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Mean Girls

Review by: Elaine Cedrone

Elaine Cedrone@TheCinemaSource.com

Dear Lindsay,

I just wanted to let you know that after careful consideration, I've decided that you are my favorite of the tween queens. Out of what I'd like to call "The Big Three" "” Hilary Duff, Amanda Bynes, and the Olsen twins (okay, they are actually two people and I'm not supposed to call them "The Olsen Twins" anymore, but "The Big Four" just didn't sound right) you are the least"¦well, you are the least likely to be voted prom queen.

Wait! Don't stop reading "” I meant that as a compliment! Hilary, despite her Everygirl role as Lizzie McGuire, has always seemed a bit too cutesy to play anything but popular. Amanda Bynes, with those long legs and perfect straight hair, reminds me of the girl who's hip enough to hang with the older crowd "” she was rumored to be dating an MTV VJ, for Pete's sake! And the Olsen twins (oops, I mean Mary-Kate and Ashley)? Gorgeous? Yes. Accessible? No.

But you, you actually seem"¦approachable. Someone your audience can see themselves sitting with in the cafeteria or passing a note to in class. This isn't to say you aren't cute (you're just as cute, if not more so, than the others – I swear!) but you have something about you that just says, while you might not actually be in the high-school marching band, you are probably friends with someone who is.

This is why I'm so happy to see you in Mark Waters'(your Freaky Friday director!) new film, Mean Girls. Penned by SNL's Tina Fey (who also stars as a math teacher) and based on Rosalind Wiseman's book, "Queen Bees and Wannabes", Mean Girls stars you as Cady Heron (pronounced Katie!), a sweet, naïve girl who has been home schooled all her life because her parents have some Wild Thornberries-esque job in Africa. When her mom is offered tenure at Northwestern, however, Cady moves to the suburbs and enters the real jungle: the world of high-school girl cliques. She begins hanging out with the outcasts, out-and-proud Damian (Daniel Franzese) and rumored-lesbian Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan), who has it in for the school's vicious in-crowd, The Plastics. The Plastics, led by evil Regina George (Rachel McAdams), consist of dumb-as-rocks Karen (Amanda Seyfried) and rich-girl Gretchen (Lacey Chabert, who has grown into a bizarre Jennifer Love Hewitt since her days playing Claudia on Party of Five).

When they're not terrorizing the rest of the school, The Plastics' evil manipulation turns inward; Karen and Gretchen are so terrified of Regina's reign-of-terror that they abide by her strict guidelines on ridiculously mundane activities such as

wearing sweatpants and silver-hoop earrings. When Cady falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron (Jonathan Bennett) it seems like she's committed social suicide "” until The Plastics invite her as one of them. Employed by Janis to destroy them from the inside, Cady finds herself inexplicably drawn into their world-of-lipstick-and-bitchiness.

Of course, you know all this. But what you may not know is what an interesting (and perhaps even daring) film this is for you. After your dubious choice of Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (I just can't defend this one, Linds) I thought it was great to see you in a flick that was a bit edgier, and, well, meaner. While Amanda Bynes and Hilary Duff are busy starring in family-fluff like What a Girl Wants and Cheaper by the Dozen (and yes, I liked it, but it's still innocuous fluff) you are in a film that has girls calling each other names like "fugly slut" and "fat-assed virgin." They are in movies that may perhaps elicit a chuckle. Mean Girls made me actually crack-up on several occasions.

I have to praise your co-stars for second, Lindsay. The cast did a great job "” each member of The Plastics played their part perfectly, from Regina's evil-yet-magnetic Queen Bee to Gretchen's rumor-spreading, paranoid minion (her frequent don't-tell-her-I-told-you’s were reminiscent of junior-high). As far as the outcasts go, Janis had the just the right mixture of anger and vulnernablity (plus, Lizzy Caplan was in Freaks and Geeks, bonus points any day). I was initially wary of flamboyant Damian; while he was admittedly quite funny, most of the laughs he got were from his "gay" mannerisms. However, his character won me over in the scene with the school's talent show; after being ridiculed on stage, he fights back at his hecklers and continues singing with confident gusto. Sure, he's flamboyant, the film seemed to be saying, he's not afraid to sling a shoe at your face if you piss him off.

Of course, the film is not without its clunky moments "” I was disappointed to see the mandatory teen-comedy fart jokes (is this like, a laughter-insurance policy thing or something?). At times it seemed like a Heathers-lite, and the treatment of minority groups (especially Asian-Americans) was borderline cringe-worthy. What really annoyed me, however, was the ending (well, not the ending ending, but the resolution). Sorry to break it to you, Lindsay, but I couldn't help but feel like it was a cop-out, and it left me with a bit of a bad taste in a my mouth. The very ending did somewhat redeem it for me, but I still thought that after such a mean film, the switch to sappiness was abrupt and unwelcome.

Overall, though, I thought it was a

great movie "” and you did a great job. Despite the wickedly funny script, if I hadn't believed that Cady had the fluidity to move between cliques and get drawn into The Plastics' world without becoming too unlikable, then this movie wouldn't have worked. And I don't think anyone else "” not Hilary, Amanda, Mary-Kate, or Ashley "” could have pulled it off.

Yours,

Elaine Cedrone

Movie Grade: B+