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Last year, families found Freaky Friday to be an above-average comedy for teens and their parents. Now, director Mark S. Waters is back with Mean Girls, another comedy about an adolescent facing a crisis. Looks like he's got another hit on his hands—the movie was the #1 at the box office this week, and it was the best-reviewed new release as well. Written by Saturday Night Live "news anchorwoman" Tina Fey, Mean Girls is based on a work of non-fiction, a study of adolescent behavior called Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman.

The film stars Freaky Friday's Lindsay Lohan as a "wannabe" who is kept out of the popular circle by a particularly cruel group of peers known as The Plastics. SNL alum Tim Meadows is earning some compliments for his portrayal of the school principal.

Mainstream critics are fairly impressed, finding far more intelligence in the script than they expect from a film of this genre. Religious press critics also note the script's keen insights about contemporary adolescence. But some of them have a few reservations about its lack of substantial suggestions for how to avoid the superficiality and cruelty exhibited by these mean teens.

Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) says, "Fey's screenplay is blistering in its depiction of the social and political maneuvering that takes place in the 'girl world' of high school cliques. The insights and observations of high school life … will strike a chord with anyone who remembers the days of acne and lunchroom protocol. There is also a decent message being communicated to us. Spreading rumors, gossip, or even truth with the intent to hurt or belittle another human being bears a cost."

Phil Boatwright (Movie Reporter) says, "I found it involving, and although it contains some objectionable content … it does not rely on crudity to gain laughter."

Bob Smithouser (Plugged In) was reminded of Clueless and Never Been Kissed. "It has the same smart, upbeat tone, snappy dialogue and humorously thorny commentary on high school subcultures. Unfortunately, another similarity is that it's sullied by unnecessary language, immodesty, sexual themes and teen drinking."

Todd Hertz (Christianity Today Movies) prefers another teen-oriented new release. "13 Going On 30 actually surpasses Mean Girls' effectiveness in showing the dangers and ugliness of popularity. The difference? Sincerity. Mean Girls lacks it almost completely and instead acts like any teenage queen bee—setting rules, being cruel and picking on the weak—only to then break its own rules and be hypocritical."

Annabelle Robertson (Crosswalk) says the film "will leave many parents feeling like traditional high schools may be the last place they want their teens." She adds, "The film ultimately falls flat. It's shockingly good satire that suddenly morphs into politically-correct shallowness."

Taking a break from James Bond films, Pierce Brosnan tries his hand at another genre this week in Laws of Attraction. The result causes many critics to mention the comedies of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, although most admit that Brosnan and Julianne Moore (Far from Heaven, Magnolia) would need a better script in order to compete with classics of the '40s and '50s.

Brosnan and Moore play Daniel and Audrey, divorce lawyers who face off in the courtroom over a particularly nasty dispute between a rock star and his fashion-designer wife. Outside the courtroom, their own romance is sparking to life, whether Audrey likes it or not.

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48