Review of Mean Girls (2004) by Jessi R — 09 Dec 2017

Mean Girls is the epitome of the high school experience. The movie - while offering a highly comical rendition of the classic, ever-relatable, high school comedy by comparing the shared experience of the animal kingdom hierarchy in the wild to the daily life of high school students - it also has a strong inspired message behind it.

The movie opens with mathematically talented, sixteen-year-old Cady Heron [Lindsay Lohan] starting her first day of public school after been homeschooled in Africa for the last twelve years. As expected she is awkward and ends up finding friends in two of the school's misfits, Janis Ian [Lizzy Caplan] and Damian [Daniel Franzese]. They proceed to explain exactly what cliques the school has, as they declare themselves "The coolest people you will ever meet". They label "The Plastics" as the worst. "The Plastics" is a group that consists of three of the most popular girls in school led by Regina George [Rachel McAdams] with Gretchen Wieners [Lacey Chabert] and Karen Smith [Amanda Seyfried] as her minions. Not long after this, Cady is approached by "The Plastics" with Regina inviting her to join them for lunch the rest of the week. The next day Gretchen and Karen explain the rules of being "Plastic", only wearing your hair in a ponytail once a week, wearing pink on Wednesday and, most importantly, no dating anyone's ex. Which is great because guess who Cady's love interest is? That's right, Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels [Jonathan Bennett]. After school that day they take Cady to Regina's house afterward where they reveal a scrapbook called "The Burn Book" where "The Plastics" take pictures of the other girls in their grade and write horrible things about them. Regina discovers this information, she takes Aaron back and starts rubbing it in Cady's face which in turn starts a war with Cady, Janis, and Damian against "The Plastics".

Because Cady grew up in Africa, throughout the movie she refers to the two different worlds that are constantly colliding in her mind, "Animal World" and "Girl World". "Animal World" gives in to our most instinctive impulses of attacking and destroying any threat in our way, while "Girl World" is all about manipulating and dismantling the structure of another person success without them even knowing it until they are already falling. A specific moment that animates this moment perfectly is after Cady admits that she has feelings for The moment I'm talking about in particular is when she actively taunting Cady with Aaron in the cafeteria. There is a moment when Cady explains how this would be taken care of in "Animal world" in her head by jumping over the table and attacking Regina in a kill or be killed moment. Then it goes back to that moment and she just agrees with Regina while plotting her next move to sabotage their relationship.

This scene is great not only because we get to see Lohan jump over a table to attack McAdams on film but because it actively pits the "Animal World" against what they call "Girl World".  Being a female myself for my entire life I can definitely agree that some girls act and treat others as if they are completely superior in every way and if they see you as a threat they will take you down faster than a cheetah takes down a gazelle. What I think is more insane is that this kind of manipulative "Girl World" mentality is still alive and well in school today in high schools around the world today.

However, I'd have to say that the most important part of this movie is just after the burn book is made public and everybody is animal fighting with one another and the principal calls everyone into the gym and they show that everybody has been bullied and treated terribly, not just by "The Plastics" but also by friends and other girls in the school. The movie disguises itself as a shallow teen comedy, but there is a clear and wonderful message about being true to yourself and loving who you are. After you watch this movie it will make you realize that this is the kind of world we live in and you'll want to try even harder to be comfortable in your own skin.