27. Mean Girls (2004)

Code-name: So Fetch!

Director: Mark Waters (also behind "Freaky Friday," "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and my #85 film "Just like Heaven")
Writer: Tina Fey
Type: high school, comedy

Cast:

The Plastics
Cady Heron- Lindsay Lohan
Regina George- Rachel McAdams
Gretchen Weiners- Lacey Chabert
Karen Smith- Amanda Seyfried

"The Greatest People You Will Ever Meet"
Janis Ian- Lizzy Caplan
Damian- Daniel Franzese

Hot Man Candy
Aaron Samuels- Jonathan Bennett
Shane Omen- Diego Klattenhoff

Mathletes
Kevin G- Rajiv Surendra

The Teachers
Ms. Norbury- Tina Fey [SNL alum #1]
Mr. Duvall-Tim Meadows [SNL alum #2]
Coach Carr- Dwayne Hill

The "Cool Mom"
Mrs. George- Amy Poehler [SNL alum #3]

The Herons
Mr. Heron- Neil Flynn [aka The Janitor from "Scrubs"]
Mrs. Heron- Ana Gasteyer [SNL alum #4]

Honorable Mention [astonishingly uncredited]:
Glen Coco- David Reale

Write-up:

I know! I missed the 10th year anniversary of this movie's release by 2 weeks... I'm just hoping that people aren't so sick of all the movie talk from two weeks ago that I won't get any comments on this :-P

Lindsay Lohan got me here... and is one of 100's of reason I always come back

I loved her in "The Parent Trap" remake (the original pales by comparison cuz I saw that version first).
I couldn't wait to see "Freaky Friday" because it was the first movie I'd seen her in since. After loving it, I got the soundtrack and got highlights in my hair.
Loved her in "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," a movie all the critics hated but I could totally relate to. Also got the soundtrack (liked it much more than "Freaky Friday")

I bought both of her albums and loved them both. Even wrote an entire album fic around "Speak." Plus she worked with great songwriters like John Shanks and Kara DioGuardi (those years, I listened to a lot of Ashlee Simpson and Michelle Branch).

I did not see "Mean Girls" in theaters, but I did rent it from Blockbuster as soon as it came out...
it was so awesome that I HAD to watch it a second time before I had to return it. And that's something that didn't happen often.

Now, when it comes to Lindsay, I've seen all of her movies except for the most recent ones, "Liz and Dick" and "The Canyons" (still planning on the latter at some point). I'm a huge fan and still am a huge fan.
I read all kinds of headlines about her, but never read a single article. With the industry of tabloids and the TMZ, I didn't know what to believe, so I waited to get some truth. Got that just recently with her doc-series on OWN. It had its ups and downs, yes, but I enjoyed every minute of seeing her for realz. [FYI, not a typo]

Hands down, though, this is my favorite of her movies. Probably my favorite performance of hers.
...in case nobody noticed the omission, this was one soundtrack I didn't get... I don't know why I never bothered :-P maybe I should just to complete the set.

The Story

Before I get into the 100's of other reasons why I love "Mean Girls," I'll go through the main plot for those who don't know (in which case, you've been missing out BIG TIME).

Up until this year of high school, Cady Heron was homeschooled by her parents while they lived in Africa. So this was her first year of actual public school. As expected, her first day didn't go well.

Then her next day, she meet the duo of Janis Ian and Damien who showed her the ins and outs of North Shore High School and its clique system. At lunch, she winds up sitting with The Plastics, the exclusive group of mean girls that rule the school.
For whatever reason, they recruit her to join their group and Janis wants in on all the gossip (most of which comes from the notorious "Burn Book").

But when Cady falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron, and Regina steals him back, she and Janis brew a plan to overthrow the queen bee.
One by one, they cut off her "resources": turning Aaron and the other girls against her and tricking her into gaining weight.

In doing so, Cady becomes the new queen bee and morphs into an even worse version of Regina George... all kinds of crazy ensue and the clique system at the school warrants investigation from the teachers. Especially after the Burn Book's contents are made public.

