K-pop thing it's a smut thing don't worry about it don't worry I know about it I know about it I know about it but apparently this is before anyone knew about that area of the internet um so they they like had a list of like who was in the cool group or whatever I literally didn't know about it and I laughed so hard when they told me about it cuz I was like there's nothing funnier than making a group to exclude

19:17 people that I genuinely that no one even knows about like we so don't care at all so and I think in my in my half of the class it was much more it was kind of clicket in like people had their interest people kind of sorted themselves a little bit by like we did theater and this people did Sports and whatever but like my friends I still hang out with we were all doing different activities so it was not it was there were groups because you just did stuff with people but there it was not clickish it was very poorest in terms of who you could be friends with so no it was not like this really at all yeah that's how it felt for us too it felt like there were big yeah your all boys school yeah I mean yeah there weren't it didn't feel like there was like oh the lacrosse boys are so popular or whatever it just felt like everyone had like big big friend groups and so

20:04 like there was like one friend group that maybe the biggest but like no one really care everyone it was also very academically focused in the school too so people were like we don't really care cuz we have to [ __ ] get a college yeah so well the person who went to a co-ed public high school here sorry that I'm a bit of like not the 1% in this group um uh I do I wouldn't say obviously it's not reality but there is I think because you have the mixing of the genders there is like a I know that your girl school was like right by and we shared classes and I think you did too right we had the same thing yeah okay okay okay I I and all of our dances obviously yeah like our popular girls were in the in Palms

20:51 which is like what our cheer cheerleaders were called but it wasn't to this level or anything like that um but there were like there were definitely like people who were really popular but it was mostly like now that I'm looking back on it at least like like the guy who was probably the most popular who was Daniel what was his last name Daniel Smith I think his last name was um sounds made up but okay oh just a guy named John Smith John Doe John Doe popular man school I think his name was D Smith uh he was like really nice like he was like really good at football yeah and I think he ended up going to Notre Dame and playing for them but he was also just like a really nice guy um I don't remember if the girls were nice yeah that was a lot of the like people who were popular were in

21:36 sports but then also were like in student council or whatever and were like doing like mission trips or whatever so like they were like colonizing yeah they're colonizing interesting yeah I mean I feel like certainly colonizers the dynamic of like here's the three girls that are at the top of the hierarchy of the school was like that was not the situation there was not a know this person there is that wasn't there but the the fear of walking through I will say the fear of walking through the cafeteria is like a thing that I I feel like even watching this movie I was like oh God and like mostly I didn't eat in the cafeteria once like I was like in like cemented in the theater Department I would like go because our cafeteria was like right behind the back of the theater so I would go into the theater to eat lunch

22:23 but like anytime I would have to like go into the cafeteria it was always like God it just feels like everyone is looking at you yeah huh for me yeah we did not have we had a dining hall instead of a c none of it was normal yeah not just like a had like a wood tables and ceramic plates there were no trays I don't know it was a smaller room just like cuz it was a smaller school it just like wasn't the like big cafeteria and and sitting at the big tables and stuff was like not part of my how many how many were you graduating class 70 wow how many were you like 200 300 something yeah I mean so that was the thing was like yeah so like even even the people who I was like the least close with I I knew everybody in my

23:09 class right so it was kind of hard to were you on that popular were you on the popular list were you on that list oh you were not an alpha you weren't an alpha in retrospect I guess I wasn't you must have been an Omega I guess it wasn't oh my God okay so that was a joh back through our history through our school our history 2017 Mean Girls on Broadway uh technically it opens in on Broadway 2018 the tryy out starts in DC in 2017 the music is by Jeff Richmond and you may say who's Jeff Richmond and I would say Tina's husband Oh lyrics are by Nell Benjamin who did the lyrics for Legally Blonde the musical and the book was written by Tina it was nominated for 12 Tony Awards

