Mean Girls looks and feels like a 2000s comedy with one exception: it is more than that. It is the definition of an era, a portrait of the teenage ideology, a characteristic classic that can do no wrong.
Before this week, I had never seen Mean Girls. I had heard of it but up until now, I had no idea what it was even about (apart from girls presumably being mean). I knew that it starred Lindsay Lohan as the innocently inept protagonist, I knew that it is a coming-of-age comedy, and I knew that it was released in 2004.
What I didn’t know is that Lohan is supported by a surprisingly strong cast in Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, and Amy Poehler; I didn’t know that it was based on a book, that the screenplay was written by the comedically intuitive Tina Fey and produced by SNL’s Lorne Michaels; I didn’t know that it was more than the habitual stab at teen comedy, another thoughtless rendition of the same composition; I didn’t know why it is so beloved. Now I do.
Just like any other teen drama, Cady Heron (played by a young Lohan and pronounced like Katey) is quirky, quiet, and a social outcast. Although this may sound familiar, Cady isn’t just any normal stereotype but an exciting hyperbole; every trope is dialled up to 11. In place of the ever-present nerdy exposition that explains why no one likes our protagonist, Mean Girls introduces Cady as an alien; home-schooled and just moved to the US from Africa.
It isn’t that there is a reason for Cady to be disliked, apart from her mathematical mind and her pretty charm, she is simply unaware of how to act due to never having attended school, let alone an American one. This isn’t going to be a relatable Breakfast Club but rather an emotional depiction of what the reality could be: a teen story told from the perspective of a melodramatic teen.
Her first day at ‘normal’ school is a trial by fire, but after settling down with the class exiles, Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), Cady is invited to sit with the popular girls, a.k.a. ‘the Plastics’ – an instantly iconic nickname that says everything. At first, she sees the three girls as friendly: the air-headed Karen (Seyfried), the nosey Gretchen (Lacey Chabert), and ring-leader Regina George (McAdams), a name that cannot be said with enough venom. Unfortunately, the film isn’t called Nice Girls.
As Cady infiltrates the Plastics to end their tyranny, I found myself drawn to every character. Whether it was the cruel Regina with her tacky ‘R’ necklace, the emo-gay combo of Janis and Damian, Tina Fey’s sarcastic Math teacher, or Regina’s ‘fun’ mother (Poehler) who is introduced to Kelis’ Milkshake; everyone is interesting and above all, hilarious. Every outrageous caricature has their moment in the spotlight, and the stream of quotable quips never ends making it hard to pick a favourite (that said, Karen’s psychic “ESPN” powers are up there).
The biggest surprise is how intelligent Mean Girls is. At first glance, it may seem like another comedy to throw into your 2000’s DVD collection to be forgotten, but there is an artistic care that sets it apart from all the others. When meeting the Plastics, Janis wonders aloud how she is going to explain Regina, to which we see a compilation of students speaking into the camera, describing all the rumours they have heard. After the brief but gag-filled montage (“I hear she does car commercials… in Japan.”), it cuts back to Janis and Damien finishing their conversation on the school’s most hated pupil.
The film never stops moving. Each transition is clever and un-seen: Regina screaming by her car into her screaming as she storms into her room, Cady opening a door dressed as an ‘ex-wife’ in time with the on-screen horror movie jump scare. Each moment is iconic and memorable: Regina standing in the middle of the school admiring her handywork, the Jingle Bell Rock sequence, the teachers admitting that they were also bullied by the school’s queen bee. No matter how predictable it may be, there is always a fun surprise waiting in the next scene.
After the film ends on a foreseeable heart-warming note, I was left with nothing but a pleasant feeling. After laughing for an hour and a half straight, I was happy with everything Mean Girls had given me; I certainly wanted more but all good things must come to an end. Somehow, after watching what should have been such an unmemorable plot, all I could do was keep thinking about, stewing on this warmth that it gave me.
I have finally seen Mean Girls and it is everything I had assumed it wasn’t: hysterical, clever, and instantly likeable. I see why everyone loves it, because I do to.