Mean Girls

Released 2004
Stars Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey, Lizzy Caplan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, Daniel Franzese, Tim Meadows, Jonathan Bennett, Amanda Seyfried
Directed by Mark S. Waters

Mean Girls introduces us to Cady Heron (Linday Lohan), a 16-year old girl who is going to high school for the first time. After being home schooled for most of her life by parents who traveled all around the world, Cady is finally getting a chance to enter a suburban Illinois hell of peer pressure and hormones. Her first day is a disaster - the only one to pay any attention to her is her math teacher, Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey). But, on day two, a couple of outsiders befriend her. One is a goth girl named Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and the other is an overweight gay guy named Damian (Daniel Franzese). They teach her the ways of the school jungle, which, as it turns out, isn't that different from the African jungle where Cady spent some of her life.

Then, unexpectedly, Cady is invited to sit at the table of the three "plastics" - the high school's queen and two princesses. Their leader, Regina (Rachel McAdams), isn't only the prettiest and most popular girl in school, she's also the biggest bitch on campus. She is served by her two handmaidens, shallow Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and dumb Karen (Amanda Seyfried). For reasons of their own, the plastics decide to induct Cady into their small group. She's not interested, but at the urging of Janis and Damian, she goes along with it so she can sew the seeds of dissention from within. Meanwhile, Cady falls for tall, dark, and handsome Aaron (Jonathan Bennett), one of Regina's exes. This, along with Cady's growing popularity around school, creates friction within the plastics and eventually pits Cady against Regina. The ensuing battle includes numerous dirty tricks.

Summary by James Berardinelli

"Mean Girls" is like a nicer, PG version of "Heathers". It's perfect for introducing preteens to high school movies, but I prefer my comedy nastier. The movie kept my interest reasonably well, but I felt like I had seen all of the pieces before. To its credit, however, it did a good job with its stereotyped characters and, for the most part, it didn't turn them into caricatures. I could tell the writer was exorcising some demons from high school, and then I read Tina Fey adapted the screenplay from a nonfiction book called "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence". I think we better read the book and see if it will be appropriate for our daughter in a few years. The movie itself would be a good way to help her survive her first few days of high school, and I'm sure she'll think it's very funny. --Bill Alward, September 23, 2004