23:55 best musical best actress in leading role best actor featured role best actress in a featured role best book best original score best scene design costume design sound design Direction choreography orchestrations and it won none of them wow um but that's impressive that it was nominated for all that uh and it was still popular it ran until basically it it went on Hiatus during once Co hit and I just don't think it ever reopened I think they just officially announced its closure I think it had 800 performances or something like that um Renee rap was the last George on Broadway okay and we are I have a feeling we're going to be talking a lot about Miss Renee rap I this episode I think we will Mean Girls 2024 directed by Samantha Jane and aturo

24:41 Perez Jr it is their directorial debut in this F and we got to see them talk about it a little bit since we were at the special um special viewing early viewing they had like little little intertial things yeah I feel like I mostly saw Tina fan those but maybe I and they kept showing the same Loop of like the two numbers over and over again yeah uh screenplay Again by Tina Fay it is produced by Lauren Michaels and Tina Fay it stars and jury rice as Katie Haron Renee rap as Regina George Ali carvalo who you may know as the voice of Moana uh as Janice not Ian they changed it's a like a Japan either Japanese or yeah Hawaiian and Christopher Briny as

25:28 Aaron Samuels who originally turned down the role because he was like oh I can't sing and then they got rid of all the songs that he would have to sing for it and he was like well I guess I'll do it cinematography is by Bill Kirin it is edited by Andrew Marcus the music is by Jeff Richmond the score production company uh Broadway video and little stranger distributed by Paramount Pictures it was released on I just said January 12th 2024 it's running time is 112 minutes budget is 36 $6 million and so far as of today 34.5 million in box office good looking good should we here talk about cameos or should we wait to talk about cameos later that's fine okay here's I loved a lot of the casting they

26:15 put Ashley Park in as the French teacher which is a brilliant move Ashley Park played Gretchen Wier is the original Broadway cast and then now she's at Emily in Paris and so putting her in a French teacher amazing love it yes um byy Phillips as I mean love buzy Phillips she can be in anything and then she could be Renee rap's Mom right like there is something about their faces that absolutely go they have that like really strong jaw yeah I saw I saw in a Tik Tok that she was originally approached to be also the replacement mom in on Brad because of how much she looks like her but here's my question where is Amy po why is Amy po not in this movie yeah I mean okay so I looked it up a is 52 which if we assume Regina is 17 means

27:01 she could have had her at 35 so that's firstly not impossible she could have just played that role again but I was like okay maybe you want Mrs George to have had her kid younger like that fits the character better whatever but like we couldn't put her in as a teacher at the school like what what the actual heck we have Tina back we have Tim Meadows back as the same roles we have Lindsay Lan appearing as the moderator of the math tournament which is a brilliant idea where where is Amy po I I'm so mad that she's not in this movie I was not mad that Amy polar was not in this I was actually more mad that ow was in this cuz I don't I don't think ow is funny to be really honest I just think it's like I just think his comedy style is just not

27:47 one that I like I'll like chuckle at his stuff but it's just not it's not good enough that I'm like well we got to have to meows back and now we got to make him and Miss norberry like married which they do in this movie and I was like I don't know I don't know what that added but it was cute everyone went awe in my theater when it happened when they revealed it I mean like I don't it's not that I loved him at I was in the abstract I just love him in this movie like he it's so iconic how mad he gets when they when the girls start fighting with the bird book and everything so like for that reason I was I was happy it was like anyone you want to bring back the this film is is in a large part pedling and Nostalgia I'm happy for them to be there I just to me Amy Po's performance as Mrs George is like so iconic that just needed her to be even just walking past somewhere and like Tina Fe and Amy Poler are friends I don't understand why she wouldn't give

28:34 her a bit part in the movie so that was my one complaint about maybe they they had a falling out maybe they did start the here oh my god let's investigate um other cameos there's John Ham as the gym the gym teacher yep health teacher health teacher yeah yeah uh it was very funny um I thought there was another one maybe maybe wrong uh it good oh what's her name plays the mom from oh Jenna fer oh Jen Jen fer yeah that's not a cameo that's just she's just yeah she's not really connected to the original or anything like that yeah so um okay uh 14 songs were cut from the musical version wow to this film yeah