The 100's of Reasons.. Some Closer to Home Than Others

For me, this movie has a little bit of everything. I gravitate to certain movies because they have clever writing. It's best when it's a little something different, things I haven't experienced before and commentary on things I've often thought about but never thought other people did.
I gravitate to movies because they have memorable characters. Cady is relatable to anyone who's in a new place and has trouble making friends. Then they go through a transformation when they meet the right people (Janis & Damien) and when they meet the wrong people (Regina and The Plastics). As she says in the final scene, through the course of "Mean Girls" she goes from being "homeschooled jungle freak to shiny plastic to most hated person in the world to actual human being"... and throughout this journey, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pulling for her every second of it.

Years later, I would find my own Janis and Damien in my college besties, Sam and Dave. It took me a while to realize the connection, but it is so true. Not just because they relate to each other the same way and they have similar body types, but Sam accepted me into her friend circle when I didn't have anybody...
This came about more than halfway through my college experience but better late than never. Once I accepted that friendship into my life, everything else fell into place. They were also the people I turned to when I had guy trouble... or rather dealing with the painful reality of harboring a secret crush and wanting to be the #1 girl in said crush's life.

But, I digress...

All the characters are so well defined that what they do is predictable but we love them for it.
We recognize that as much as Gretchen grows to hate Regina, she still wants to be part of her life because it's better to be Plastic than not.
We know Karen is the easily swayed dumb girl, but we find her endearing for it.

Of course I relate to the clique system at the school. I was one of those people who really didn't have one. I was an outsider. Yeah, I was in drama class, concert choir and companies of high school musicals, but I was never really a part of those. I was either alone or I was in my own social circle that didn't belong to any given clique. Except for college where I had my friends in our animé club that I hung out with every now and then too. They happened to be friends with my friends so it worked out really well.

The other easily relatable part of the movie for me is the guy trouble. Cady wanting to be with Aaron Samuels. I absolutely get that, wanting to find excuses to talk to him and such. But I never went so far as to dumb myself down just to achieve that.
That's just stupid... plus I know my folks would kill me if I let my schoolwork slip over a boy of all things.

The Plastics have their own code of feminism. It's really interesting how they make Cady over when they bring her into their group, what that does for her image, how she carries herself, but it's also a relationship that turns toxic from overexposure. But I guess that's understandable: Cady never being in public school before is a clean slate ready to be molded and shaped into something different.

Even more interesting is how smart Cady is when she's not dumbing herself down for Aaron Samuels. Ms. Norbury keeps pushing her to join The Mathletes because she's just that good at calculus. Everyone keeps telling her it's Social Suicide.

Of course... the best part of this movie is the quotes.
We all have our favorites.
So I absolutely MUST give props to Tina Fey in her screenwriting debut. I haven't read the source material, the nonfiction book "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence" by Rosalind Wiseman... although I should.
I missed her run on SNL by a couple years. I started watching after she and Jimmy Fallon left and just before Kirsten Wiig and Seth Myers left. But from start to finish, there are so many good lines. The degrees of funny vary from straight-up hilarious to slow-burning hilarity... gotta love that variety.

...found this out after watching the special features... Tina Fey didn't just write it, but she loved this book so much that she approached Lorne Michaels about adapting it to a movie. So really, there'd be no "Mean Girls" without Tina Fey.
I salute and thank you for that!

Also interesting is that this movie was R-rated originally and trimmed to PG13... some jokes were changed and other scenes were rewritten

And it's not every day where almost every line in a movie is this quotable and it gets to a point where they're iconic... becoming Internet memes and taking over Facebook and Twitter.
To loosely quote "Legally Blonde," I thrive on inserting movie quotes into everyday life... whether people get them or not. So movies like this are what I LIVE FOR. 8-)

Sadly, "fetch" never happened and I never tried to make it happen. Although I did say how the American Idol producers were trying so hard this year to "make fetch happen" with Sam Woolf, pushing him as the designated hottie until he went home in 5th place.
But probably the most popular line is "you go, Glenn Coco!"

