In this survival-of-the-fittest teen comedy, high school is a dangerous jungle seething with teenagers who prey on each other like wild animals. The non-stop jokes are hilariously rewarding as they exaggerate adolescent vanity and satirize political correctness issues like race, class, and homosexuality. Here, the Plastics are the most popular girls in school. They wrote the rule book on Girl World, like always wearing pink on Tuesdays. And they're mean. So when pretty new girl Cady (Lindsay Lohan) arrives in school, the first thing they do is make fun of her. Then they try to win her over. Cady is torn between social cliques. She befriends the punky rebels Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese). But the guy Cady wants to date is friends with the Plastics--Regina (Rachel McAdams), Gretchen (Lacey Chabert), and Karen (Amanda Seyfriend)--so she has to be resourceful. Problem is, the two groups hate each other. Just trying to fit in, Cady jumps through hoops for the Plastics and becomes a mean girl in the process. Though her transformation is radical, when the final act of meanness is done, she learns a few valuable lessons. SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE writer Tina Fey contributes the script and also stars as a teacher, quietly smirking at her own jokes throughout the antics. Directed by FREAKY FRIDAY's Mark Waters, MEAN GIRLS doesn't miss a beat, following the faithful formula of teen fare such as SIXTEEN CANDLES and HEATHERS. The soundtrack features songs by Blondie, Missy Elliot, PINK, The Donnas, and Janis Ian.
Inspired by a real-life high-school survival manual for teenage girls and their mothers (Queen Bees and Wannabes), Mean Girls is a bracingly dark comedy which brings to mind such classics of the genre as Heathers. Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is a bright, pretty kid who has been home-educated in Africa by her anthropologist parents, and is thrown in at the deep end when she attends high school in the US for the first time. Befriended by the geek clique, she also infiltrates the “plastics” — a troika of Barbie-like popular girls — where she learns the art of being queen bitch, but soon begins to enjoy her newfound status a little too much. Despite descending into slightly saccharine moralising towards the end, this is a snappily written, acerbic account of the American secondary education experience that will make most Brits grateful they didn't have to go through it.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Based on research, this is presumably an authentic comedy of American high school life, though it comes out as the usual mix of bitchiness and striving for popularity; although lively enough, it is also bland and forgettable.
Radio Times
