Mean Girls (2004) - Lohan, Waters and Fey's high school satire triumph

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Lindsay Lohan and, behind her, 'the Plastics' (Amanda Seyfried, Rachel McAdams and Lacey Chabert) for Mark Waters' Mean Girls

Cady has been home-schooled in Africa until her 16th year, in which she will start in a regular American high school. There she soon falls into a difficult dilemma: Should she avoid the popular, shallow girls, try to expose and bring them down, or join them?

Mean Girls became a teen sensation 10 years ago, - mostly for teen girls, understandably, - and it's a smart high school satire comedy/chick flick with a romance subplot. Based on a non-fiction self-help-book book by Rosalind Wiseman (Queen Bees and Wannabes (2002)), the script is written by Tina Fey (This Is Where I Leave You (2014), actress), who also plays a funny supporting role as Cady's struggling, good-hearted math teacher. It's good writing, basically, with many amusing ideas played out in the well-paced movie. In the end, though, SPOILER things come together somewhat too neatly for Cady, I think, and Mean Girls loses some of its realism and ends as a package a little too clean for my taste. I was also a little disappointed to see Cady's friend Janis, who more or less outs herself as gay towards the end, in which everything else seems to come together, began dating a guy (...), - while the other gay male friend went nowhere. In the end of Mean Girls, you might say that Fey chose to dump the two substantial gay characters of her teen movie into a black hole.
Mean Girls features a young Lindsay Lohan (The Canyons (2013)), who is both very charming and a natural, good center for the film. Rachel McAdams (Morning Glory (2010)) is fun as the insidious 'queen bee', and SNL-regulars Amy Poehler (They Came Together (2014)) and Tim Meadows (The Ladies' Man (2000)) are hilarious as McAdams' racy mom and the principal.

Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Cabert next to an uncomfortable Lindsay Lohan in Mark Waters' Mean Girls

The details:

Many people really love Mean Girls, and it is a fun and entertaining film to watch, while it also has some edifying points about the futility and hurtfulness of bullying. It is high-paced and a little talky, and some may be put off slightly by the bitchy teen girl characters in it and draw a big breath after, happy that their general level of drama isn't a norm in most people's lives.
The film won Lohan a string of Teen Choice and MTV awards and was the preliminary peak of her career, before things started going awry and down-hill with DUI's, rehab visits, legal problems etc. etc. Film Excess is still hoping that she'll emerge on the other side as a strong woman sooner rather than later.
Mean Girls is directed by Mark Waters, who lately put out the overlooked Vampire Academy (2014), (many of us have simply had a little much of teenage vampires, I suppose.) He has also directed such hits as Freaky Friday (2003), - another Lohan-starring hit comedy, - and Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), a delightful family comedy with Jim Carrey.

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 17 mil. $
Box office: 129 mil. $
= Huge hit
[With happening young actors, first class comedic material, a pop star-studded soundtrack and good reviews, no wonder that Mean Girls struck gold. 66 % of its earnings were from North America.]

What do you think of Mean Girls?
What's your favorite high school comedy?