Film Review
Film Review: Mean Girls
Written by Elizabeth Nesbitt
This film was written by Tina Frey and Rosalind Wiseman in 2004. This movie deals with several girl issues family, friendships, body image and popularity. The movie begins with Cady played by Lindsay Lohan who had been home schooled in Africa. Her family moved to America in her senior year where she had to attend public high school. When Cady starts school she knows nothing about cliques. The first friends Cady encounters are known as the “Artsy freaks.” Cady then meets the “Plastics” a group of popular, gossiping, shopping, glamorous girls who see themselves as inferior to the other girls in school. Cady starts hanging out with the plastics, when she is really spying for her artsy freak friends. In Africa Cady had a good relationship with her parents and they enjoyed spending time together. Moving to America and attending public school Cady violates her parents trust by lying and having parties. Cady transforms into a plastic, fake, and a self-absorbed follower. She manipulates lies and backstabs in order to compete with Regina queen of the plastics played by Rachel McAdams. Regina and Cady get into all out war over Regina’s ex-boyfriend leaving a path of devastated fellow students.
Towards the end of the film Cady must evaluate how plastic she has become. She must reconcile with her family and friends that she hurt climbing to the top of the social pyramid.
Around the first week of October we did a blog on girls’ and body image. In the film Cady is surprised about the girls critiquing their bodies. Cady states “I thought there was only skinny and fat.” She now knows there is much more to criticize about your body. Cady doesn’t understand the obsession the plastics have with the way a person looks. Yet when she transforms into a plastic she is primping and glossing her lips all the time. Another body image problem in the movie is all the students eat unhealthy. The film makes this point in the cafeteria scene. There was a designated table for the girls’ who eat their feelings, a table for girls’ who eat nothing, and a table for five girls’ who share one diet coke. I was surprised the film made reference to eating problems in Girls.” I also was a little perplexed that the film didn’t have an adult character say something in the cafeteria to address the eating problem.
Finally another girls’ issue in the movie was popularity. It amazes me the extremes people will go to in order to be popular. In the movie one girl states “Regina punched me in the face, and it was awesome.” The plastics are glorified in the film and the other girl students know everything about the plastics, yet the plastics act like the other girls’ don’t
even exist. The popularity issue in the film reminded me of the true legal case involving the girl who killed her friend a cheerleader so she could take her spot on the cheerleading squad. I think we as a culture need to evaluate what impressions we teach girls’ and young children. This film Mean Girls’ really touched on a lot of the issues we have written about in our weekly blogs.
Written by Elizabeth Nesbitt
This film was written by Tina Frey and Rosalind Wiseman in 2004. This movie deals with several girl issues family, friendships, body image and popularity. The movie begins with Cady played by Lindsay Lohan who had been home schooled in Africa. Her family moved to America in her senior year where she had to attend public high school. When Cady starts school she knows nothing about cliques. The first friends Cady encounters are known as the “Artsy freaks.” Cady then meets the “Plastics” a group of popular, gossiping, shopping, glamorous girls who see themselves as inferior to the other girls in school. Cady starts hanging out with the plastics, when she is really spying for her artsy freak friends. In Africa Cady had a good relationship with her parents and they enjoyed spending time together. Moving to America and attending public school Cady violates her parents trust by lying and having parties. Cady transforms into a plastic, fake, and a self-absorbed follower. She manipulates lies and backstabs in order to compete with Regina queen of the plastics played by Rachel McAdams. Regina and Cady get into all out war over Regina’s ex-boyfriend leaving a path of devastated fellow students.
Towards the end of the film Cady must evaluate how plastic she has become. She must reconcile with her family and friends that she hurt climbing to the top of the social pyramid.
Around the first week of October we did a blog on girls’ and body image. In the film Cady is surprised about the girls critiquing their bodies. Cady states “I thought there was only skinny and fat.” She now knows there is much more to criticize about your body. Cady doesn’t understand the obsession the plastics have with the way a person looks. Yet when she transforms into a plastic she is primping and glossing her lips all the time. Another body image problem in the movie is all the students eat unhealthy. The film makes this point in the cafeteria scene. There was a designated table for the girls’ who eat their feelings, a table for girls’ who eat nothing, and a table for five girls’ who share one diet coke. I was surprised the film made reference to eating problems in Girls.” I also was a little perplexed that the film didn’t have an adult character say something in the cafeteria to address the eating problem.
Finally another girls’ issue in the movie was popularity. It amazes me the extremes people will go to in order to be popular. In the movie one girl states “Regina punched me in the face, and it was awesome.” The plastics are glorified in the film and the other girl students know everything about the plastics, yet the plastics act like the other girls’ don’t
even exist. The popularity issue in the film reminded me of the true legal case involving the girl who killed her friend a cheerleader so she could take her spot on the cheerleading squad. I think we as a culture need to evaluate what impressions we teach girls’ and young children. This film Mean Girls’ really touched on a lot of the issues we have written about in our weekly blogs.
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