Mean Girls is a movie that needs no introduction. The Tina Fey-penned 2004 movie about Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) transferring to an American high school after years of being homeschooled by her parents on another continent, then attempting to help her new friends take down the clique of popular girls, is jam-packed with iconic lines and moments that have earned it a reputation as a teen comedy classic. What defies logic is that, in spite of this, there is indeed more to dig into while celebrating the movie on its 20th anniversary.
The ensuing 20 years have now seen two additional Mean Girls movies join the franchise, one of which adapted the Broadway musical adaptation of the original movie, which itself ran for 833 performances before closing amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. But despite countless re-interpretations of the material on top of endless regurgitations of its most popular moments in the form of gifs and memes across social media, the movie still possesses the same zip and vigor that made it a hit when it first premiered two decades ago, grossing a staggering $130.1 million against its $18 million budget.
Mean Girls’ Cast & Screenplay Still Sparkle
SNL Alums & Fresh Talent Forged A Stellar Ensemble
By far the element that makes the movie stand out most is the Mean Girls cast, which is one of the most unimpeachable ensembles ever assembled for a teen movie. Like all the best ensembles, there is no true standout. At any given moment it may seem like whoever is currently onscreen couldn’t possibly be anything but Best in Show. However, the movie probably could not survive without Lindsay Lohan’s performance imbuing Cady with enough relatable vulnerability to keep us on her side even when she has lost herself to the allure of the Mean Girl lifestyle.
In addition to the stellar work put in by Lohan’s co-stars, particularly Rachel McAdams (relishing pure nastiness), Lacey Chabert (weaponizing cluelessness), Amanda Seyfried (beamed in from another planet), Daniel Franzese (crafting a wholly unique character from the word “go”), and Lizzy Caplan (sharpening sarcasm to a deadly point), a hearty helping of Saturday Night Live veterans including Tim Meadows, Amy Poehler, Ana Gasteyer, and Fey herself round out the adult cast to add the perfect amount of spice wherever necessary.
When Mean Girls was produced and released, Tina Fey was the head writer for Saturday Night Live.
Terrible jokes delivered by this cast could land perfectly, but the Mean Girls screenplay is stuffed to the brim with sparkling humor that feels like nothing to come before or since, existing entirely within its own universe. As much as it looks back toward the teen genre that was, honoring “mean girl” classics like 1988’s Heathers, the movie itself is all forward momentum, using its unique brand of caustic wit and oddball humor to carve its own path toward defining the future of what a teen movie can be and could possibly hope to be.
There is rarely a visual spark to the storytelling that elevates the comedy and its rhythms…
Unfortunately, the unparalleled quality of the stars and the screenplay seem to have left director Mark Waters content to primarily stay out of his cast’s way. Beyond the impeccable costume design by Mary Jane Fort, Mean Girls is competent but not particularly interesting on a filmmaking level. The characters are well-lit, the editing is legible, and so on, but there is rarely a visual spark to the storytelling that elevates the comedy and its rhythms, save for the too-rare fantasy sequences where Cady imagines her classmates as wild animals.
Some Aspects Of Mean Girls Have Not Aged So Well
Certain Moments Lean On Ethnic Stereotypes
Another unfortunate element of the movie is that the script is occasionally weighed down by ethnic stereotyping that was already retrograde at the time and is not well-served by 20 years of distance. There is a tendency to flatten nonwhite characters, experiences, and regions — for instance, Cady is a transfer student from Africa rather than any specific nation — that does not hold up to scrutiny, like many similar comedies from the time. This is one of the few elements where Mean Girls feels like it is looking backward rather than forward, hampering its singular vision.
[Mean Girls] is perhaps the defining teen movie of the 21st century.
Its strengths can be allowed to coexist with its flaws in the same way as the classics of John Hughes, which contain many problematic elements of their own. Mean Girls is nevertheless a classic of the modern teen genre, and indeed perhaps the defining teen movie of the 21st century. It would be difficult to find a modern comedy that is as awe-strikingly hilarious and effervescent. Merely being able to stand up to the weight of 20 years of repetition is proof enough of its power, let alone continuing to feel as fresh and vital as it still does.
Mean Girls is now playing in theaters for its 20th anniversary.