The new 'Mean Girls' movie does Janis justice

While the new “Mean Girls” movie Including many, many jokes from the first film, recited word for word, devoted fans will notice many changes. Harassment, once the province of three-way calls on landlines, now occurs on social media. Left behind were the wrong asian jokes, the slander of sizeism, the ableist language and the entire pedophile plot. And no, cafeteria cliques are not categorized according to racist stereotypes.

“Sometimes you write something and 20 years go by and you say, 'Oh, I wish we hadn't said that,'” said Tina Fey, who wrote both scripts. He said in an interview on “Hoy”. “And what a gift to be able to open the hood and fix things a little.”

Whether updated for contemporary sensibilities or to acknowledge that it's been two decades since the first film was released, most of these adjustments are as cosmetic as wardrobe changes from Millennials to Generation Z. But the only Drastic alteration to the Paramount musical turns out to be the most significant, a model for future on-screen reimaginings of retrograde material: Janis Ian's delayed revision.

In the 2004 version, Janis (Lizzy Caplan), dressed in grunge outfits and thick black eyeliner, is introduced as an acerbic, art-loving rebel who has been socially ostracized by Regina George. The former best friends fell out after Regina started a rumor that Janis was a lesbian, accused her of having an obsessive crush on her, and refused to invite her to a pool party because there would be other girls there. In bathing suits.

Janis's entry in the “Burnt Book” that her bullies use to tear down their subordinates on the social ladder simply labels her with an insult, one presented in the film as the most brutal comment imaginable about a student. Newcomer Cady Heron, desperate to continue being liked by these popular “Plastics,” then betrays her former friend Janis by weaponizing the rumor: she also accuses Janis of being in love with her, and Regina reinforces this when she tells him. tells his classmates. Janis's “dream come true” is to “dive into a big pile of girls.”

20 years have passed and Janis Ian has become Janis 'Imi'ike, played by Auli'i Cravalho, and is now in fact queer, instead of being saddled with a last-minute straight couple with a mathematician. And in a particularly satisfying twist, she's also the narrator of the new film, along with her other queer character, her best friend Damian (Jaquel Spivey).

This time, Janis is not harassed for her sexual orientation. In fact, Regina, who Janis had confessed to privately when they were still close, tried to use it to her advantage, putting on “a show” with Janis during a game of Spin the Bottle to make a guy jealous, and then denying her own interest saying, “I knew she would leave me. “She's kind of obsessed with me.”

As a result, we learn that Regina began describing Janis as an “obsessed lesbian” to her classmates, which ultimately led to an incident in the science lab that got Janis expelled from school. and permanently labeled as a weirdo, or worse. “Regina had been making fun of Janis this whole time and everyone but her knew it,” Damian explains. To adults, he says, “Janis seemed crazy.”

Jaquel Spivey plays Damian and Auli'i Cravalho plays Janis in “Mean Girls.”

(Jojo Whilden/Paramount Pictures)

Janis' new characterization as an openly queer woman of color (one whose sexual orientation, rumored or not, is not weaponized against her by her classmates) is most effective in an iconic scene from the original: the apology exercise , in which math teacher Mrs. Norbury (Fey) challenges the women of the student body to admit their part in perpetuating the “mean girl” behavior that has erupted on campus.

Although Regina tries to humiliate Janis before her turn (they are “Mean Girls,” after all), it's not because of her queerness. The moment is a far cry from the first film, in which Janis responds to Regina's homophobic taunt by bitterly joking about her “great lesbian love.”

Most importantly, the new film turns this revised understanding of Janis into its defining musical number, one that underscores the social ecosystem of a new generation: Janis can be queer without letting it define her; her queerness might influence Plastics' rejection, but it definitely no longer drives it.

In this version of the scene, she looks directly into the camera to sing. “I'd rather be me” a spectacular anthem from composer Jeff Richmond and lyricist Nell Benjamin in which Janis calls out the insidious, unspoken ways in which women deceive and undermine each other for their own benefit, and unapologetically opts out of such mutual efforts. destructive in the future:

We're all supposed to be ladies and care and care.
Is that really fair? The boys can fight, we have to share.
This is how it turns out: we always understand
How to slap someone with your hidden hand
So here's my right thumbs up on how girls should behave.
'Cause sometimes what's meant to break you only makes you brave

So I won't act entirely innocent, I won't pretend to apologize
Let's just fight and then make peace, not tell these lies.
Let's call our damage even, wipe the slate clean until it's as good as new
It's a new life for me where I prefer to be me.
I'd rather be me than be with you

It's cinematic justice for a character previously maligned by a joke (the original Regina simply confused “Lebanese” with “lesbian”). And in a new version packed with cameos and references to the first film, Janis's revision is the only major update made to “Mean Girls” that seems especially tailored to today's high school girls: teenagers who are more accepting of diverse sexual, racial and racial orientations. / ethnic origins and other forms of difference, than those of 2004.

Many adaptations of once-beloved stories fail with new viewers because they are held back by outdated setups and cringe-worthy punchlines that were once played without protest. Sure, old-timers might say those decisions are made to check politically correct boxes or lessen the likelihood of widespread cancellation. (Though cuts made to both the original show and the stage suggest some of that was done as well.) family social drama dynamic while we update social networks traditions that changes over time.

As actress Regina George Reneé Rapp sings on her end credits track – with Janis and her female date dancing at the Spring Fling – “Can a Gay Girl Get an Amen?”

It only took 20 years, but he can finally do it.