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Rachel McAdams is the clique's queen bee

The problem? Because everything in the movie preceding this was built on easy, cruel jokes, the audience was confused about what was meant to be funny. During Cady's speech about what she learned, she's facing a horribly-exaggerated ugly girl. The audience thought it was a hoot. Later—in the movie's best scene by far—Cady focuses on an obese girl and says, "You know, you really look pretty tonight. I bet you spent such a long time on your hair!" The moment is meant to be sincere, but as soon as the overweight girl was shown, the crowd burst into laughter.

The current release 13 Going On 30 actually surpasses Mean Girls' effectiveness in showing the dangers and ugliness of popularity (even though it's handled mostly as a sub-plot). 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.

Talk About It

1. How does Mean Girls' high school resemble the one you go to or went to? How doesn't it?
   
   
2. What causes girls like Regina, Cady and Gretchen to crave popularity? What other things do people use to fill these voids?
   
   
3. At the end, Cady extends real care and kindness to those around her. What difference could actions like this make at your school? Is it naïve to think her school could become clique-less and happy because of actions like this?
   
   
4. Put yourself in Ms. Norbury's shoes. Would it be easy to forgive Cady? What if you were Regina? Do you have friends who've hurt you like this? If so, how do you mend that?
   
   

The Family Corner

The movie includes a great deal of sexual jokes, innuendos, and near constant cleavage and short skirts. Homosexual slurs are common. There's also a scene of implied sex between a girl and guy wearing their underwear. A male teacher is caught kissing a female student. Two long party scenes feature heavy drinking. Violence includes a comedic-fight scene, a more serious real-life fight and two very abrupt and shocking shots of buses hitting students.

Photos © Copyright Paramount Pictures

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."

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