20th Anniversary TLDR: Mean Girls (2004)
On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was.
Plot: Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.
Direction: Mark Waters started his career with the film adaptation of the daring and risky stage play The House of Yes, but then pretty comfortably made a career of making movies that could play on ABC Family. Mean Girls is probably his best movie, with Freaky Friday coming in second...and that's about all I got. If his last few movies (Mother of the Bride, He's All That, Magic Camp) are any indication, he probably won't make a movie this good again.
Screenplay: But nobody thinks of this as a Mark Waters movie - it's a Tina Fey movie. Adapting elements of Rosalind Wiseman's non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes, Tina cashed in her height-of-SNL-popularity to transition out of that show. Her script is very 2004, but it holds up, is often quite funny, and has more than a few quotes that have become teenage shorthand.
Performances: Everyone is iconic, excellent, and very funny. Lindsay Lohan had amazing instincts, we all know that Rachel McAdams became a star, and this was Amanda Seyfried's FIRST MOVIE.
Best Character: Karen.
Best Line: "Gretchen, I'm sorry I laughed at you that time you got diarrhea at Barnes & Noble. And I'm sorry for telling everyone about it. And I'm sorry for repeating it now." Why does everyone get diarrhea in a Barnes & Noble at some point in their life?
Fun Fact: It's October 3rd - National Mean Girls Day!
Actual Accolade This Received: In 2020, Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post placed this at #8 on her list of the best political movies ever made, above Malcolm X, The Grapes of Wrath, and Milk.
Everything is too long! Is it too long? Nothing wrong with 97 minutes. I'm reviewing the National Tour of the musical in a few weeks and it's 2 hours and 30 minutes. I'll let you know...
Rating: It's one of the all-time great high school movies.
Credit: Plot synopsis from Letterboxd via TMDb.