The most iconic moment in the movie was me is "Jingle Bell Rock" where The Plastics are dressed in Santa outfits doing the sexy dance... once I even watched this scene on Christmas day because I just couldn't help myself. Great stuff, even cooler that Cady thought to sing the song after they lost the boom box. Lindsay's got a great singing voice and I still hope for another album to happen.

Also love how Janis insists on calling Cady "cad-ee" instead of the way it's really pronounced ("kay-dee")

The Cast

It's so strange that I'm ending with the cast when that's usually the first thing I got into with my movie reviews.

Any SNL fan notices the excess of alums cast in this movie as the adults. It took me a few years to realize that was Amy Poehler as Mrs. George and just the other day, Ana Gasteyer as Cady's mom.
When this movie came out, everyone knew Tina Fey from SNL. I knew this without even seeing the show. But in her writing and with this character, just love watching her. She's engaging, she's good-hearted and she has just the right amount of sarcasm.

In name only, I recognized Jonathan Bennett as one of the various guys cast as JR Chandler on "All My Children" after Jesse McCartney left (missed him by a couple years) until they finally ended up with Jacob Young.
...with the web-based reboot, I don't care much for the new JR. If he just accidentally shot himself in drunken grief in the "AMC" finale, everyone would be happier...

And Lacey Chabert I knew then as the voice of Eliza Thornberry in "The Wild Thornberries."

Everyone else, I really didn't know. This movie, for me, was about Lindsay Lohan. It was about the story and the memorable characters. Then with the different names, I had my eyes and ears open for them in other projects.

This only really extended to Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried. Both have done great movies I love coming back. Some, not so great.
It took me a little while to get in my head that Amanda is actually really bright in real life because she was so conceiving as the dumb girl in this movie. She was one of the better parts of the film adaptation of "Mamma Mia" (which I have some strong opinions about for a later date) and was one of 3 reasons I had to see "Les Miz" (the others: Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway).

Coming Soon




Next week... I guess "2 weeks" is the common factor with everything here.
2 weeks ago, I reviewed "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2014/05/theatrical-review-grand-budapest-hotel.html
and next week I'll go into the Wes Anderson movie solely responsible for me going to see it.

Now that's a unique movie experience, unique look, unique combination of puppetry and animation... and another great all-star cast.
And at the helm... George Clooney 8-)

Pretty much gave it away, didn't I? I don't really care. What's done is done :-P

2014 Golden Golden Awards

My first Golden Globes was in 2010. I'm not sure what made me did it. I'd seen the Oscars a couple of times, but wasn't serious about movies and actors back then. But something unexpected happened that night and is the very reason why I come back year after year.

It's not every day that Robert Downey Jr. wins something at these things, yet the first time I ever tuned in, he won Best Actor in a comedy/musical for "Sherlock Holmes."
Mind you, this was before I became the huge fangirl I am now. I'd seen "Tropic Thunder" a few years before and just recently, I saw him in "Sherlock Holmes." I gotta say, the dude knows how to give a speech :-P
and I love revisiting that moment on YouTube every year as well as the press conference afterwards and a hilarious "victory lap" he did with his wife, Susan, on ET.

Everyone jokes about this awards show being a relaxed Oscars where everyone is drunk and such. I enjoy the show because there's a lot of room for unpredictability. You never know who's going to win sometimes.
I like to partake of the moments where people not used to winning get that chance, either because the Hollywood Foreign Press is composed of a looser group of people or because the split between drama and comedy/musical give some less prestigious actors to shine.

This year's examples of that were Matthew McConaughey winning best actor for "Dallas Buyer's Club" and the cop comedy-spoof "Brooklyn 99" coming away with two wins, one for the show and the other for Andy Samberg as best actor.
Granted, it's not the greatest show in the world. I didn't think it'd last more than a couple shows, but I took a chance on it and I can't get enough of it. The characters are a unique bunch and I always have a good time watching.

