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This is the smartest, sassiest teen movie to come down the pike in a long while, and most of the credit belongs to Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey, who based on her script on a nonfiction book, Queen Bees and Wannabes. Fey's adaptation is set in a midwestern high school where transfer student Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), previously homeschooled and blissfully unaware of the social conventions dictated by her peers, falls in with a small clique of girls known as "the Plastics." Led by spoiled, beautiful Regina George (Rachel McAdams), the Plastics live by their own rules and show nothing but disdain for their fellow students, a few of whom persuade Cady to undermine the catty in-group. Director Mark Waters -- whose brother Daniel directed the influential teen comedy Heathers -- gives Mean Girls a brisk pace with fast-moving sequences and inventive transitions that speed the action. He's also fortunate to have a terrific script from which to work: Fey writes tart dialogue and builds imaginative set pieces around some of the situations and character types described in Queen Bees. There isn't a high school graduate alive who won't recognize in Regina and her acolytes the stuck-up girls who cheerfully toyed with adoring boys and disdained female classmates who weren't as pretty or popular as they were. Canadian actress McAdams is absolutely spot-on in her performance as Regina and is well supported by Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried as the other Plastics. Fey writes herself a juicy part as a recently divorced teacher who runs afoul of the clique, and her fellow SNL players Tim Meadows, Amy Poehler, and Ana Gasteyer get colorful supporting roles as well. But Lohan really dominates the film with her energetic portrayal of an innately kind young woman who yields to temptation and, temporarily at least, becomes a queen bee. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Tina Fey from Saturday Night Live wrote and appears in this comedy about the alternately funny and terrifying pecking order among teenage girls. Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is a 15-year-old girl who has spent most of her life in Africa, where she was home-schooled by her zoologist parents. When her family relocates to the United States, Cady finds herself attending a high school in suburban Illinois, where she gets a crash course in the various sub-strata of the student body: the jocks, the cheerleaders, the stoners, the "cool" kids, and so on. Much to her surprise, Cady finds herself embraced by a clique of rich and popular girls known to outsiders as "the Plastics," led by Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Gretchen Weiners (Lacey Chabert), and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried). While Cady is grateful for her new friends, it doesn't take long for her to realize how manipulative they can be, and she soon discovers she's violated an unwritten law when she goes out on a date with Aaron (Jonathan Bennett), who is charming, good looking...and Regina's former boyfriend. It isn't long before Regina and her pals are on the warpath, and Cady must face a level of vengeful behavior for which years in the jungle never prepared her. Joining Tina Fey in the supporting cast are fellow SNL players Amy Poehler, Ana Gasteyer, and Tim Meadows. The screenplay for Mean Girls was based in part on Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence, a book by professional youth counselor Rosalind Wiseman. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 097363416043
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Language: English
• Editions: Special Edition
• Time: 1:36:00
• Sales Rank: 6,807

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Girls Rule Collection
• Mean Girls/Clueless

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