29:19 and this film has at least like 12 songs so the fact that there are somewhere I just it's crazy to me that 14 songs could now I don't think they're all like original I think some of them are repres stuff like that but that is still wild to me cuz I guess the original show ran for two and a half hours and that would be too long for a movie I think some Cuts were needed for sure but I mean this is going to get into the core of it can we are we ready to go to that the only the last thing I was going to say is that this was originally supposed to be a Paramount plus release and and then in September they announced that they were going to release it theatrically after it had been positively tested interesting yeah that would be a very different type of and I think it was smart and I also there were some critics that I was

30:05 reading that at least one was like they think that Barbie's success LED Paramount to be like we should release this in theaters the women like seeing movies it turns out um who knew we had disposable income these days okay Molly take it away this movie is afraid of being a musical this is my thesis you see it most in the trailers they like will not reveal to you that it's a musical in the

30:51 trailers and there were a lot of people online that tweeted or had said like were confused that they thought they were like oh and and it's weird too because I feel like without knowing it's a musical you kind of go like why remake Mean Girls then right you're like what is the purpose of but like it makes more sense of you understand that there's a musical version and they're putting that one on screen um I feel that the strongest parts of this movie are when they really lean into it being a musical specifically Revenge party was my favorite number in it because they so thoroughly transported us to a different realm for that number right they transformed the environment and the cost and everything and I think that the songs where they choose to kind of keep them basically in the school and just have them sing in that world were the

31:39 weaker songs and I think that if they had embraced the Musical part a little bit more the movie would have it I enjoyed the experience of the movie I liked watching it but I think it could have been a lot better if we like really committed to the Musical part of it yeah RJ I agree to some extent but I think what they did with the musical numbers to me were good enough I think they could have all done more but I liked that they took each song individually and applied like a quote unquote concept to each one and how they're presented very specific to that song that really like highlights it as a number I have like two exceptions to

32:25 that that I felt like were not good um but for the most part like I also liked Revenge party but I really like the Halloween song um and I mean that one we talked about on the way back home of it using social media right like it has the different Tik Tok videos the Tik Tok lenses even the challenge even the the song with um in within Revenge party like the Regina Regina like the all the Regina parts of it I thought were really effective in how it used kind of like that social media lens um but I thought I didn't come out like humming the songs I don't think the songs are that strong and memorable that's fair it might be the music itself more than the adapation of it but I do think they adapted the songs well that I remember

33:11 the numbers and like what they do the changes in the visuals the changes in the color and the like they they take some cinematic kind of creativity even in the the the song where she takes Aaron back in the Halloween party oh like the I I thought it I thought it was very I thought it was very effective was another one even in the apex predator too a little bit but they apex predator was fun they kept it in the world of school but then the choreography of being the animals was really fun but I think you're listening to me also the ones that were the most like removing it because then the party song is like it's a music video like it's totally toally it's again removing it from the reality of the the high school yeah I but I do agree I think the

33:56 moments where they lean in on that like this is a musical moment this is not part of reality it's really strong and really effective that um that's what kept me the only the only song Molly that I can think of that you were talking about that the only song I can think of is the stupid with love that's what that's the one that I'm most thinking of yeah okay so okay would do you want me to since we've talked about revenge party do you want me to play a little bit of it or do we want to wait a little bit it's that's strong I think we can do that we yeah okay I'll bring the glow sticks I'll bring balloons and we'll have chocolate ice cream I'll be the DJ spinning the tunes on a turntable made of a bon we'll get up in y cuz that would be

34:44 fun and play dress up in Barbies and tag and we'll roll on the grass and stare up at the sun then we'll stuffer remains in a bag and throw them in the river bag party a party that ends withs all over the line a Revenge part with your I want to know how I believe it's alii I watched an interview with her explaining Ali how can she be a Disney princess and also have such a perfect voice for Janice know she how how does she have the vocal range of like every song She's Sayang I was just eating up her I just wanted it to to rush all over me like it was so so good she is such a strong vocal performer put her in every musical

