Mean Girls

Directed by Mark S. Waters

Movies set in the cutthroat arena of high school cliques are very common these days, driven by the average age of moviegoers. Mean Girls stands out as the best I have seen in that genre. Lindsay Lohan stars as Cady, a transfer student who had been home-schooled in Africa – so she is a total innocent in the snake-pit of the high school lunch room. Cady’s good looks land her a spot with the tyrannical Plastics – the titular mean girls. Watching Cady change under the influence of the Plastics is interesting but the real payoff is the humor – this is a very funny movie. It satirizes vein people and manipulative, backstabbing behavior -- the message applies to any demographic – it is just set in high school. Rachel McAdams is hilarious as Regina, the alpha mean girl – that character is as venomous as any of Kill Bill’s DiVAS.

Lindsay Lohan put on a great performance but screenwriter Tina Fey (of SNL – she also plays the part of a math teacher) is the real star of the picture. The screenplay was actually adapted from a non-fiction book by Rosalind Wiseman – a book aimed at parents of teenage girls – to help them help their girls navigate those tough years. Toward the end, Mean Girls got a little moralizing – sort of a goody-goody Hollywood ending – but don’t let that stop you, this is a great comedy.

Yeah!! Good news from the box office: Mean Girls had a very impressive debut weekend of about $24 million – good for the end of April apparently. I love it when an intelligent movie aimed at a young audience does well financially – that means that more like it are likely to get the green light.

Images are copyright Paramount Pictures.

For more information about this film including detailed cast and crew credits, check out The Internet Movie Database by clicking here.