Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film, directed by Mark Waters and starring Lindsay Lohan. Written by (and co-starring) Tina Fey, the film features a supporting cast of Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, and Lizzy Caplan. The film also features several Saturday Night Live cast members, including Fey, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, and Amy Poehler. Mean Girls has been praised as being Lohan's break-out film role.[1]
Director Waters described the movie as "Clueless meets Heathers,"[2] the latter of which was written by his brother, Daniel Waters. Mean Girls is based on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, which describes how female high school social cliques operate, and the effect they can have on girls.
Plot
The home-schooled daughter of zoologist parents (Ana Gasteyer and Neil Flynn) living in Africa, Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is unprepared for her first day of public high school at fictional North Shore High School in Illinois. With the help of social misfits Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damien (Daniel Franzese), Cady learns about the various cliques, including the Plastics, an exclusive group of girls led by queen bee Regina George (Rachel McAdams), who was once Janis' best friend. Janis hatches a plan for Cady to infiltrate the Plastics and get revenge for what Regina did to Janis in 8th grade. Her plan involves cutting off Regina's "resources", which include her two best friends Gretchen Wieners (an insecure girl who is made jealous and often hurt by Regina's selfishness; also from the wealthy family that "invented toaster strudel", played by Lacey Chabert) and Karen Smith (an extremely dim-witted blonde girl, played by Amanda Seyfried).
Along the way, Cady learns about the "Burn Book," a top secret notebook filled with rumors, secrets and gossip about the other girls in school, and falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), who sits in front of her in calculus. She convinces Regina to eat high-calorie bars that her parents had given kids in Africa to help them gain weight, telling her that they will make her lose weight.
In her efforts to get revenge on Regina, Cady gradually loses her individual personality and remakes herself in the image of Regina. Soon, her act becomes her reality, and she becomes as mean as Regina. Cady perceives the machinations of the high school students to be akin to the struggles for dominance among wild animals. Cady's perception of Janis is also skewed when she hears Regina's side of the story - they stopped being friends in middle school, because Regina believed Janis was a lesbian and did not want her at any of her pool parties. Cady finally has a house party with the Plastics and does not invite Janis (or Damien), which causes Janis to renounce Cady as a friend.
Eventually, Regina, upon discovering the truth about the bars she has been eating, strikes back by spreading the contents of her "Burn Book," around the school, which ultimately causes a riot as the class learn all of the nasty things others have been saying about them. Regina also puts a fake slander of herself in the book, in order for Cady to be blamed. Called into the gym, the girls are forced to listen to one of the teachers, Ms. Norbury. She makes the girls realize that all of them have been hurt by everyone saying mean things about everyone else. She has each girl confess and apologize to the rest of the girls. Janis confesses her plan to destroy Regina and openly mocks her with the support of the entire school, causing Regina to storm out and get hit by a bus, for which the school blames Cady. Cady has lost all of her friends, her status, the guy she had a crush on, she's failing math, and her parents punish her. Cady also wrote a rumor that Ms. Norbury dealt drugs in the Burn Book, and, because another rumor in the book about a teacher turned out to be true in turn (a male gym coach who was making out with several underage Asian girls), learns Ms. Norbury will likely get fired. Cady then begins to try to make amends. She confesses what she did in order to get Ms. Norbury exonerated, and in order to make up for her failing math grade, she joins the Mathletes Team.
At the Spring Fling dance, Cady, in her Mathletes uniform, makes up with her true friends, and reaches a truce with the Plastics. She is elected the Spring Fling Queen, and gives a speech to her class that her victory and position is basically meaningless, they all deserve it and are all wonderful in their own way. She distributes the pieces of her crown to her fellow classmates, makes up with Aaron, and becomes reasonably well-liked once again.
The Plastics break up, though. Regina returns to school and joins the lacrosse team as a way to channel her aggression; dimwitted, blond Karen becomes the local weather girl; follower Gretchen joins the "Cool Asians" clique; and Cady stays on the Mathletes and continues to date Aaron. All the Plastics have gained mutual kindness if not friendship for each other, and Janis is dating Cady's fellow Mathelete Kevin Gnapoor (Rajiv Surendra).
Reception
The movie was generally well reviewed by critics, Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 84% "Fresh" based on 167 reviews.[3] and a rating of 66 ("Generally favorable reviews") on Metacritic based on 39 reviews.[4]
In an interview about the film, Fey noted, "Adults find it funny. They are the ones who are laughing. Young people watch it like a reality television show. It is much too close to their real experiences so they are not exactly guffawing."[5]
Box office
The movie was declared an instant success after its opening weekend made the film $24,432,195 from 2839 theaters becoming the #1 film in America and averaging $8,606 per venue.[6] Due to strong word of mouth, Mean Girls had a long life at the box office and finished its run with $86,058,055 in the United States making its worldwide total gross $129,042,871.[7]
In the US, the film was the 24th highest grossing movie of 2004.[7] The film was later nominated for the WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.[8]
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for the film was released on September 21, 2004, the same day as the DVD release.
- "Dancing with Myself" - The Donnas (Generation X cover)
- "God Is a DJ" - Pink
- "Milkshake" - Kelis
- "Sorry (Don't Ask Me)" - All Too Much
- "Built This Way" - Samantha Ronson
- "Rip Her to Shreds" - Boomkat (Blondie cover)
- "Overdrive" - Katy Rose
- "One Way or Another" - Blondie
- "Operate" - Peaches
- "Misty Canyon" - Anjali Bhatia
- "Mean Gurl" - Gina Rene and Gabriel Rene
- "Hated" - Nikki Cleary
- "Psyché Rock" - Pierre Henry
- "The Mathlete Rap" - Rajiv Surendra
Though not included on the soundtrack, another song heard in the film is "Fire" by Joe Budden, featuring Busta Rhymes.
Home media
The DVD was released in North America on September 21, 2004, five months after it opened in theaters. It was released in a widescreen special collector's edition and a fullscreen collector's edition, both including several deleted scenes, a blooper reel, three interstitials, the theatrical trailer, previews, and three featurettes. A Blu-ray version was released on April 14, 2009.
Sequel
A second film is in development with Paramount Pictures for a 2009 release in the United States and United Kingdom. According to the Internet Movie Database, the sequel has been written by Leslie Dixon, (Freaky Friday, Hairspray) and Gail Parent (Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen). Both have previously written for films starring Lindsay Lohan.[9]
Pop culture
R&B singer Mariah Carey expressed several times that she's a fan of the movie, using some quotes from the film in several interviews, most notably on The Ellen Degeneres Show in 2005 and in her official Twitter updates in 2009. Carey released the first single from her album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, called "Obsessed", which begins with an interlude quote where she says, "And I was like, 'Why are you so obsessed with me?'" a line said by Regina in the film. Also, the male stalker (Carey) gets hit by a bus, another reference to Regina in the film. Carey's husband Nick Cannon debunked other theories and revealed the song was inspired by the film itself.[10]
References
External links
