A movie based on a musical based on a movie based on…

The “based on” dodge is Hollywood nonsense at its finest.

The new Mean Girls movie is not exactly a reboot of the 2004 Lindsay Lohan flick, nor a re-reboot of Mean Girls 2 from 2011, which was marketed as “based on Mean Girls.”

That is, Mean Girls of 2011 was based on Mean Girls from 2004, not based on Mean Girls from 2024. Moviemaking hasn’t taken time travel quite that far. Yet.

The latest Mean Girls is all-singing all-dancing based on the Broadway musical which was based on the initial movie. Got it?

In cast ages the new Mean Girls reminds of the HBO series Euphoria, which is about the tragedy of being 29 years old and still in high school.

In the newest Mean Girls the leader of the evil Plastics is 24-year-old Renee Rapp playing a 16-year-old. In the original, the 16-year-old head mean girl was played by Rachel McAdams at age 26.

The musical version. Photo courtesy National Theater.

Rapp and McAdams just appeared together on Saturday Night Live, and I lost track of who was supposed to be whom. Most likely they did too.

That a Broadway show and two silver screen sequels have now been billed as “based on” something made up is Hollywood nonsense at its finest.