35:30 I think apart from Aaron Samuels I think casting popped off so hard with this movie abely I could not Karen okay Renee rap will get an entire hour We're putting a p in Rene R um aanka is who plays Karen and she is a revelation amazing couldn't the and so then I went to a Wikipedia and I was like what the [ __ ] is her back like who is she who is this girl so she's this Annie who is this Annie we got it we got aanka um so uh is it aanka not avantica oh it might be I didn't I didn't look it up to see the pronunciation but she was

36:16 so she's originally from she's born in India she immigrated immigrated to I think San Francisco when she was younger um she's like primarily a dancer I thought her songs were so great but more than that her comedy was so on point and I'm going to be so honest dancers while they are like physical beings do not typically have like that like that that inner beat of a comedy beat so anytime she did anything I was like screaming laughing she is so funny in this movie and then the guy who plays Damen I also was like fully like he is Daman but it's aely so true that it was so yes he never

37:04 felt like he was recreating the original Damian but it was so lived in the same realm of that character like yes the the strongest part those two were my standup performers they were the best part of the movie and I think the strongest part of the movie were the new jokes in it I was worried that it would be all just homages to the old jokes and they they made sure to sprinkle in the lines that we all expected and everything but like they were many times where I laughed out loud yeah I thought it was a really good up updating of like the sentiment of the comedy into what's like funny and relevant now that I thought was I thought was really good yeah yeah I I was just yeah that so that's what I wanted to say about Cassie okay we wanted to talk about I list sorry listening to a

37:50 little bit of the top of the Revenge party I mean like it's really not the lyrics or it's really not the but they sound like they sound great I what they do with this song when it kind of goes in the back and forth like the the conceit of like it being like a huge party and the halls of the school but then woven in like the pranks that they were doing to Regina the turning on the sprinklers on her and then it becomes like a trend in school I thought was so funny and that they made like a filter on Tik Tok to give you the wet look like it's just so funny and then when they decide to um when when they do a nun for and N forret wieners by like it was so musical in a way right like it felt like like the it it kept that same drama but

38:36 they plused it because it was like this almost operatic number cuz there was like a chorus in the background you knew the line was coming it was just I thought it was so good there's there like that also has the sequence in which they do the you go you go you go Glen CoCo and like they make it like a coral like little bit and that's really funny like there are like we were saying like there is definitely like the lines from the original that they're just repeating but I still even felt that all of the performers I think did a really good job of not of being yes maybe it is because they are aware of the original so they're trying to operate in opposite of what it is but I didn't feel like it was like an untrue version of how they would say these lines like the only the or they did like the line in such a way that I was like oh it's like a fresh

39:22 we're not yeah we're not that mean girls it didn't feel like new Annie where it was like oh we hate we hate mean girl I thought the only the only joke that I was like shocked so they do they obviously do the fetch joke stop trying to make fetch happen it's not going to happen which is one of the greatest lines in cinematic history and then they just do the line again and it's pretty much be forb how it happened in the original and I was like oh I feel like this movie has tried to some degree to like vary at least how it's like the sequence in which it's in or something like it's not trying to do but that one it was like one for one and I was like oh interesting I just felt like they didn't try that hard but maybe it's just such an iconic line they felt like they couldn't blah blah blah and then at the end have their own version of it that he

40:08 like says where he's trying to make squill happen and I was like wait that's so funny because the idea of like all these PE all these like insular groups right the Plastics are just running the school but like all these stupid groups have these stupid things but they're all like they're all in their own little universes that's so funny to me also making it like the guys too have its own yeah yeah it was also with the fetch thing that then the first time she references it Regina says like where did you get that or something and then she says it's from an old movie and she says like I think Juno or something I I didn't love that honestly no I didn't um but but I didn't love it because I didn't like hearing that the movie that I grew up with is an old movie I'm going to be really honest it was a little too meta for my taste personally but yeah yeah um okay

40:56 so let's let's listen to a bit of stupid with love which is the song that Katie sings to what as she realizes that she's developing a crush for Aaron Samuels who sits in front of her in Calculus class okay the whole bit of Katie's character is that she's super smart and then the only way she can talk course of the movie she thinks the only way she can talk to him is that if she appears dumb she like dumps herself down for a man which is like the point anyway feminism okay and did you did anyone need me to cover second wave do we need any kind of you covered it so thoroughly in the past yeah okay just so make sure okay when I was N I fell in love this peace

