Review of Mean Girls (2004) by John M — 22 Aug 2016

Catty. So Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is new to the United States because she has spent the entirety of her life to date living in Africa. She has to figure out where she belongs: is it within a specific clique, or is it with the top of the food chain with the most savage girls in high school? Believe it or not, this was actually my first time watching this from start to finish.

I've seen this in bits and pieces and watched a scene here and there, but I had felt that I had already mostly experienced this because of how insanely popular Mean Girls was during my high school years.

Between this and Napoleon Dynamite, I could quote entire scenes from a movie without having actually experienced it. Actually sitting down and taking the 90 minutes to take in this movie was nice, because I feel like I could finally connect all the dots.

I also got an additional perspective on this because I am fairly familiar with this as the Broadway musical, or at least I am on Spotify. I tend to listen to musicals while I do my day job, and it has well-written songs and memorable numbers.

But enough about tangents, the movie itself is a really effectively put together comedy if you didn't already know. It's Tina Fey penning the screenplay before her 30 Rock days, and I have always enjoyed her comedy stylings.

The script itself is highly quotable, and it is very easy to see why all my former lady friends from yesteryear constantly recited lines from this on the daily. But not only is it laugh out loud funny, the story itself is one will likely stay timeless if only due to the nature of teenage girls.

They can be pretty brutal at times, and the psychology behind it all can be even more vicious than the adult world. The story fully captures the social hierarchy that is high school, and it can be oh so challenging to figure out who you should be friends with.

Other than the writing, the reason why Mean Girls succeeds to the degree that it does is because it ultimately does have heart. You understand and comprehend where people are coming from, and when somebody does choose the nuclear option, all the appropriate character motivation is there.

All of the girls are great actresses; this effectively launched the careers of Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried, and even though Lindsay Lohan has made a few stumbles throughout the years, she is the right person for this part.

If you have been putting off watching this for some reason, you should most definitely give this a spin.