Movie Review:

Mean Girls

by Lynn B.

You know them. As they pass, the crowds in the school hallways part in waves and stand to watch them recede into the distance. The ultra-pops, the cooler-than-thou’s. In this new comedy they’re the Mean Girls.

Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), 15, has never gone to a school before. She’s been home schooled by her parents who were working in Africa. Suddenly she’s thrust into a tough Chicago public high school and it’s a jungle in there! The cafeteria is so intimidating that she eats her first lunch in the girl’s bathroom! Cady is quickly befriended by two of the school's outcasts, Janis (Lizzy Caplan), a Goth girl, and her pal, a prissy but friendly guy. Both are thought of as bottom feeders by the popular kids.

The school’s top sosh queen bee is a killer mean chick named Regina (Rachel McAdams), who is always glued at the hip to her queen wannabes Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried). Together they are…. The Plastics. Regina’s m.o. is humiliating everyone, even, occasionally, her own “court”. She does see potential in cute Cady however and asks her to sit (for a week) at her cafeteria table.

Goth gal Janis, often a queen and court target, convinces Cady to go deep undercover as a "Plastic," find dirt on Regina and use it against her. This goes well for a while but Cady is soon caught up in Regina’s beehive of rich snobbery. The new relationship with the Plastics doesn’t go so well when Cady falls for Regina’s ex-guy Aaron (Jonathan Bennett) and Regina turns on her.

Writer/actress Tina Fey, head writer and actress on "Saturday Night Live", wrote the script for this clever comedy and co-stars as Cady’s Math teacher Ms. Norbury. Tina’s work was loosely based upon a self-help book called “Queen Bees and Wannabes” by Rosalind Wiseman which is a guide for parents to help their teen daughters escape girls like Regina. The movie actually “gets it”. Are there any of us who didn’t know girls like this? Or maybe you are one and are just now realizing it with a little regret.

The cast is excellent across the board. Lindsay Lohan really nails the part of an innocent girl overwhelmed by an entire new social system, changing and learning a lesson from her journey. The Plastic girls are funny and also, at times, pathetic in their quest for top pop status. Tina is great as the well-meaning Math teacher and a bevy of SNL cast members do wonders with other roles in the film. Cute Jonathan Bennett has just the right mix of cluelessness and charm.

The ending of the film is a little convenient and hard to buy but it doesn’t matter, a lesson has been learned, the good guys win and we’ve all laughed a lot and learned along the way. Mean Girls is one of the most clever, well-written and acted high school films I’ve seen in a long time. Take your bff's and the guy pals as well. You won’t be sorry.

 

This film is rated PG-13

Official Movie Web Site - Mean Girls

All pictures copyright © Paramount Pictures