Heathers meets Beverly Hills 90210 in Mean Girls, a smartly scripted (by Saturday Night Live comedienne Tina Fey) and thoroughly entertaining tale of spiteful schoolgirls.
Cady (Lohan) is a pretty, bright teen who has been home-schooled all her life. So the cliques and machinations of an American high school come as something of a shock when she starts attending North Shore High and discovers the most popular girls are the ‘Plastics’, a trio of snide, fashion-obsessed bitches led by Regina (McAdams). Befriending two social outcasts, Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), Cady infiltrates the Plastics to report back on their antics to her new pals, but finds herself torn between the nice kids and the lure of the lip-glossed, boy-mad cool girls.
Fey’s script is hilarious – as is her cameo as a bumbling teacher – encompassing every teen horror from an amorous sports coach to the pitfalls of religious home schooling (‘…and on the third day, God created the rifle to shoot the dinosaurs… and the homosexuals’). And her cast are terrific too, from Lohan’s innocent teen to McAdams, Chabert and Amanda Seyfried’s turns as the trio of witches who rule the school. A sharp comedy that’s a must for teenagers, but is pretty illuminating for adults, too.
Is Mean Girls (2004) suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
None.
If you like this, why not try: Easy A, Clueless, Heathers, Never Been Kissed, Pretty In Pink,