Lindsay Lohan movie - Lindsay Lohan Mean Girls

Lindsay Lohan movie - Lindsay Lohan Mean Girls

Mean Girls is a 2004 film written by (and co-starring) Tina Fey. It stars Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert and Rachel McAdams and featured several Saturday Night Live cast members, including Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, and Amy Poehler.

Director, Mark Waters described the movie as "Clueless meets Heathers", the latter of which was written by his brother, Daniel Waters. It was 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.

Plot

The movie centers round 16 year-old Cady (pronounced Kay-Dee) Heron (played by Lindsay Lohan) who moves to Evanston, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, after being raised in Africa by her zoologist parents. Cady's family moved there after her mother received tenure at Northwestern University. She begins attending North Shore High School, where she meets Damian and Janis. Damian (Daniel Franzese) is "almost too gay to function," and Janis (Lizzy Caplan) is artistic and somewhat alternative; neither are very popular. She later encounters The Plastics (Regina George, the Queen Bee, played by Rachel McAdams; Gretchen Weiners, the gossiper, played by Lacey Chabert; and Karen Smith, the dumb blonde, played by Amanda Seyfried) - three beautiful and popular girls who invite Cady to become their friend.

Initially reluctant, Cady joins the group so she can learn their dark secrets at the behest of Damian and Janis. However, when Cady becomes infatuated with Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels (played by Jonathan Bennett), Regina reinforces her Queen Bee status by reclaiming him. Cady, Damian, and Janis plot together to bring Regina down and remove her from her high social status. Janis refers to Regina as an "evil dictator" and asks Cady, "How do you overthrow a dictator? You cut off her resources." Janis defines these resources to be Regina's "technically good physique" (hot body), "high status man candy" (Aaron Samuels), and her "loyal band of ignorant followers" (Army of Skanks).

At first their attempts don't work, and in fact only make Regina more popular; but Janis, Cady, and Damian finally succeed. Much to Cady's surprise, Gretchen and Karen turn to her as their new Queen Bee. Her newfound popularity, with its attendant status and power, goes to Cady's head and she unwittingly emulates Regina's behavior. Events come to a climax at a party Cady throws while her parents are out of town. She tells her parents she wants to stay behind to go to Janis' art show, and tells Janis and Damian she is going out of town with her parents. Originally meant to be a small affair designed to bring her closer to Aaron, the party quickly grows out of control. Cady gets drunk at the party, admits to Aaron that she faked being bad at calculus to attract his attention, and then vomits on him. He leaves in disgust just as Janis and Damian pull up in a car, outraged that she lied to them. Janis screams at Cady that she has become Plastic, then drives off with Damian. Regina also arrives at the party and vows revenge.

The key to her plan is the Burn Book, originally created by The Plastics, which contains mean (sometimes accurate) observations and "burns" of most of the girls in their grade and some of their teachers. She plants a picture of herself in the book and tearfully turns it over to the school's principal, Mr. Duvall (played by Tim Meadows), noting that Cady, Gretchen, and Karen are the only girls not in it. The three are called to his office and asked to confess, but the meeting is interrupted when his assistant runs in, exclaiming, "The girls have gone wild!" It's shown that Regina has photocopied every page of the book and distributed the copies throughout the school so that they can be discovered by the people they lampoon. The girls begin rioting, fighting each other viciously until Mr. Duvall breaks a fire alarm to set off the sprinklers. He orders all junior girls to report to the gymnasium, where the entire class seems to have fallen for Regina's frame job. They shun Cady universally.

Mr. Duvall attempts to deal with the cliques that have formed and "girl" problems, but is derailed by a girl who misinterprets his invitation to discuss their problems and describes her menstrual period. Ms. Norbury (played by Tina Fey) begins a seminar to get the girls to confront their problems directly. Each of the cliques is plagued by infighting, unspoken feelings of resentment, and strong distrust. The girls then must write apologies to each other and read aloud them to the whole grade. Cady cannot do this without admitting that she wrote about Ms. Norbury in the Burn Book; she goes to the back of the line, prompting Janis to angrily get up in front of the grade and scrap her original apology in favor of a thinly-veiled tirade about Cady. She reveals all the tricks they played on Regina over the year; hearing this, Regina storms out of the gym. Cady follows her to apologize, but Regina cuts her off, angrily telling Cady that she is worse than herself because she attempts to maintain a facade of innocence despite her actions as Queen Bee. In the middle of her rant, Regina gets hit by a bus.

The revelation of the Burn Book and the accident convince Cady that she must "suck all the poison out of [her] life", comparing her situation to receiving a snake bite. She apologizes first to Regina, who has received a severe spinal injury and apologizes to Ms. Norbury for her false Burn Book entry. Ms. Norbury accepts her apology, but adds one last penance: Cady must participate in the Mathletes (the school's math team) state finals, which takes place the same day as the Spring Fling dance.

Cady ends up breaking a tie and winning the final for North Shore High. Ms. Norbury encourages her to go to the dance despite being grounded, and the Mathletes arrive at the Spring Fling in time for Mr. Duvall to announce Cady as Spring Fling Queen. Surprised, she takes the stage to apologize one last time to everyone. She discusses the Queen's crown, and says that it is only plastic and of no real worth. She asks for Janis and Damian's forgiveness in person, and they agree to forget about their fight. She breaks the queen's crown into pieces, throws it into the audience, and the dance resumes. Aaron asks her for a dance and they kiss.

