One of the first PG-13 movies I watched in theaters, I went with some of my girlfriends and my dad (who was “thrilled” to take us). However I do not think anyone was prepared for just how big this 2004 movie was going to become, something tells me this will be just as big when I am very old. In case you haven’t seen it, spoiler alert. I DO NOT OWN THE PICTURE.
Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) moves from Africa to the United States, specifically Evanston, Illinois. Cady attends high school for the first time and soon learns about cliques from two outcasts, Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) who is Goth and Damian Leigh (Daniel Franzese) who is gay. They tell Cady about to avoid the most popular group at school” The Plastics, a trio of girls who are as popular as they are mean. Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried) the sweet but stupid member, Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) the spoiled member who just wants acceptance, and finally the leader and what Janis calls evil human form, Regina George (Rachel McAdams). The Plastics invite Cady into their clique which makes Cady popular, although they discourage her from joining the math team despite her exceptional skills according to her teacher Ms. Norby (Tina Fey who also wrote the screenplay). Janis wants to use Cady to gain revenge on Regina for their horrible past, but Cady refuses to go along with the plan at first. Cady falls madly in love with fellow classmate Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett) who happens to be Regina’s ex-boyfriend. When Regina, knowing that Cady is interested, steals Aaron back Cady goes all in on Janis’s plan to destroy Regina by having Cady take over The Plastics, but inadvertently along the way Cady turns out to be much worse than Regina. About as far as I can go without giving away the rest of the movie.
To say that this movie has become a pop culture phenomenon would be an understatement. Everything from the writing to the acting could not have been done better. While Lindsay Lohan was already well known before this movie Mean Girls helped break her out of the Disney mold. McAdams and Seyfried’s careers as well have gone sky high because of this movie. Tina Fey has had success before and after this movie, but this for me is her best film work, not just as an actress but as a writer (notice the key word being film she is still fantastic in television) Other actors such as Bennett, Franzese, Chabert and Caplan haven’t had as much success after Mean Girls, but they have said they are thankful for the movie. The film had a spin off called Mean Girls 2, but it is not really worth watching having only one member from the original film and basically is a poor copy. There is a stage musical coming soon to Broadway with Tina Fey doing the script, so you know it is gonna be good. There have been talks about the official sequel, but until I see an actual trailer I do not believe it. Mean Girls continues to have a huge impact in film and I do not see it going away anytime soon.
Films or Television Worth Watching 