Mean Girls

Title: Mean Girls (2004)
Director: Mark Waters
Genre: Comedy
Lead Actor(s): Lindsay Lohan
Rating: PG-13
97 minutes

This is the last good movie Lindsay Lohan has made. She plays Cady Heron, an ex-homeschooler who has moved from Africa to someplace outside of Chicago. Her second day of school she meets Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese) and is invited to eat lunch with The Plastics, the most popular girls in school. Janis, Damien, and Cady soon create a plan to destroy the head plastic’s life. Cady soon begins to lose herself in the plastic.

Lindsay Lohan really is not the best actress. Despite being the star, she is not the best or funniest or most memorable. The script is so strong that I think practically any actress who is halfway decent could have performed the part well.

Rachel McAdams plays Regina George, the queen of The Plastics. She is phenomenal in the part. There are times where her eyes are so creepy and intense. She is a powerful character and it takes a special actress to play such an unsympathetic character likably. This isn’t to say that the audience feels bad for her, but we like to see Regina George be a bitch. We also like to see her life unravel.

Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried complete the trio of plastics, Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith respectively. Gretchen is a sweet girl who just wants so hard to be liked. Some of her deliveries are the best in the whole movie. Karen is remarkably dumb. Seyfried is an example of an actress who can play dumb smartly. There are several times where it is questionable just how she reached high school at all. I would say The Plastics are the most enjoyable thing about the movie.

Lizzy Caplan is also really great as Janis. Regina George basically ruined her life and so her furious quest to destroy her life is understandable. She is both remarkably immature and observant. She can nail the personalities of the people she interacts with to remarkable accuracy.

The script is wonderful. Tina Fey wrote a funny, interesting, and intelligent script. All the characters are well-developed and relatable in some way. I admit that women are going to enjoy the films more than guys and younger more than old, but I think there are elements that can be enjoyed by all. This is a fun and well-crafted movie.

******* 7/10