THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Being in high school is not easy for anyone because it’s looked at as the place to make or break your social skills, bringing out the best or worst parts of yourself. I don’t think any film made that more clear than Mean Girls.
PLOT
The 2004 film follows teenager Cady Heron attending high school in Everton for the first time after being homeschooled in Africa for 12 years. Within the first day, she struggles to fit in until befriending two fellow outsiders, Janis Ian and Damian Leigh. With their help, they explain that the school is filled with various teenage cliques and must avoid the most insecure of the bunch, the Plastics. The trio includes Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith and the queen bee Regina George. When she gets invited by the latter to sit with them at lunch, Janis later persuades her to infiltrate them. As the semester progresses, Herron would become attracted to her calculus classmate Aaron Samuels, Regina’s ex-boyfriend who she dumped over football player Shane Oman (Diego Klattenhoff). When the secret of her crush gets out to the Plastics, Regina promises to put in a good word. At a Halloween party, she would instead take him back and kiss him in front of her. Feeling betrayed, Cady vows to go all in on destroying the queen bee’s reputation. Some time after the Halloween party, Regina would admit she used to be friends with Janis until she accused her of being gay, ostracizing her in the process which explains the latter’s animosity. As the semester continues, many plans to sabotage Regina’s wardrobe backfires. This leads to Cady planning to turn Gretchen against George. It starts with making her believe she was excluded of having candy cane grams. When she also changes the dance routine at the Winter Talent Show to embarrass her, it paves the way for Wieners to tell Cady she’s still seeing Shane. After winter break, the sabotage would continue when Cady tells Aaron of George’s infidelity, causing them to break up. She would also trick her into eating nutrition bars that’ll make her gain weight instead of losing like she wishes. And unknowingly, she gave her foot cream when making her think she had taken a face moisturizer. All of this debunks her position as queen bee and gets replaced by Cady. She chooses to celebrate by throwing a party at her house when her parents go out of town and doesn’t invite Janis & Damian. During this party, she would drunkenly admit to Aaron she’s failing calculus on purpose to get him to talk to her. Disappointed in how she’s acting like Regina, he chooses to turn her down before she throws up on him. Just as he leaves the party, Janis & Damian pass by her house to call her out for lying and also point out she’s becoming the new Regina. Irritated of hearing the truth, Cady would accuse her of being in love with her, causing their friendship to be renounced. When Regina catches Cady try to kiss Aaron before he left and finds out the truth of the nutrition bars, she vows ultimate retaliation. The following day, she distributes her scrapbook of cruel rumors among students, the ‘Burn Book’, in school which causes absolute mayhem within every junior girl. She is able to avoid suspicion by inserting insults of herself and places the blame on the Plastics. When the situation gets too physical, Principal Duvall and math teacher Ms. Norbury gather all female juniors to the gym to apologize to one another. It doesn’t go smooth when Gretchen doesn’t see her flaws. And when Regina insults Janis again, the latter would confess of everything she and Cady did. This would cause George to storm out of school in disappointment. When Cady tries to pursue her and apologize for what she did, the original queen bee gets hit by a school bus, fracturing her spine in the process. Cady would ultimately decide to take the blame of the Burn Book when Ms. Norbury gets investigated as a drug dealer due to a false comment she wrote. After this, she would improve her grades and make it up to her teacher by joining her Mathletes team to win the state finals. They do just that when Heron answers the tiebreaker correctly. After one personal victory, it would lead to another when she goes to the Spring Fling dance and is wins the vote as queen. When she accepts the tiara, she apologizes to all the juniors for the Burn Book, declaring everyone to be wonderful in their own ways. She even takes an extra step by splitting the tiara into pieces and giving them to other girls, including fellow Spring Fling Queen nominees: Janis, Regina & Gretchen. It is after this where she finds amends with everyone close to her. The film would end in an epilogue confirming what happened after the Spring Fling dance: Cady would continue dating Aaron who now attends Northwestern University and Janis would begin dating Cady’s Mathlete teammate Kevin Gnapoor. As the Plastics would disband, Regina would recover from her injuries and profitably direct her anger by joining lacrosse; Karen would become the school’s weather reporter and Gretchen would join the clique of Cool Asians.
