Is Mean Girls another example of nostalgia killing creativity?

When it was revealed that a new Mean Girls movie was being released, my initial thought was, why? As we've seen over the years, nostalgia has kept us in a regurgitative cycle of preloved entertainment that's consumer-friendly and (fairly) risk-free, but what does this cinematic 'cheat code' mean for creativity? 

For a while, we've slowly seen trends from the year 2000 trickle back into popular culture. From tech to design aesthetics, a new generation is embracing the not-so-distant past with insatiable hunger – but with this Y2K revival, are we slowly self-cannibalising our past, and is originality in decline?

The 2024 Mean Girls movie came with the promise of a refreshed take – a Gen Z sparkle that would be transformative yet familiar enough to give us a comforting dose of nostalgia. Described as "Not your mother's 'Mean Girls'," the movie was destined for somewhat of a generational war, but I held strong reservations about whether a Gen Z injection would be enough to distinguish it from the original. 

The trailer for the movie musical gives us hints that it'll provide plenty of Gen Z tropes – think smartphone POV shots and trendy zoomer slang. However, the movie also grips to the original, being somewhat held back by nostalgia. As such, in straddling the connection between old and new, elements of the movie such as costuming, musical arrangements and plotline feel flat and ambivalent.

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Since the trailer's release, many Gen Z's have taken to TikTok to discuss the tepid attempts to 'modernise' the movie. With Regina's cheap 'Shein-core' costume design, the understated interpolation of social media and the odd mention of the phrase 'slay', it's a Gen Z reboot that at its core, feels made for millennials. As a result, the non-commital approach to updating the story feels trapped in trying to please both generations. 

It's disappointing that a movie with such potential to break the spell of generic remakes has played it safe. When nostalgia guides the creation of a movie, it's undoubtedly a challenging task to make it feel fresh, and it seems that Mean Girls lacks the independence to stand out from its source material. In future, I don't think we should be afraid of remaking classic films but allow ourselves to look past nostalgia and into a future that's unafraid of rewriting the past. 

It's not all bad news, as last year bought us a steady selection of original and beautiful movie posters. Elsewhere, a recent surge in video game movie adaptations has been met with surprisingly positive praise, proving that nostalgia can be a useful tool to guide creativity.