Film Critique - Mean Girls

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.