41:41 guy I waited hours inside his town with flowers which made him laugh which made me cry by 13 I gave up trying I decided I would be a mathematician cuz math is real I memorized a lot of because addition and subtraction and division would never make me feel so stupid with love I didn't get it I didn't get it somehow smart with math but stupid with love I didn't get it I didn't it now I'm going to play a little bit of the original Broadway version okay okay just to hear there is some rearrangement that goes on when I was 10 in love again

42:27 this peace core guy I waited hours inside his tent with flowers which made him laugh which made me cry by 13 I gave up trying I decided I would be a mathematician cuz math is real I memorized a lot of pie because addition and subtraction and division would never make me feel so stupid with love like I didn't get it I didn't get it somehow smart with [Music] M okay oh okay let's take a poll I want to take a poll

43:12 okay what are you going to pull it so I so I saw so there is a there is a Tik Tac that I don't know if it's a how do we how do we you know bab Tik toks well no how do we how do we adequately uh figure out how much something needs to go viral before it's viral but okay there is a Tik Tok going around and the girl is like going back and forth between the two versions and it's supposed to be like look how fun the Broadway version is and look how like kind of somber and monotone the movie version is I think now if I had been I think as I was going through all these YouTube videos and I was trying to find these clips most of the comments obviously the soundtrack came out before the movie came out a lot of the comments are like they really really change the tone like everything is so different da

43:58 d d d da I feel like it fits within the movie that they have created the sound that theyve done and then when I was like well let me listen to what the original sounded like and I heard that like we'll say African inspired beat we say that I was like oh I'm really okay with them not going in that direction for this I just it felt you know what it felt like I was like oh it's like kind of doing a like Book of Mormon African thing and like pedling in that kind of energy but I don't think it's paying off at all you don't need it and definitely in this movie I don't they could have gotten it to work somehow but like I think this is a lot smarter well okay let's cuz let's talk about the relationship of this

44:45 piece of text and we'll talk about all the adaptations to Africa yes the thing is that the function of Katie being from Africa is meant to be that she is outside of society and she's learning about girl world for the first time because she's been living outside of that yeah but that paints Africa as a place without culture which is not true and so what's uncomfortable about it is that the drums reference that people live in Africa and make things like music and have societies and cultures so like you have to lean into the part that's she grew up on the Savannah Savannah she grew up watching animals all her life observing animals she could have she could have it could have been anywhere that has a big wildlife SE right she lived in seaw like

45:30 literally that's that's what's important she lived in the blooming blooming Dale Zoo where she yeah um so it gets confusing the more you lean into like a Africa as a cultural place it gets very confusing of like wait what are you saying about like I'm an outsider to human beings interacting but I did know a bunch of human beings I live in Africa yes but I confusing about it yeah I think also what I like about just and I haven't seen the show so I can't speak to like the full text of the character in terms of visually on stage a the way she sounds at least the way her songs are structured and the way she's kind of like a beless it appears to be in in the

46:15 show um I kind of like that in the movie Katie is her songs reflect how shy she is yes cuz I think there is an introversion that Katie has is so shy I mean even more than like the Lindsay Lan sh than Lindsay lohans like it it it's almost loen sorry Lind yes it's almost like it it really works for the character and how she could be easily swayed from one direction to the other from Janice to Regina and I think it's good because we have such great vocal powerhouses too that having a sweeter voice in the soundtrack is also nice and I like the arrangement underneath I do too it reminds me of I do too until I saw someone was like what is what is the with the gleed doodo in the background and I was like oh no now I hear the GLE but they do have the they CH that's that

47:02 was my fav part of it I do like the I like that the chorus was like not real right she like sees these girls that are like looking at her but in her head in her adaptation it's like they're with honestly I think that what bores me is just the costuming it's just when you have to stay in like Contemporary American high school clothes it's like so boring to look at well then Molly you're going to love a letter box review that I have later okay okay it kind of gave me like Regina Spectre music too like that kind of like um like it's very cute which kind of describes I mean I live I listened only to reget Spectre in high school so it reminds me of that like awkward kind of first feelings yeah that's a great point I think that what I don't like about the song is the lyrics too yeah I mean it's

