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Mean Girls

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Mean Girls
File:Mean Girls movie.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMark Waters
Written byRosalind Wiseman (book Queen Bees and Wannabes)
Tina Fey
Produced byLorne Michaels
StarringLindsay Lohan
Rachel McAdams
Tina Fey
Lacey Chabert
Tim Meadows
Lizzy Caplan
Daniel Franzese
Amanda Seyfried
Neil Flynn
Jonathan Bennett
CinematographyDaryn Okada
Edited byWendy Greene Bricmont
Music byRolfe Kent
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
April 30, 2004
Running time
97 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$17 million
Box office$129,042,871

Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and starring Lindsay Lohan. Written by (and co-starring) Tina Fey, the film features a supporting cast of Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, and Lizzy Caplan. The film also features several Saturday Night Live cast members, including Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, and Amy Poehler. Mean Girls has been praised as being Lohan's break-out film role.[1]

Director Mark Waters described the movie as "Clueless meets Heathers,"[2] the latter of which was written by his brother, Daniel Waters. Mean Girls is based on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, which describes how female high school social cliques operate, and the effect they can have on girls.

Plot

The home-schooled daughter of zoologist parents, Cady Heron is unprepared for her first day of public high school at North Shore High School. With the help of social misfits Janis Ian and Damien, Cady learns about the various cliques, including the Plastics, an exclusive group of girls led by Queen Bee Regina George, who was once Janis' best friend. When Regina invites Cady to sit with her and the other two Plastics, gossipy Gretchen Weiners and dimwitted Karen Smith, at lunch, Janis and Damien see an opportunity to get even and convince Cady to infiltrate the Plastics so she can spy on them. Along the way, Cady learns about the "Burn Book," a top secret notebook filled with rumors, secrets and gossip about the other girls in school, and falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels, who sits in front of her in calculus.

Janis asks Cady to sabotage Regina, and, after Regina outmaneuvers her by getting back together with Aaron, Cady agrees, tricking her into eating weight gain bars and turning the other Plastics against her. At the same time, Cady grows closer to Aaron by pretending to need help with math. Surprisingly, the plan works; Regina is sidelined from the Plastics, and Cady becomes the new Queen Bee. She begins to neglect Janis and Damien, and throws a party at her house which quickly spirals out of control. That night, Regina discovers Cady's deception is the reason for her sudden weight gain.

Striking back, Regina adds her own face to the Burn Book and distributes copies all over the school, causing a riot and implicating the other members of the Plastics. Later that afternoon, at an assembly to promote togetherness, Janis reveals their plan to Regina and the whole school, causing Regina to leave and get hit by a bus. Math teacher Ms. Norbury, also a victim of the Burn Book, forces Cady to join the Mathletes Math Team to make up the work she missed while purposefully getting low scores.

At the Spring Fling dance, Cady reunites with Damien and Janis, and makes amends with Regina. She is also elected as the Spring Fling Queen. After distributing the pieces of her crown to her fellow classmates, she dances with Aaron and the two kiss. The end of the film shows Regina joining the school lacrosse team, Karen becoming the local weather girl, and Gretchen joining a different clique. The end of the film also shows that Regina and Cady have a mutual respect for each other, as well as Cady seeing a trio of future plastics, stating that if any freshmen disrupt the peace, they know how to take care of them.

Cast

Reception

Generally the movie was well reviewed by critics, receiving an 84% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes[3] and a 66 ("Generally favorable reviews") on Metacritic.[4] In an interview about the film, Fey noted, "Adults find it funny. They are the ones who are laughing. Young people watch it like a reality television show. It is much too close to their real experiences so they are not exactly guffawing."[5]

Box office

The movie was declared an instant success after its opening weekend made the film $24,432,195 from 2839 theaters becoming the #1 film in America and averaging $8,606 per venue.[6] Due to strong word of mouth, Mean Girls had a long life at the box office and finished its run with $86,058,055 in the United States making its worldwide total gross $129,042,871.[7]

In the US, the film was the 24th highest grossing movie of 2004.[7] The film was later nominated for the prestigious WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.[8]

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack for the film was released on September 21, 2004, the same day as the DVD release.

  1. "Dancing With Myself" - The Donnas (Generation X cover)
  2. "God Is A DJ" - Pink
  3. "Milkshake" - Kelis
  4. "Sorry (Don't Ask Me)" - All Too Much
  5. "Built This Way" - Samantha Ronson
  6. "Rip Her to Shreds" - Boomkat (Blondie cover)
  7. "Overdrive" - Katy Rose
  8. "One Way or Another" - Blondie
  9. "Operate" - Peaches
  10. "Misty Canyon" - Anjali Bhatia
  11. "Mean Gurl" - Gina Rene and Gabriel Rene
  12. "Hated" - Nikki Cleary
  13. "Psyché Rock" - Pierre Henry
  14. "The Mathlete Rap" - Rajiv Surendra

DVD & Blu-ray

The DVD was released in North America on September 21, 2004, five months after it opened in theaters. It was released in a widescreen special collector's edition and a fullscreen collector's edition, both including several deleted scenes, a blooper reel, three interstitials, the theatrical trailer, previews, and three featurettes. A blu-ray version was officially announced[who?] and is set to be released on April 14, 2009.

Sequel

A second film is currently being planned and developed by Paramount Pictures.[9] According to the Internet Movie Database director Mark Waters will return to do the sequel, currently set for a 2009 release. The sequel has been written by Leslie Dixon, (Freaky Friday, Hairspray) and Gail Parent (Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen). Both screenwriters have previously written Lindsay Lohan films. However, there has been no word on whether Lohan or any of the original cast will return.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ "Lindsay Lohan - CelebSpin.com profile". CelebSpin.com. Retrieved 2007-07-18. Lohan's breakout role as a leading actress came six years later with 2004's Mean Girls
  2. ^ The Seattle Times: Arts & Entertainment: It's back to school with 'Mean Girls,' but director will transfer to guy films
  3. ^ Mean Girls Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
  4. ^ Mean Girls (2004): Reviews
  5. ^ [1][dead link]
  6. ^ ""Mean Girls" Topples "Man"". E!. 2004-05-02. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ a b "Mean Girls (2004) - BoxOfficeMojo.com". BoxOfficeMojo.com. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  8. ^ "IMDb - Mean Girls (2004) - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  9. ^ a b "Mean Girls 2 at IMDb". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  10. ^ Thomas K. Arnold (2008-20-31). "Paramount eyes Famous fortune". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2008-08-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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