THOUGHTS
I was very picky on what high school films to watch while I actually was in high school because I didn't want to create unrealistic expectations on how it would turn out for me. But whenever I did, I would always enjoy it because it would be a close look on how it was. This film was no exception because Writer Tina Fey and Director Mark Waters succeed in making a realistic case on how chaotic high school for any student. Fitting in isn't easy and we all do insane things and encounter extraordinary people just to get there. Most of the comedy works because it's accurate on how ridiculous each situation it can get and it feels too real to have happened. It definitely got dark with the irony of Coach Carr (Dwayne Hill) to teach health class when he was sleeping with students, but then I'm falling off my seat when Rajiv Surendra making Kevin so damn obnoxious you love him for it. You admire the guy having no filter when he raps at the Winter Talent Show, but I was done for when he ripped his shirt in excitement after winning the Mathletes finals. In the end, it is really core cast who bring out the best laughs while also teaching the lesson of how doing what the enemy does doesn't make you better than them, be cautious with the friends you choose to make because you'll never know their true intentions until it's too late. This is exactly what Cady goes through and despite not making the best decisions, Lindsay Lohan reminds us through her performance she's just someone desperate to fit in. Her kindness is damaged due to becoming shallow just to be noticed when she never had to. She could've just settled with Janis & Damian who were genuine with making her comfortable, but with the Plastics being a whole other world for her, she couldn't help trying to live in both. She could've whipped Regina's ass like she fantasized, but she didn't feel that would end the conflict to her liking, hence tearing the Plastics apart from the inside. Once Aaron disliked how much she changed for the worst and when Regina got physically hurt, it was her wakeup call to be the better person. Her speech at the Spring Fling was satisfying because it was something the world had to hear; Everyone is fine the way they are and don't need to change for the sake of attention. With that realization, it's a miracle she was able to maintain some friends in the end. Daniel Franzese made a delight out of Kevin for being a withdrawn introvert who is observant of the girl world, due to his homosexuality. I mean I can't catch my breath when he wears a hoodie during the Burn Book fallout, pointing out one of the girls opening up doesn't even go to the same school. It's a struggle because I'm laughing that much. On the other hand, Lizzy Caplan made an instant national treasure out of Janis because she's witty enough to defend herself in any argument and has her fair opinions on why she can act a bit aggressive. She takes Cady under her wing because she doesn't want to be humiliated by the Plastics the way it happened to her. That alone gives enough heartbreak for her when she eventually became one of them. She may have gotten the last laugh when admitting to Regina it was her plan to cause Regina's downfall, but it didn't matter by the time the accident happened shortly after. She chose to forgive Cady because she remembered it was her idea to infiltrate the Plastics and didn't have to go as far as they did. She understood she didn't have to make things worse just to make it better because it doesn't work like that. I thought it was a fine choice for her to end up with Kevin because he just respects how she's always herself thick and through, vice versa. It's good to make friends but you're always bound to make enemies in life at least once in your life. And that is what happens when Cady finds herself surrounded by the Plastics. Everyone has had at least one bully in their lifetime when going to school and there is no bully as iconic as Regina George. Rachel McAdams gives an all time performance as this character because this is one you'll love to hate. Like a lot of bullies, she is manipulative and ruthless with every action because that is how far she to remain at the top of the social ladder. She's bad and she knows it which is the kind of people to be afraid of. She took Cady under her wing because she saw her beauty as a threat and knew keeping her under would keep her at the top. I always wonder why she acts the way she does and after thinking about it a lot, it seems to me it comes from how her family wealth has made her insecure to the point where she feels to need to be superior everywhere she goes. I honestly laughed when she screamed all the way until she drove home because there's no way for anyone to scream that long. I'm like positive she took breaks building up to it. On the bright side after her injury, you actually enjoy she found solace by finding an alternative to direct her anger. On a side note, Amy Poehler was goddamn hilarious as Regina's mother June because she the way she was trying so hard to be hip with her had me pause the movie because I took so long laughing. The finest example has to be when she is trying to do the Jingle Bell Rock dance while recording her daughter's routine. Moving on, I don't think Gretchen is talked about enough compared to other characters because Lacey Calbert owns the role from top to bottom. She stood out from the other Plastics because her insecurity comes from wanting to maintain her attention. Whether it was her on and off relationship with Jason or spilling whatever gossip she can catch on to, she couldn't help it because she didn't know how else to socialize. Cady causing her to split with Regina was a blessing in disguise because it slowly helped her understand too she didn't have to be something you're not to fit in. It may have taken a long while after the Burn Book fallout since she didn't feel ashamed of her past, but at least she caught onto it. When she tells Regina she can't sit with them anymore because she ignored their dress code, you can tell she always wanted to stand up to her but also felt bad because she didn't want to lose a friend. At least she found a new belonging with the Cool Asians. Of all the characters I was laughing to the most, I will always say Karen because Amanda Seyfried sells every delivery with perfection. She was downright incredible in making her the most dimwitted of the Plastics, which makes her the most