47:49 giving square root of impossible or whatever that was no I learned pie in addition and subtraction someone please write consult an actual mathematician to put some actually clever lyrics about math into your musical math can beol frozen fractals all around absolutely we can throw it in there but like it's got to be give me some references to actual math yeah a little bit goes a long way I think also with this song the biggest thing that Adam and I had was the voices match the music that they're portraying in the movie I think sometimes we have a problem with contemporary movie with contemporary musicals and Adam had a revelation in the car was like I think it's because I in contemporary musicals you hear

48:34 musical theater belises try to sing contemporary sounds but in this movie contemporary voices fit the voices fit the music they're trying to sing Renee rap I'm going to play one more song okay I'm going to do so the new song for this movie is wha ifs which is her um Katie's first song from where we go from she's in Africa and then we go into like the the big swooping like one take almost not a full one take no yes correct so I yes but also the whole film uses that technique and I was going to talk about that later um but so first I'm actually going to play it Roars which is what they cut okay from

49:22 the Broadway version and then we'll play what ifs I'm 16 living in Paradise with the Lions and birds and stuff but I'm 16 and it's not enough I'm alone I mean there's mom and dad and the Animals we observe but frankly they're all on my last nerve nobody on the Savannah understands none of my closest friends even has hands I got dreams exciting me like a fire ignite me I to conf in my Lions but they keep biting me any thoughts on what you heard I think it's musical theater yeah it's very musical theater I'm going to now

50:09 play uh what ifs which is from the film that's a part of my that's am this time there no looking back no looking back I'm crossing things up my list Crossing things on don't want to run out of time before before a wake up a mind there was a life that I missed my li doesn't [Music] exist and it's pop and it's pop pop it's full Pop um I think I don't like either of them okay and I think I'm going to say something that I never in my life oh thought I was going to say about a female protagonist in a musical oh yes

50:57 wait s let's sound bite this gir I don't think she should have I don't think she should have an I want song because she doesn't want anything at the beginning of she is a character who can want things but she is not in what we understand mean girls to be she doesn't have a when Will My Life Begin it doesn't feel like she's like she has a want but it's immediately fulfilled it's an I want song as the want is being fulfilled it is not setting up the want that will drive the plot it's setting up why I'm moving her want that is the plot of the film is she wants to be with Aaron but they also in our in our you know Cinderella 20 in Jeff bezo Cinderella saved feminism world that we live in y she needs to have more than she can't

51:43 her song Can't Be I want to get with a guy I think that's silly let's talk actually about shut up Adam no no no no I think that I think that that I I agree that that's probably a thought that was driving these decisions and I think one people are sometimes motivated by romantic love and it can that can be part of it there are many girls in this and not all of them are motivated by that so one of them can be that's fine and two I think this is the other thing we should talk about in terms of this as an adaptation and is like a new movie is the idea of being mean I think has become a lot more complicated because we now live in a time where we have really embraced that women are not always mean to each other

52:29 that's lovely look I I'm so for the way that in like the 2010s we pushed back on the like mean girl sort of portrayal of like women are always in competition with each other always really catty with each other because I that has been my experience for the most part is that women are not actually primarily caddy with each other we women should be mean to men and we have done a great job of turning around on that yes so congratulations but this is a movie about women being mean to each other and I think it's a little bit afraid to be quite as biting as the original one was I don't remember why comparing these two songs has gotten me onto this tangent but I'm going with it now so I think that there was well as I said I laughed at a lot of the new jokes I don't think there were any new insults that I