At the beginning of Cady's senior year, the turmoil of her junior year has subsided. Regina has made a full recovery and her physical therapist has taught her to channel all her anger into sports; namely, lacrosse. The other Plastics have moved on. Gretchen has made friends with the 'cool Asians', Karen is a weather girl for the school's news channel, and Cady is content to be an average high school student. The film ends on a rather ominous note, hinting at a new generation of Plastics in the new freshman class.

Reactions

In an interview about the film, Fey noted, "Adults find it funny. They are the ones who are laughing. Young girls watch it like a reality show. It's much too close to their real experiences so they are not exactly guffawing"

Though the movie was inspired by the book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, another non-fiction book for teens, Mean Girls: Facing Your Beauty Turned Beast authored by Hayley DiMarco, was released at the same time as the movie. DiMarco had previously written Dateable: Are You? Are They? and is credited with creating the Biblezine concept while at Thomas Nelson Publishers. Characters and behaviors in the movie are based on Tina Fey's high school life at Upper Darby High School.

The "Mean Girls" - classic split screen telephone sequence

Characters

Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) - The main character of the film. Cady has just moved to North Shore High School after spending her whole life being homeschooled in Africa. She first makes friends with Janis and Damian, but is invited to eat lunch (and thus be friends with) the Plastics. She also develops a crush on Aaron Samuels, who is Regina's ex-boyfriend. When Regina betrays Cady by taking Aaron back, she concocts a plan with her other friends to get even. Despite her anger at Regina, Cady eventually gets caught up in the world of the Plastics. She is also really good at math and joins Mathletes at the end of the film.

Regina George (Rachel McAdams) - Regina is "Teen royalty" and the leader of the Plastics. She is both feared and desperately admired by the other female students, who gossip about her supposedly fabulous life and are pleased to be physically assaulted by Regina. She also has a tendency to compliment others and then insult them behind their backs. Regina is very rich and spoiled by her parents. Throughout the film she claims she wants to lose 3 lbs. Apparently she has had a nose job and was once best friends with Janis (before blowing her off for a boy and claiming she is a lesbian.) When she realizes Cady is stealing her life, she spreads the Burn Book around and is eventually hit by a bus. In senior year, she takes up sports to use up her rage. Regina dates Aaron Samuels and Shane Oman.

Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) - Sarcastic and artistic, Janis is one of Cady's first friends at North Shore. She loathes the Plastics (especially Regina) and is best friends with Damian. In Middle School, she was best friends with Regina, who later claimed Janis was a lesbian when she became upset they were no longer spending time together (as a result of Regina's first boyfriend). Regina told everyone Janis was a lesbian, causing her to drop out of school for a period and coming back completely different. At the end of the film she begins dating Kevin Gnapoor.

Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) - Gretchen is one of the Plastics, and possibly Regina's closest friend (or at least confidante). She is very wealthy because her father invented toaster strudel. Partially as a result of Cady, Janis and Damian's scheme, she begins to crack, spilling many of Regina's deepest secrets in anger at being treated badly by her friend. Throughout the film, she likes Jason, a flirtatious pervert. In senior year, she dyes her hair, learns Vietnamese and hangs out with the "cool asians" so she can continue her life as a "worker bee".

Damian (Daniel Franzese) - Damian is described by Janis as "too gay to function". He is best friends with Janis and later good friends with Cady. He is in the student planning committee and enjoys singing. Damian has no qualms about using the woman's bathroom, and goes to the girl's workshop in disguise.

Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried) - Damian claims Karen is the "dumbest girl you'll ever meet". She is failing almost everything and claims her breasts can predict the weather (although she usually predicts the current weather). Karen also mentions that she thinks her cousin is a good kisser, believing it to be okay as she thinks the order of relations is "cousin, first cousin, second cousin..." She turns against Regina when she discovers Regina thinks she is a slut and begins following Cady (along with Gretchen).

Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey) - Ms. Norbury is Cady's calculus teacher. At the beginning of the film she reveals that she recently was divorced from her husband. When it is revealed Cady wrote that she was a drug pusher in the Burn Book, she has to be investigated by the police. She is also the supervisor for the Mathletes, and orchestrates the junior girl's workshop.

Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett) - Aaron is a senior and becomes Cady's crush. He used to date Regina before she broke up with him, but they get back together (later breaking up when he discovers she was cheating on him). Aaron plays soccer and likes Cady, but becomes angry when he learns she lied about being bad at calculus and saying he had been Regina's property. At the end of the movie, he forgives Cady and they begin dating.

Mr. Duvall (Tim Meadows) - Mr. Duvall is the principal of North Shore. Throughout the film he has to wear a cast because he developed carpal tunnel. He attempts to make the girls understand each other when the Burn Book is revealed, but quickly passes it over to Ms Norbury when he realizes "girl problems" may be too much for him.

Kevin Gnapoor (Rajiv Surendra) - The captain of the Mathletes and a wannabe MC. Throughout the film it is hinted that he is attracted to Janis, and they begin dating after Spring Fling.

Coach Carr (Dwayne Hill) - He is generally shown teaching health class, expressly demanding his students not to have sex (as it will ultimately lead to them becoming pregnant and dying). He is also caught making out with Trang Pak, but has also been seen with Sun Jin Dinh.