harmless of the bunch. I liked her so much because she doesn't do anything wrong compared to the others and always wants to cheer up whoever. I can't stop thinking of her whenever I go to Taco Bell because I never imagined the place to be fun. You know she's dumb because you never ask someone why they're white if they grew up in Africa. I don't know if you can shove a fist in your mouth, but that don't sound satisfying to try. And you gotta know you're wrong to kiss your cousin. It would be nice to be psychic, but it doesn't work if you only predict stuff when it's already happening so I really wonder how her brain works half the time. All of this works because Seyfried is replicating how she was in high school, which is completely effective in the long run. I mean she's just brutally honest and calls it like it is and it's not too hard to not respect that about someone. Looking back, I do hope this character has a decent future like everyone else tends to. While you may have your friends and enemies, there will also be the few that won't be either but will always want the best for you. I totally dug Aaron because Jonathan Bennett defines him for his heart of gold. He takes a long time to give Cady a chance because he senses she's not acting like herself before she confesses on her intentions. Like Kevin, he likes a girl that enjoys being herself instead of something they're not. He waits until the Spring Fling to make things work because he was able to see how honest she was when owning up to her mistakes. And apart from the looks, Cady was so attracted to him because she admire the confidence he had from the start. From there, I hope they have a good future together after that. Besides the parents, the adults that will care more than you think are the ones who put in the work hours to ensure success, the school staff. Fey was also great as Ms. Norbury because like Janis, she wanted the best Cady the whole time. She was open about the bad that happened in her life and chose to push her so much because she didn't want her to make the same mistakes as her. It is funny how their first interaction wasn't the best since the teen accidentally spilled her coffee on the first day, but then they got to build a better bond when Cady put her intelligence to good use at the Mathletes. Ms. Norbury even gave the best advice to not beat herself up about her mistakes because we're all bound to make them and we don't let it define us. That was enough for her to have the epiphany needed to set things right with everyone. Another adult character I liked from this film was Principal Duvall because Tim Meadows was a fine job in making him the ideal leader who wants to maintain order in his school, which I think he handled well when it came to the Burn Book fallout. The fact he compared that situation to his time teaching at the Southside had me lose my voice as I was laughing because it comes to show some things can be the same elsewhere. The love I have for this film will be as immortal as the many comedies that came before it, but even great stuff like this has its own set of issues that don't age well. For example, why would Cady's parents take a picture of her reaction of returning to the United States? That's a weird way to point out to point out she was surprised rather than solely rely on her narration. And why the hell does the bus drive so fast? You can't say that was 15mph because that looked like 40 and that's breaking school speed limits. Had someone like Cady reported this, Regina never would've gotten hit by the third act. I know her mom and Cady were distracted to have not seen it, but I'm sure someone behind Cady like Prncipal Duvall should've said something because it ain't like anyone wanted Regina to die. I did chuckle when Cady shouts Jambo to the clique of black teens, but that moment of awkwardness could've been avoided if her parents gave her a heads up not every person of color speaks Swahili. And I don't buy the fact Cady stopped having crushes after being turned down at the age of 5. That's the age where you move on fast and I'm sure she liked other boys and just didn't know it. The biggest takeaway I got from re-watching was how Regina's scheme to create hell for Taylor Wedell by making her mother think she's pregnant. That joke was clearly debunked later on because I ended up spotting Taylor at one of the parties. It's one way to prove how evil Regina was at that point, but it would've been a better example if the results were permanent. Another takeaway has to be how Ms. Norbury has been struggling to get a girl on her Mathletes team when there are other students beside Cady in the same class as Kevin. Whether or not they like the guy, it's not like Cady is the only smart girl available. I really hate continuity errors, so you know how weird it was for me to see popcorn still in Damian's bowl in one scene when in the previous shot, he had thrown it in the air after being scared of Cady in her costume. With it all happening so fast, there's no way for him to have picked it all up before refocusing on him and Janis. I also must point out another because Aaron's clothes looked very clean after Cady vomits on him and there's no stain to confirm he wiped it off. Also, how many pieces was Cady able to break from the tiara? She gives what looks like big chunks to Janis, Regina & Gretchen and then smaller ones to the crowd. It's hard for me to believe it was big enough for it to be possible when we all know it ain't the size of a crown. And how long exactly have the Plastics done the Jingle Bell Rock dance routine when Damian says they do it every year? If he's implying since they started high school, he could've just said that because he made it come off like they've done it longer than that. Lastly, I was laughing a whole lot when Gretchen accidentally hits Jason with the CD player during the dance, but it could've been avoided if the CD was played through the PA system. That's more surprising than Damian getting to move on after pretending to steal Cady's purse, just to try to prove Aaron that Regina's unfaithful. Ignore this, then you'll still be laughing as much as I did. In conclusion, Mean Girls is the elite of high school comedies for giving almost an ideal scenario on how anyone can experience life as a teenager. If you are a teen and need a rundown on how wild high school can get, this is meant for you.
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