Mean Girls has cemented its place as one of the most iconic films of the millennial generation. The 2004 comedy written by Tina Fey and directed by Mark Waters is still, nearly twenty years later, hilariously funny and insanely quotable. It’s the kind of film that on the surface for someone who has never seen the film it would seem almost crazy that a film about girls being horrible to each other is arguably one of the greatest comedies of the 2000’s and one of the best teen comedies ever created.
Loosely based on the non-fiction self-help book ‘Queen Bees and Wannabes’, Mean Girls is about Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), a sixteen year old girl who has recently moved to the United States from Africa where she was previously home-schooled by her American parents. Cady quickly realises that school is much like the wild plains of Africa where school cliques resemble herds of animals. She is welcomed by Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian Leigh (Daniel Franzese) but quickly becomes the object of desire of ‘The Plastics’. The Plastics are a clique of three popular girls, Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), Gretchen Wieners (Lacy Chabert), and the Queen of the school Regina George (Rachael McAdams). Janis seeks revenge on The Plastics, and Cady wants to date Regina’s ex-boyfriend, so the two hatch a plan for Cady to infiltrate their ranks and dismantle the clique from the inside. But Cady gets in over her head and finds that girl warfare is much messier and life consuming than she ever realised it could be.
I didn’t watch Mean Girls until around 2013, but despite how late to the party I was it felt like a film I had always loved. Part of the reason I found it so enjoyable is because everybody knew girls like these at school. The extremely pretty, super popular, and usually dumb as a post, girls who through sheer spite and fear ruled the school and made life a living hell for those who stood in their way.
The performances from Seyfried, Chabert, and McAdams are legendary as the films three antagonists who are as much enemies to each other as they are to the rest of the school. McAdams in particular steals the show as Regina. Her performance is so varied and believable as she switches from sweet and innocent to psychopathic rampaging bitch in a matter of words. I also adore Amy Poehler as Regina’s mum, her delivery and timing is second to none and is arguably one of the funniest characters in the whole film, which is a big title to hold in this kind of film.
Loosely based on the non-fiction self-help book ‘Queen Bees and Wannabes’, Mean Girls is about Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), a sixteen year old girl who has recently moved to the United States from Africa where she was previously home-schooled by her American parents. Cady quickly realises that school is much like the wild plains of Africa where school cliques resemble herds of animals. She is welcomed by Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian Leigh (Daniel Franzese) but quickly becomes the object of desire of ‘The Plastics’. The Plastics are a clique of three popular girls, Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), Gretchen Wieners (Lacy Chabert), and the Queen of the school Regina George (Rachael McAdams). Janis seeks revenge on The Plastics, and Cady wants to date Regina’s ex-boyfriend, so the two hatch a plan for Cady to infiltrate their ranks and dismantle the clique from the inside. But Cady gets in over her head and finds that girl warfare is much messier and life consuming than she ever realised it could be.
I didn’t watch Mean Girls until around 2013, but despite how late to the party I was it felt like a film I had always loved. Part of the reason I found it so enjoyable is because everybody knew girls like these at school. The extremely pretty, super popular, and usually dumb as a post, girls who through sheer spite and fear ruled the school and made life a living hell for those who stood in their way.
The performances from Seyfried, Chabert, and McAdams are legendary as the films three antagonists who are as much enemies to each other as they are to the rest of the school. McAdams in particular steals the show as Regina. Her performance is so varied and believable as she switches from sweet and innocent to psychopathic rampaging bitch in a matter of words. I also adore Amy Poehler as Regina’s mum, her delivery and timing is second to none and is arguably one of the funniest characters in the whole film, which is a big title to hold in this kind of film.
The real star of the show though is Tina Fey’s script. Whilst the fantastic actors definitely bring it to life, the film is stuffed with such incredible dialogue, wit, and countless quotable lines. Rarely a day passes where I don’t say something is Fetch, that it's October Third (even when it's not), or that someone doesn’t even go here. The script is so superbly written and even just reading the lines is hilarious, the great performances just elevate it from fantastic to incredible.
Despite being a film firmly rooted in millennial pop-culture, it’s a film that I feel remains timeless. It doesn’t concern itself with school clique politics in the same ways that films like The Breakfast Club do, instead it plays on this notion of whether you’re cool or not. That’s something that anyone can relate to, regardless of whether they are sixteen or sixty. What makes this even better is that none of the people portrayed in the film are ‘cool’. The Plastics are supposed to be the pretty girls, yet they all wear horrible shiny makeup and ugly clothes. The teachers are supposed to be responsible and keep the kids on track but can’t even get their own personal lives under control. The smart kids are outrageously stupid, and the stupid kids are just waiting to be bumped off by Darwinism.
They’re all trapped in this hell of their own making and that’s never more evident than when Regina unleashes the contents of the Burn Book on the school. No matter how above it people thought they were, how on the fringes of this school social structure they believe themselves to be, it all comes crumbling down and everybody sees each other as the villain.
Mean Girls is an hour and a half of pure gold and very few comedy films can compare to it. It’ll definitely hit millennials in a more personal way due to when the film is set, but anyone who’s old enough to understand and appreciate how Mean Girls cleverly deconstructs social structures by using dumb jokes will love it all the same. If you’ve never seen it before then it’s a must watch, and with it recently being added onto Netflix (FINALLY!) now is the perfect time to revisit it too. It’s just so totally fetch!
Despite being a film firmly rooted in millennial pop-culture, it’s a film that I feel remains timeless. It doesn’t concern itself with school clique politics in the same ways that films like The Breakfast Club do, instead it plays on this notion of whether you’re cool or not. That’s something that anyone can relate to, regardless of whether they are sixteen or sixty. What makes this even better is that none of the people portrayed in the film are ‘cool’. The Plastics are supposed to be the pretty girls, yet they all wear horrible shiny makeup and ugly clothes. The teachers are supposed to be responsible and keep the kids on track but can’t even get their own personal lives under control. The smart kids are outrageously stupid, and the stupid kids are just waiting to be bumped off by Darwinism.
They’re all trapped in this hell of their own making and that’s never more evident than when Regina unleashes the contents of the Burn Book on the school. No matter how above it people thought they were, how on the fringes of this school social structure they believe themselves to be, it all comes crumbling down and everybody sees each other as the villain.
Mean Girls is an hour and a half of pure gold and very few comedy films can compare to it. It’ll definitely hit millennials in a more personal way due to when the film is set, but anyone who’s old enough to understand and appreciate how Mean Girls cleverly deconstructs social structures by using dumb jokes will love it all the same. If you’ve never seen it before then it’s a must watch, and with it recently being added onto Netflix (FINALLY!) now is the perfect time to revisit it too. It’s just so totally fetch!