Review of Mean Girls

The movie Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters, the director of Freaky Friday and Just Like Heaven (also a worth watching movie), and written by Tina Fey, the head writer of Saturday Night Live, was released in the theaters in 2004. This movie is also based on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman.

Summary(contains spoilers)

This movie involves three distinct characters: Cady Heron, a girl who just moved to a new school, Janis Ian, a girl who is an outsider and wants to take revenge on Regina George, and Regina George, the “Queen Bee” of the school. This movie was such a cult hit due to the fact that it was the best high school movie in the 2000’s. The fact it that accurately described the high school life of the 21^st century adolescents makes it important for future teachers, so they can learn the relevant information from the movie.

The movie starts out with Cady Heron, a girl who’s been home-schooled all her life going to her first day of high school which goes awkward because she doesn’t make any friends. On the second day, she makes friends with Janice and her friend Damian and hears about the “Plastics” - a clique which consists of Regina George, Gretchen and Karen, who later invite Cady to their lunch table and then Cady makes friends with them from then onwards. The “Plastics” are a clique that is admired by other students in the school. They are also a clique that compliment on people in front of them and talk behind their backs, writing bad things on “Burn Book”. Cady gets a crush on Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron, and this makes Regina want to win back Aaron to make Cady jealous. Janice, who once was Regina’s best friend but now arch enemy of Regina, decides to use Cady to bring down Regina. Janice and Cady try their best to bring down Regina but their plans go awry, as when Janice made holes on the breast part on a shirt, it became a trend in the whole school. However they succeed in making Regina eat Kalteen bars which makes Regina gain weight and they also let Gretchen hear Regina talking behind her back. Gretchen and Karen turn their backs on Regina and Cady even makes Aaron break up with Regina, but she realizes that she has become like Regina, even abandoning friendship with Janice and Damian. Regina, trying to get even with Cady, pretends Cady, Gretchen and Karen wrote the “Burn Book” and shows everyone what’s written in the book which makes the school go into chaos. In the end, Cady realizes all the gossiping and talking behind their back is pointless and she becomes friends with Janice and Damian again.

My thoughts of the movie

Having graduated from high school just six months ago, I really felt that the movie accurately portrayed the high school life in the 21^st century for the following reasons. The movie accurately portrays the “clique” issue which is a huge part of high school life. There are “Plastics” which represent “Trendies”, “Burn Outs” which represent “Hippies”, and “Preps” which represent “Normals.” It really touched me when a girl said “I wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school... I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy” when she was sharing her feelings at the gym, because I then realized there wasn’t any crowds or cliques back in middle school. I found it quite funny when Regina thought she wasn’t victimizing anyone but when a teacher asked the students who were victimized by Regina, everyone raised their hands. I found it funny because also in reality, students who are in popular cliques don’t acknowledge that they victimize others.

I laughed so hard when I found out Regina was testing Cady by three-way calling Cady with Gretchen because there were so many backstabbing going on in real high school life as well. In my high school, talking behind someone’s back was normal. What was shocking was that girls would talk about someone right in front of them using nicknames they came up with so the people being talked about wouldn’t know they’re being talked about.

Overall, this movie was flawless in that there wasn’t any scene that was unnecessary. However, the ending could have been better because it was too clichéd. Every scene in the movie was valuable because they either made jokes or carried the plot at perfect pace. Even though this movie formula has been done million times, the lines were fresh enough to keep the audience entertained most of the times. The characters were very stereotyped but they took the stereotypes to the extreme and the characters were so well acted that they made the audience adore every character, including teachers like Mrs. Norbury and Mr. Carr. The only downside of the movie was the character development of Cady who ruins the movie at the end because she makes awkward character transition at the Spring Fling. Like most comedies, the film ends somewhat awkwardly but overall this was a superb movie that held the audience attention until the end and would be remembered for many years.

This film reminded me of the movie The Breakfast Clubwhich also dealt with clique issues in the 80’s. The film “Mean Girls” could be considered Breakfast Club of the 21^st century. Surprisingly, there hasn’t been much change in crowd structure from Breakfast Club to Mean Girls except more backstabbing and gossiping which show that adolescents haven’t actually changed too much. This film could have been better if the ending was resolved better. I felt the ending was somewhat rushed. I’d highly recommend this movie to another student because it’s such a good satire of high school life of 21^st century that leaves the audience with something to think about.

Overall 9/10

Memorable quotes from the movie

Coach Carr: Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die! Don't have sex in the missionary position, don't have sex standing up, just don't do it, OK, promise? OK, now everybody take some rubbers.

Crying Girl: [reading from paper] I wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school... I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy...
[about to cry]
Damian: [shouting from back] She doesn't even go here!
Ms. Norbury: Do you even go to this school?
Crying Girl: No... I just have a lot of feelings...
Ms. Norbury: Ok go home...
[girl walks off stage]
Ms. Norbury: Next!

If you enjoyed Mean Girls, also check out the movie The Breakfast Club which is old school mean girls.

I fell in love with Rachel McAdams who played Regina in this movie after watching her act in movies The Hot Chick (2002), Red Eye (2005), The Notebook (2004) and Wedding Crashers(2005). I liked her best in The Notebook(2004).



Daniel Franzese who played Damian in this movie was natural in his role. I was surprised to see him in Bully (2001) in which he is also good but plays a smaller role. He's very talented so I wish to see him in more movies.