Jessica Bentz
Professor Robert Bomboy
Humanities 101
03 December 2015
Film
Critique: Mean Girls
Mean Girls is a satirical
comedy about high school cliques, and the Queen Bee’s that control the teenage social
hierarchy. The main character Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is a new transfer student
from Africa, where she grew up and was home-schooled until her father gets a
new job and she moves to the United States and enrolls in public high school. The
movie is full of one-liners and hilarious anecdotal scenes. The costumes and
dialogue are the perfect way to let producers parody stereotypes and the social
struggles of high schoolers.
When Cady first
arrives at school she is introduced to a semi-goth looking girl named Janis and
best friend Damian who is “too gay to function”. The pair give her a drawn map
of the cafeteria and the camera pans to each clique’s table as Janis names them...”nerdy
Asians, cool Asians, jocks, unfriendly black hotties”...
It’s the first
time Cady’s ever been in a high school cafeteria, and she has no idea about how
cliques operate. Janis and Damian show her all the cliques as the camera swings
around to show them one at a time and finally lands on “The Plastics”, a clique
of snobby white girls led by Queen Bee Regina George. Her underlings, I mean
best friends, are Gretchen Weiners, whose dad invented toaster strudel and
Karen Smith who plays a very dumb
blonde. Both watch in confusion as Regina asks Cady to sit-down at the lunch
table because “she’s like really pretty”. Regina asks Cady all about her past
and ultimately ends up inviting Cady to sit with them all week.
The plot goes on
to show Janis and Damian, who initially warned Cady to steer-clear of The
Plastics, pressuring her to hang out with them and report back with everything
that they say. Janis and Damien think they will be able to break The Plastics
up with their inside spy. They get Regina George to eat “Swedish diet bars”,
which are actually nutrition bars used to gain
weight and then they have Cady bring Regina “cream for her complexion” – which is
actually foot cream and causes her to breakout. Eventually Cady starts feeling
like she’s one of the Plastics and is
secretly (not so secretly) enjoying being admired. But this implodes on itself when
the girls start to turn on one another and an all-out “war” breaks out amongst
the high school girls (and Damian).
Throughout the
entire movie you hear Cady’s inner monologue, which is narrated by Lindsay
Lohan, as she details her high school experience with incredibly poignant
observations. The innocent Cady draws
the audience in and keeps you rooting for her throughout the movie. At home her
equally innocent parents wonder what’s happening to their sweet daughter as
they see her dressing differently and not bringing home straight A’s. Cady’s
front as a Plastic has turned her into a mini skirt wearing mall walker and her
parents can hardly recognize her. She
develops a crush on Regina’s ex Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), but is warned
by Gretchen that she is not allowed to pursue anything with him because it’s “like
the first rule of Feminism”. Cady doesn’t listen to her and instead asks Regina
if she can pursue Aaron herself…to which Regina responded with a huge fake
smile and offers to talk to him for Cady. Of course Regina is absolutely NOT
okay with Cady and Aaron, and so at their Halloween party Regina flirts and
hooks up with Aaron herself.
This movie is
loaded with funny scenes that show how nasty teen girls can be to each other. In
one scene the cinematographers use a split screen to show Regina and Karen on
the phone. Karen is getting a call from Gretchen and clicks over as a third
section is created on screen to show Gretchen - just as Karen accidentally says “God she’s so annoying”…to
Gretchen, having intended to say that to Regina. Then they call Cady and a
fourth section is created to show Cady getting utterly confused by the mean
girl tricks Regina and the others are up to. This use of split screens enhances
the scene and gives off the feel of the conversation happening from four
different places (or perspectives), but also that they’re all connected within
it –whether they know it or not.
With its sassy and
hysterical dialogue and oh-so-perfect characters, Mean Girls is the modern day “Heathers”—a
story about the teenage struggle over social circles and stereotypes. The film
centers on innocent and non-socialized Cady, and her experience in the “jungle”
that is high school. The producers emphasize this point in the movie as they
pan across the cafeteria and we hear elephants trumpet and lions roar. The
social scene at North Shore High School is a jungle, and Regina George is the
Queen. No doubt about that.
The film is an adaptation
of the book ''Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques,
Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence'' by Rosalind Wiseman. SNL producer Lorne Michaels gives us a
hilarious and twisted portrayal of the hive mentality and social functioning in
today’s high schools. This movie is outrageously funny and the characters are magnificently
casted.
From the flawless
young Plastics to the trigonometry teacher, played by Tina Fey; or Regina’s desperate-to-stay-young
mother, played by Amy Poehler. While the characters are certainly playing up
their stereotypes (the Plastics in all pink, Tina’s button up blouses and
pencil skirts and Amy’s pink Juicy velour track suit (oh the early 2000’s)), it’s
not hard to see how similar these social structures are to real high school
students. There is someone for almost anyone to relate to in this film, which I
think has led to its success. Even my fiancé can’t deny that he loves Mean
Girls! It’s silly, and witty; intelligent and mindless; hilarious and well,
freakin hilarious!
I’m not sure if
this film ever expected to fit the criteria, but I think it has definitely
become a cult classic, and I’m not ashamed to proclaim my love for it. I’d pay
to see this film ten times over, and I watch it any time it’s on TV. There’s so
SO much more to Mean Girls than this critique can encompass, but I’ll draw conclusion on that it’s one of
my favorite films, and everything from the camerawork, to the costumes, to the dialogue
produce one of the most hilarious and accurate portrayals of American high
schools, and the bitches that control them.
