Mean Girls
I can’t remember the last time I laughed so consistently all the way through a movie. I have to wonder what is going on with Saturday Night Live, since this was produced by Lorne Michaels, written by Tina Faye, and every adult but one is a current or former SNL cast member. Why does the show suck so much when this movie was so great?
In any case, “Mean Girls
I don’t know of any film that so well observed the nature of high school cliques (and cheerfully discusses groups like the “angry hot black chicks” who certainly were a clique in my high school), the way teenagers (particularly girls) treat each other and even the quirks of the teachers (unlike most teen films, they aren’t all ciphers or buffoons here). A lot of the bits feel very authentic, including the central plot element of the Burn Book, in which the titular mean girls write things about the other students in the school to make themselves feel better. Other great bits include real-looking high school students (except for the four mean girls themselves), the terribly true to life wannabe “cool” parent and one of the girls dumbing herself down to be able to talk to a cute guy without it being corny and ridiculous like a feature-length afterschool special.
There’s a bit of drinking (which ends with someone getting very drunk and embarassed) and a bit of talk about sex (which never goes anywhere beyond someone taking off their shirt), so it’s a surprisingly family friendly film for parents of preteens.
A great film with an actual decent message, but which relentlessly refuses to give into cliches or heartwarming schmaltz. Strongly recommended to anyone who ever really wanted to like teen movies, stretching all the way back to the John Hughes era, but who found them a bit too nauseating at the end of the day.