53:15 laughed at which was kind of I feel like a big part of the comedy of the original one was like the creativity of the insults and like sometimes you just want to watch something with like people being truly mean to each other so the point is um I think it's okay for Katie's want to be to get with Aaron because also the point is like the lesson is that she should not have let that drive her choices like she yeah that's the point a come upin for the way that she pursues Aaron I and I think that this is one reason why Heather's the musical is better than mean girl's musical is because Heather's musical leans into like this is dark and these people are horrible to each other now May that's easier to do when they're going to like literally murder each other like it goes to such an extreme that it's like clearly outside of reality right um but I think that they

54:02 were a little afraid to make the mean girls fully mean I do think that the meanness because it is complicated it to me it was more in the like the the the side eyeing the you know um uh not like it's subtle but it's like not direct they're not like direct me like how Regina is mean to Gretchen like it's kind of like passive aggressive like oh my God you're so stupid like no do this or whatever it felt more like that it felt more like easy and smooth because they were mostly coming from Regina it's hard okay so somebody probably should have watched me and girls anyway um from what but I also

54:48 know that the original movie does not hold up like there are a lot of insults that are not like oh like I from what I remember the original movie it is really like Regina's the mean one yeah and gret and Ken are lacky yeah and I think that same sentiment holds true here yeah and I think that Renee rap I think this Regina is very mean I think she's like when she's mean it's like it's like it's the it's it's the brushing Aaron's hair in front of Katie you know like that and and I know we're going to get into but like what I love about her performance is the way that she the really mean comments come really unexpectedly yes and that's what makes

55:33 you so afraid of her is that she mostly seems pretty nice and normal she does kind there tense she seems chill she there sometimes there's the tent she does they're like oh you agree you think you're really pretty where it's like it's she's saying it in a nice way but she's setting you up to fail but when she like snaps at them you're not expecting it and that I do think makes her terrifying so I think that's a really good choice I think the mean I think it's more are the Mean Girls Mean Girls is the name of our discourse I think in B I feel like the meanness is like You're expect in order to survive you're expected to be mean like there you have to be mean in order to get through and I think that is I don't even know what in the first one or I think in both I don't I I feel like I I also read

56:21 other critics reviews and there were a few that were like it's not as is the original and I just can't tell if it's like because we know what it is that that's why we're like oh it's not his biting cuz I feel like a lot I mean a lot of the lines are exactly the same and I did feel like Renee was really mean so I was like and I don't I it didn't it didn't I thought I didn't know if they were going to do like she gets fat with the bars I was like oh I don't think they're going to do that cuz that doesn't that doesn't hold up well at all but they do and also like she's so hot when she like sorry like Renee R sorry Renee rap is so hot I might be by I don't know what's going on honestly but Rene rap is also like a bigger girl than Rachel M was and I know she's talked about people asking her about like being

57:08 I think even like a plus-size woman playing it or something like that that I like wouldn't even really describe her that way but I think I think it's cool that we have someone who's like actually curvy in the role the where where it does reflect that like times are different now like I doubt that you have to be a size zero to be the most popular girl in school now I think that that's genuinely shifted um and yeah she is so hot but then I do think it makes it weird with the gaining weight stuff of like well it doesn't seem like she's trading on just being thin as like her primary way of being attractive and popular either so it's like it does like fit in a weird way with like the reality of the movie um but they they go for it they make that a big part of the the plot yeah um I I don't know I feel like

57:53 I don't know I guess like the burn book doesn't hit the same way that was the big thing is the burn book I feel like wasn't as mean as the original I think they could I think that's where I was hoping for some new fun insults and it felt like nothing nothing felt the same new or creative or like oh that's a very funny way of because I think about 30 Rock which was CA fe's other big thing that she did and I feel like one thing in that show was like the creativity of the insults that people would launch at each other and I think they were afraid to like really get into that I also do want to talk about with the bird book and what RJ was saying before about social media it was not an any 2014 situation but I did feel a little bit of the movie's anxiety about social media and having to justify stuff and the fact that they were like oh we made this burn book that week when our phones got taken away because they were like we have to

