Penned byTina Fey,Mean Girlsfollows a homeschooled teenager named Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) who has been living with her parents, two zoologists, in Africa for her entire young adult life.
When the family relocates to the United States, Cady embarks on her biggest safari yet - high school. Navigating the halls of North Shore High School is more difficult than anything she’s ever faced, but she finds solace alongside two other outsiders, Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian Leigh (Daniel Franzese). After Cady begins rubbing elbows with the popular clique otherwise known as the Plastics, she, Janis and Damian devise a plot to get revenge on its leader, Regina George (Rachel McAdams).
Fey really hit the nail on the head with this one, asMean Girlsperfectly encapsulates what it was like to be a teenager growing up in the early aughts. Sure, we didn’t have social media to destroy our lives, but a meet-up at the mall could do just as much damage. The movie was such a starting point for many of the young actors as well as it served as Lohan’s third feature-length project (right behindFreaky FridayandThe Parent Trap), and would push others like Caplan, McAdams, andAmanda Seyfriedinto the next stage of their blossoming careers. It certainly didn’t hurt that the movie was not only penned by Fey but also produced byLorne Michaels, which opened up the door for an entirely different generation of comedic giants likeAmy Poehler,Tim MeadowsandAna Gasteyerto get in on the fun.
The Legacy of ‘Mean Girls’
Even though Regina George spends a solid chunk of the movie trying to stomp on Gretchen Wieners’ (Lacey Chabert) made-up word, “Fetch,” she couldn’t keep the cultural phenomenon down.Mean Girls’vocabulary went on to take over the world, with so many of the phrases and one-off remarks nowfully part of the English lexicon. After cries for a sequel were half-baked into a made-for-TV movie aptly titledMean Girls 2, fans allowed the future film series to lay to rest. The original film’s storyline would eventually be turned into one of Broadway’s biggest hits. However, the show’s run on The Great White Way was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, only to re-emerge as a movie at the beginning of the year. Despite tapping a talented cast that includedRenée RappandAngourie Rice, the movie was more of a miss than a hit with audiences.
But if September has you feeling a little nostalgic, chances are a big dose of the original 2004Mean Girlswill have you covered when it begins streaming on Hulu on September 1.
Mean Girls
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.
