Mean Girls

About Mean Girls

Mean Girls is a 2004 film directed by Mark Waters (Freaky Friday), written by (and co-starring) Tina Fey, and starring Lindsay Lohan, 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. It has been praised as being Lindsay Lohan's break-out film role.

Director Mark Waters described the movie as "Clueless meets Heathers," 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. Similar to its inspirations Clueless and Heathers, the film was a sleeper hit, and generated much discussion upon its release on high school cliques and bullying, despite the film being a light-hearted approach to those subjects.[citation needed]

Now living in an affluent area of suburban Chicago (Evanston, Illinois), Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) has been raised by her zoologist parents in Africa. At age 16, her family moves to America, so Cady must attend a public high school, after having being home schooled by her parents her whole life. On the first day, she is surprised by all the rules and restrictions that high school has. She struggles to fit in, but meets two students, Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan), a rebellious girl and also a Lebanese American, and Damian (Daniel Franzese), her "too-gay-to-function" friend, who decide to show her around and offer her insight into the cliques and hierarchy of the school. At the top of the social ladder are a trio of girls known as "The Plastics," a group of popular and spiteful girls who rule the roost: the ditzy Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), the nosey Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and the acid-tongued Regina George (Rachel McAdams). Regina is considered the "Queen Bee" of the school and is adored by all the other girls in the school, who hold her in such high esteem that even being punched in the face by her is considered an honor. Janis detests Regina, which Cady later finds out stems from the fact that Regina spread rumors about her sexuality in middle school. When they were younger, Regina and Janis used to be best friends. But when Regina called her a lesbian, their friendship ended, and the two have hated each other ever since.