Genre: Comedy, Teenage, School / Campus, Suspense, Love Triangle, Christmas, Halloween, Satire
Tagline: Watch your back.
Plot: A girl who grew up in many places returns to an Illinois public high school, falls for the wrong guy, and experiences humiliation from her female classmates.Raised in the African bush country by her zoologist parents, Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) thinks she knows about “survival of the fittest.” But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when the home-schooled 15-year-old enters public high school for the first time and falls prey to the psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today. Directed by Mark Waters (“Freaky Friday”), from a screenplay by Emmy winner Tina Fey (“Saturday Night Live”), “Mean Girls” is a fictional comedy based on Rosalind Wiseman’s New York Times bestseller, Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence, which Time praised as “a chilling account of the life our girls navigate in their school lunchrooms and hallways.” Illustrating a serious issue facing girls all across the nation, “Mean Girls” is the story of Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), a cultural blank slate when she first sets foot on the grounds of North Shore High School in a small town outside of Chicago, Illinois. After living in Africa, Cady, now a junior, has no idea how “wild”
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 The limp climax doesn't undo the solid humor, wicked social commentary, and delicious satire that precedes it, but it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. In the end, Mean Girls isn't mean enough.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
What do you get when "SNL's" Tina Fey writes a screenplay about social hierarchies in high school? A teen comedy ... for grown-ups.--Stephanie Zacharek (Salon)
Ultimately, the smart choices the film makes outweigh its murky message. This falls into the category of teen fare that’s better than you’d expect. It’s no Heathers but it’s at least in the same league as 10 Things I Hate About You.  --David Thomas (FilmCritic.com)
A slightly above-average teen comedy that isn't as biting or dark as you might believe from its title, but quirky and fun enough to recommend to anyone looking for something that blends elements from previous hits such as CLUELESS, ELECTION and HEATHERS 6/10--'JoBlo' (JoBlo.com)
Clique comedy about teen groupthink lacks real bite.  --Marrit Ingman (Austin Chronicle)
For all its touches, the film does at times begin to seem as if it has the easily diverted attention span of one of its archetypal high school kids. You feel a little like a scold for wanting it to buckle down and concentrate.--Elvis Mitchell (The New York Times)
In a wasteland of dumb movies about teenagers, "Mean Girls" is a smart and funny one. It even contains some wisdom, although I hesitate to mention that lest I scare off its target audience.  --Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)
The film could have dialed down on the pratfalls and it loses a little steam in the third act when laughs take a backseat to good sentiment, but "Mean Girls" remains a smart and funny flick full of pretty young things. Good times. --Kevin N. Laforest (Montreal Film Journal)
...this comedy about a high school clique is basically a watered-down collage of scenes from "Heathers," "Clueless," "Sixteen Candles" and numerous other teen flicks. ... It's an improvement over the dire "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," but "MeanGirls" is nowhere near as satisfying as "Freaky Friday."--Lou Lumenick (New York Post)
Like "Heathers" and "Election," its comedy is an exaggeration of high school life, but without the fundamental dishonesty so rampant in teen comedy.--Michael O'Sullivan (Washington Post)
“Mean Girls” wears out its welcome fast, which is frustrating considering the ability of the writer and the performers. C--Brian Orndorf (FilmJerk.com)
Tina Fey’s screenplay maintains an excellent balance between cutting social commentary and plain good old fashioned fun. 78/100--Brian Webster (Apollo Guide)
Mean Girls shows High School in one of the most accurate ways I have seen put to the screen and the result of the film is very surprising. B+--Samuel Tolliver (MovieJustice)
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| Written by |
Tina Fey
Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live |
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| Cast |
Lindsay Lohan
Freaky Friday, Herbie: Fully Loaded, The Parent Trap |
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 | Tina Fey
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell, Martin & Orloff, Saturday Night Live: The Best of Christopher Walken |
| Tim Meadows
Coneheads, The Benchwarmers, The Ladies Man |
 | Ana Gasteyer
What Women Want, Dick, What's the Worst That Could Happen? |
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 | Amanda Seyfried
Alpha Dog, American Gun, 'Mean Girls': Only the Strong Survive |
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| Music By |
Rolfe Kent
Sideways, About Schmidt, Wedding Crashers |
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