Mean Girls (2004)

Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.

Director:

Mark Waters

Writers:

Rosalind Wiseman (book), Tina Fey (screenplay)

Stars:

Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey

7 wins & 16 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lindsay Lohan	...	Cady Heron
Rachel McAdams	...	Regina George
Tina Fey	...	Ms. Norbury
Tim Meadows	...	Mr. Duvall
Amy Poehler	...	Mrs. George
Ana Gasteyer	...	Cady's Mom
Lacey Chabert	...	Gretchen Wieners
Lizzy Caplan	...	Janis Ian
Daniel Franzese	...	Damian
Neil Flynn	...	Cady's Dad
Jonathan Bennett	...	Aaron Samuels
Amanda Seyfried	...	Karen Smith
Rajiv Surendra	...	Kevin Gnapoor
Elana Shilling	...	Spelling Girl
Graham Kartna	...	Homeschooled Boy

Storyline

Raised in African bush country by her zoologist parents, Cady Heron thinks she knows about survival of the fittest. But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when the home-schooled 16-year-old enters public high school for the first time and encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today.

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Plot Keywords:

high school | clique | africa | secret | teenage girl | 

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Taglines:

Survival of the Ruthless

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and some teen partying

Details

Official Sites:

Paramount Pictures

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English German Vietnamese Swahili

Release Date:

30 April 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Chicas pesadas

Filming Locations:

Convocation Hall, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$854,852 (France) (28 January 2005)

Gross:

$854,852 (France) (28 January 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, M.G. Films, Broadway Video

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Cady's mom gets tenure at Northwestern, which is Ana Gasteyer's alma mater in real life.

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Goofs

When Cady scares Damien and Janis with her Halloween costume we see them spill their entire bowl of popcorn out of surprise but in the next scene the bowl is full again.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Chip Heron: This is your lunch, OK? I put a dollar in there so you can buy some milk; you can ask one of the big kids where to do that.
Betsy Heron: Do you remember your phone number? I wrote it down for you just in case. Put it in your pocket, I don't want you to lose it. OK? You ready?
Cady: I think so.

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Crazy Credits

The senior artist credit is misspelled "SENIOR ARTITST".

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Connections

Referenced in The Office: Christening (2010)

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Soundtracks

"At Seventeen"
Written and Performed by Janis Ian
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing and Courtesy of Rude Girl Records

User Reviews

The unthinkable: A good film in this day and age about high school.

Though my own high school days are well behind me now, this film received enough acclaim that I was convinced to give it a try. Mean Girls did in fact prove to be a rewarding experience. The film made a ton of money and launched some of its young stars into orbit.

Our story deals with a previously home-schooled girl (Lohan) now having to brave a suburban high school for the first time. She is completely clueless as far as what it takes to be cool in this new world, but she is pretty enough to catch the attention of the most popular girls in the school. The "Plastics" as they are called take the young lady into their world and over time she becomes one of them. The more popular the young lady becomes, the more miserable her life becomes, however.

The film is very funny and it hits pretty hard with its depictions of the various cliques at modern high schools. Some would argue that the characters in this film are just stereotypes, but so are most real life high schoolers. Nearly everyone fit into one category or another even back in my school days, but things seem even more fragmented now.

Tina Fey has written an intelligent script, and thankfully the film was cast well enough to carry it. Lindsay Lohan is charming, but nothing too exceptional. Rachel McAdams pretty much steals this film, and she is likely the cast member who will have the best career of this bunch. I think it's safe to say her scream toward the end of act 2 is the best I've ever heard in any film.Lacey Chabert is also worth mentioning, and she seems worthy of some better roles in the future. Overall, there did not seem to be any casting problems.

Mark Watters keeps things moving along at a brisk pace, and it seems strange to see Lorne Michaels' name in the credits of any film this funny. From what I've heard, the film had to be trimmed of more than a few parts that would have given it in an R-rating. BOO!!!!!! Hard to argue with the box office totals, though! After watching this film, I was reminded of a similar group of popular girls at my high school. They called themselves the Senior Bitch Patrol, and behaved much the same way as the "Plastics." Only back then (88-91) it was mostly about the hair. The bigger the hair, the more popular the girl. All of these girls have gone on to live boring and pointless lives since those days. Go figure....

9 of 10 stars for Mean Girls. Too bad I never had any math teachers as pretty as Tina Fey!