58:39 explain why teenagers wrote something down on paper there's simply no and I was like girl you can just have a burn book like it's F people still know about paper it's not stationary stores still exist yeah I'm around children a lot they know about paper and they use it you know what I mean like we don't need to be quite so worried about like well this they're not on their phone and we have to justify that in every way cuz I do know that Tina in an interview asked like her daughters like should the burn book be like a Blog should the burn book be like a Twitter account and her daughter's like no it's a b that's we know the burn book do the burn book it's iconic and obviously like the point is that it's secret until Virginia chooses to not make it secret so I think it totally works to have a PE book I don't think you need to justify it and I'm so glad they didn't make it a Blog I would

59:24 have been so the burn Blog the burn blog gross um I did like the way that they used it though like I liked the social media thing especially when they were like spreading the rumors about Katie pushing Regina in front of the bus I thought that really worked in of seeing it spiral out of control and the the turn until like she did it or then like now we're saving Regina or like Regina deserves better yes and I did like it to with spreading the burn book details I think it worked too to have it there I mean it really it worked as a way of like shortcutting a scene that would have just been people whispering to each other in a different version of it right that's the that was the best use of the Tik Tok Social Media stuff the it's funny because I walked out of this movie and I said to RJ I was like this movie handled like social media so

1:00:09 much better than dear Evan Hanson did De Hans had no idea what the [ __ ] it was doing with social media even though that whole show is basically predicated on him becoming like a viral sensation so it's weird that that movie hadn't well we've already talked about said a lot of bad things about that movie um but I thought this one I felt like handled it felt it really did feel like it was a 2024 film and it wasn't sneering at being like and then we have to put in like social media oh this is a way of judging teens because they use social media it was like there were a couple awkward moments but for the most part I think they used it really well yeah yeah I really liked when they like she they turned the water on when she like wins homecoming queen or whatever challeng and then they make it a like the filter I thought was so so funny because that

1:00:56 would happen yeah I mean this is actually the funny part about us commenting on this is we don't really know because we didn't have this kind of Technology when we were in high school so I actually don't know what it's like in terms of interacting with the popular people now and having a phone and whatever like I think I got a Facebook like my junior year of high school or something like that like it was a very new thing we didn't have filters and stuff so I don't I really don't know but it felt authentic from what I know of social media as an adult Sometimes some of them will sneak into like very specific uh like drama in like this one school will sneak into my for you on my Tik Tok and it is very much like what they showed it's like blah blah blah from from my school did this and that or like while you're doing makeup and

1:01:42 they're just talking about their day and well there was the one there was the one that went viral like a couple months ago of the girl who was like I um somebody my boyfriend lent another girl his hoodie and then she was like doing photo shoots in it da da da d da and that was like a whole it was a well he messed up there he should not have done that bad news so it's good to know that like drama is still happening in high school it's good to know that te are still mean to each other you know it's an important part of the human experience it's character building absolutely yeah I fully come around on the other side we're pro bullying on this we're Boomers um okay okay should we talk about her okay we can I think that this discussion will lead into R rap the human being anyway because I think the

1:02:28 other big change we have to talk about as a gay podcast is making Janice an actual lesbian yes this is probably the most important yes not a not Lebanese not Lebanese not a thing to be teased by and then like the big reveal well okay so what what I need to know what you thought about Janice in this um in this inter like in this adaptation so I I think it was really really smart to make her actually gay I think that the thing that to me perhaps has aged the least well from the original Mean Girls is the fact that the movie and I don't think this was heena's intention I think if you would asked her at the time if this was what she was trying to say she would have said no no no I'm not I'm not trying to say that is basically like the reason that Regina is

1:03:13 in the wrong for calling Janice lesbian is because Janice is not a lesbian and it's fine to make some fun of someone who being a lesbian if they're a lesbian but she's not one like that's a little bit how the movie comes across and especially the fact that Lindsay Lohan big line that shows she's become the mean girl she says it's not my fault you're like in love with me right so like the the ultimate sin one can commit in the world of the original Mean Girls is to become so obsessed with other girls that you actually are attracted to them like that is that's the line that you cannot cross and that is that is a problem right and they change it they change it here Obsession to you're so obsessed with me yeah yes um so I think that it is a really really smart idea to have her actually be gay and basically the way they changed it is that Regina was like shitty around her coming out

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