*** (out of ****)
Starring Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Ana Gasteyer, Lacy Chabert, Lizzy Kaplan, Amanda Seyfried, Rajiv Surendra and Tim Meadows
Directed by Mark Waters & written for the screen by Tina Fey, from the book “Queen Bees and Wannabes” by Rosalind Wiseman
2004
96 min PG13
There are two viewpoints in “Mean Girls.” The obvious one is the new girl, who has been homeschooled by her scientist parents in Africa until now. From her we get a grunt’s-eye-view of high school as she is gradually sucked into the world of cliques, pettiness, and gossip. Yet behind her voice we can detect the grown-up women who penned the film. We can almost see them shaking their heads in detached dismay at how their younger counterparts are so foolishly squandering their youth. They are like escapees, marveling over how much time and energy they squandered in prison.
This theory is borne out by the movie’s screenwriter Tina Fey, who plays a head-shaking math teacher, and by the fact that the new girl never specifies where in Africa she grew up. It’s a big continent, but that doesn’t matter. She could be from Mars as far as everyone else is concerned. All that matters is that she brings reason and adult sensibility from a place where they were valued to a place where they are not welcome, and where she will need all her resources to keep those attributes from being eroded into nothingness. (In a reversal of centuries of prejudice, Africa in “Mean Girls” is associated with rationality.)
“Mean Girls” is not as good as “Election” or “Rushmore,” but it is much better than I thought it would be, mostly due to its twin impulses to take the teenage world at face value and simultaneously to ooze with gladness about having fled from it. It’s also a packed movie, one with tidbits and tiny observations about growing up crammed into every corner. Which makes sense, because it’s based on “Queen Bees and Wannabes,” Rosalind Wiseman’s nonfiction study of girlhood.
Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is going to public school for the first time. Initially her only friends are a couple of outcasts: Janis (Lizzy Caplan), a black-clad chubby girl with too much makeup, and Damian (Daniel Franzese), her equally chubby gay sidekick. But soon Cady’s good looks lead her to being courted by the popular girls. Played by Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, and Amanda Seyfried, they are called “The Plastics” by the outcasts for the way their skin, eyes, and hair shimmer like mirages. Janis and The Plastics are natural enemies and Cady finds herself torn between them. Janis urges her to spy on The Plastics as revenge for a slight dealt years before. Similarly, The Plastics demand absolute allegiance from Cady when it comes to food, clothing, and the swift and terrible hand of gossip, which strikes down the likes of Janice.
Soon Cady herself has suffered at the hands of The Plastics, but by then she has already become one of them. She must plot and deal her vengeance in secret. Boys, gossip, three-way calls, and easily-broken promises are her weapons. The result is surprisingly Shakespearean plotting: the roles of Iago and Richard III are passed around freely, as new girls, popular girls, and outcasts alternately betray, usurp one another, enjoy power, and lust for revenge. The characters are even given Shakespeare’s clarity of motivations.
“Mean Girls” belongs to Lindsey Lohan, who was the young star of the “Parent Trap” and “Freaky Friday” remakes. She is easily charming and convincing, without any outward sign of effort. The movie’s emotional arc is almost entirely hers, save a few moments of Tina Fey’s wise and weary gaze, and Lohan pulls it off without us even noticing. As she gets deeper and deeper into The Plastics, her skin gets shinier, her eyeliner gets darker, and her cleavage creeps closer and closer toward omnipresence. She’s 18 now and 17 when she made the movie, so you make the call.
Page two of "Mean Girls." Back to home.