Mean Girls

Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. The film is partially based on Rosalind Wiseman's 2002 non-fiction self-help book, Queen Bees and Wannabes, which describes female high school social cliques and the damaging effects they can have on girls. Tina Fey also drew from her own experience at Upper Darby High School as an inspiration for some of the concepts in the film.

Plot
Teenage Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) was educated in Africa by her scientist parents. When her family moves to the suburbs of Illinois, Cady finally gets to experience public school and gets a quick primer on the cruel, tacit laws of popularity that divide her fellow students into tightly knit cliques. She unwittingly finds herself in the good graces of an elite group of cool students dubbed "the Plastics," but Cady soon realizes how her shallow group of new friends earned this nickname.

Why It's So Fetch

 * 1) The movie represents a clever and well-written story focused on a girl in high school dealing with cliques, boyfriends and aggressive teen girl behavior.
 * 2) While still a comedy, the movie gives a good depiction of how shady and toxic high school environment can be for girls, and how they deal with clichés and labels, slut-shaming, fat-shaming, and shaming overall. The film ultimately shows us that women themselves tend to judge and shame other women more than anyone else.
 * 3) Very funny and memorable quotes (which are really the movie's true specialty, as most people who watch the movie will almost certainly remember at least one exchange of dialogue among the characters in particular) like:
 * 4) * "That is so fetch"
 * 5) * "On Wednesdays, we wear pink"
 * 6) * "Boo! you whore"
 * 7) * "She doesn't even go here"
 * 8) *"Why are you so obsessed with me?"
 * 9) *"You can't sit with us"
 * 10) * "I’m not like a regular mom, I’m a cool mom!"
 * 11) * "That’s why her hair is so big. It’s full of secrets"
 * 12) * "You wanna do something fun? You wanna go to Taco Bell?"
 * 13) * "Four for you Glen Coco! You go, Glen Coco!"
 * 14) * "She asked me how to spell orange"
 * 15) * "So, you’ve actually never been to a real school before? Shut up! Shut up!"
 * 16) * "I don’t think my father, the inventor of Toaster Strudel, would be too pleased to hear about this"
 * 17) * "Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by Regina George"
 * 18) Memorable and iconic scenes, especially the scenes where Regina gets hit by a bus and the plastics' Jingle Bell Rock performance.
 * 19) The film is cleverly fast-paced, meaning many of the scenes go by quick and without being incoherent.
 * 20) Top-notch acting, especially from Rachel McAdams and Lindsay Lohan.
 * 21) Regina George is a very memorable, entertaining and likeable villain. She was also one of the major contributors to the popularization of the "Mean Popular Girl" trope. In spite of many examples of the trope nowadays not going through the same kind of character development Regina did, and come off as unlikable.
 * 22) It has really cute and heartwarming moments like Janis and Damien rushing to comfort Cady after Regina takes Aaron back, Cady making up with Aaron, Janis, and Damien at the Spring Fling after her speech, and Damien and Janis going to prom together as besties in identical purple tuxedos.
 * 23) Catchy and unforgettable songs as the soundtrack, especially "Built This Way" by Samantha Ronson, "God Is a DJ" by P!nk, "Milkshake" by Kelis, and "Dancing with Myself" by The Donnas (Generation X cover).
 * 24) It's success managed to make October 3rd, the Mean Girls day.
 * 25) Likeable and iconic characters:
 * 26) * Cady Heron, a 16-year-old girl who transfers to a public high school after being homeschooled her whole life in Africa. She has a strong love for animals and nature and after she realizes her mistakes when she became the new "mean girl", she set out to make up for her actions.
 * 27) * Gretchen Wieners is an insecure girl who, through the entire movie, is shown to be one of the nicer members of the Plastics. The only times she acts mean-spirited being her under the influence of Regina. Gretchen is also the only person that knows almost all of Regina's family secrets such as the fact that her parents are having issues and that Regina secretly got a nose job at some point during her teenage years.
 * 28) * Karen Smith is a sweet and friendly girl who's extremely ditzy and completely clueless on many occasions, and she is, as a result, easily influenced by Regina and Gretchen. She is aware of her intellectual deficiency and reveals to Cady that she's failing all her classes.
 * 29) * Janis Ian is an artistic girl who is the very first person Cady Heron meets after becoming a student at North Shore High School. Early in the movie, we find out that she doesn't really have a good reputation in school and that other students constantly make jokes regarding her gothic appearance.
 * 30) * Damian Leigh is a close friend to Janis, and the two can almost always be seen together around school. He's also one of the first people Cady met on her very first day in North Shore High School. According to Janis, he's "too gay to function," but it's only okay when she says it.
 * 31) * Aaron Samuels is a very kind-hearted member of the swim team and Regina's ex-boyfriend. He is one of the hottest and most popular guys in the school, and quickly developed a liking towards Cady and invited her to a Halloween party. By the end of the film, he becomes Cady's boyfriend.
 * 32) * Kevin Gnapoor, the "hormonal Mathletes president" of the class who shows attraction towards Janis at several points during the film.
 * 33) Great choreography and music score from the "Jingle Bell Rock" scene.
 * 34) The costumes describes what 2000s fashion looks like. They're also very well-designed and simply beautiful.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Plot Hole:
 * 2) * After Regina shows Principal Duvall the Burn Book; Cady, Gretchen, and Karen are accused of writing it (since they are the only three girls that don't appear in it) and Cady eventually takes the blame for it; however, it wouldn't make sense that everyone thinks Cady is the one who wrote it since, by that time, she was still the new girl in school and only really knew five people (Regina, Gretchen, Karen, Janis and Damien).
 * 3) ** Also, wouldn't the handwriting give away who wrote in the Burn Book?
 * 4) The "If you're from Africa, why are you white" joke is rather offensive, racist, and unfunny.
 * 5) The joke of Trang being in a relationship with the ADULT gym teacher is disgusting.
 * 6) Lots of product placement like Coca-Cola, Doritos, Cheetos, Dunkin' Donuts, Red Bull, Silk Milk, Taco Bell, etc.
 * 7) It's incredibly shallow and not very subversive on the concept of a teen movie, unlike Heathers.

Critical Response
Mean Girls received generally positive reviews; critics lauded McAdams' performance and labeled the film as Lohan, Seyfried and Caplan's breakthrough roles. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 84% based on 181 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus states that the film is "funnier and more smartly written than the average teen comedy." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Box Office
On its opening weekend, the film grossed $24.4 million from 3,159 screens at 2,839 theaters in the United States, ranking #1 at the box office and averaging $8,606 per venue. The film closed on September 9, 2004, grossing $86.1 million domestically and $43 million internationally for a total worldwide gross of $129 million.

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