One thing I noticed this year was how much I really wanted to go out to see some of these movies. Like I'm itching more than ever to see "American Hustle" because it won best comedy/musical and two of its actresses were honored.
Jennifer Lawrence won the first award of the night for supporting actress. If anything, her speech made her more relatable and human because she confessed the nerves were playing a big role. I also liked how she said in her speech how she looked up the director of "I heart Huckabees" cuz she loved the movie and how she wanted to work with David O. Russell for that very reason. :-P that's my process with some of my movies. I look out for certain actors and directors when I learn they did something I really enjoyed.

Then I was super happy for Amy Adams because I knew she'd been nominated several times in recent years and this time, she actually won. Good for her!
Robert was the one giving out the award for best actress in a comedy/musical. His shtick was running through the nominees and saying what he'd get out of it depending on the winner. His consolation with Amy Adams would be that if they take a racy selfie backstage, he gets to keep that sharp Gucci tuxedo. :-P

"Dallas Buyer's Club" ran the dramatic actor categories. Jared Leto, who Ellen DeGeneres has been championing since she saw the movie, won for playing a transgender male. As for McConaughey, the props were deserved of course, but I liked how informal his speech. Being true to himself the only way McConaughey knows how.

Then for the comedy/musical category, Leonardo DiCaprio won for "Wolf of Wolf Street"... firstly, how the hell is that not in the drama category? I just don't get that. Secondly, omg, Leo actually won an award! That's something I never thought I'd get to see.
Yeah, he and Martin Scoreses will be one of the most memorable actor/director combinations in Hollywood history. They've done so many movies together that they understand how one another works. Apparently, Leo was the one lobbying for this movie to get mad.
After reading stuff about it, I'm not sure if I want to go to see in theaters. It's supposed to be hard-core R-rated, setting a new cinematic f-bomb record, with all kinds of nastiness in between. I don't know if I could stand that for three hours straight, certainly not in a big closed-off room.

I'd like to get around to "American Hustle" in theaters and "Dallas Buyer's Club" some other time... I get the feeling I'll have a hard time finding someone to see that with me.
"Her" also intrigues me quite a bit. It won for best original screenplay by Spike Jonze.

With all the talk about Sandra Bullock's performance in "Gravity," I thought she'd be a lock for Best Actress in a drama... yet it went to Cate Blanchett in "Blue Jasmine"... I guess it goes in line with the fact Woody Allen received the Cecil B. DeMille award this year.
But even then when he actually gets something, Woody Allen didn't bother to show up. I'm guessing it's a neurosis type of thing. So after the montage of his filmography (which made me feel bad I'd only seen two so far, both were great), Diane Keaton gave the acceptance speech and proved she was the perfect person to do it.

I've noticed that "Inside Llewyn Davis" has also been showing on Showtime as well as in theaters. Something about that movie intrigues me too, although I think it's just Oscar Isaac. After seeing him (well, being introduced to him) in "Sucker Punch," seeing him makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, yet there's this lure to him in that new movie that's hard to explain.

The only award "Gravity" won (something I don't imagine myself seeing, maybe ever) was Alfonso Cuaron as best Director. To think, it was only 10 years ago where he directed a Harry Potter movie :-P never mind one of my favorites.

Frozen did win for best animated film, which was great, but I was a little miffed that amazing song of theirs didn't win.
Instead it went to freaking Bono and U2 who wrote a song for a Nelson Mandela film... then they had to turn around and give such a compelling backstory that I had to stop being mad at them... it just doesn't seem fair to me that it had to go to a humanitarian effect that's guaranteed to win on that alone.

Let's see... other film stuff...
Alex Ebert, who is a new name to me (and looks like a guy Tim Burton could get along with, lol) won for best original score for that Redford film "All is Lost" He beat out John Williams ("The Book Thief") and Hans Zimmer ("12 years a slave"), my two favorite composers.

Best foreign film went to this Italian film I never heard of called "The Great Beauty"...
I'd heard of "Blue is the Warmest Color" and after seeing a clip, I recognized "The Wind Rises" as Miyazaki's last film... it shoulda gone to either of them :-P that's my bias talking.

The biggest award of the night went to 12 years a slave... considering its company, it deserved it the most of any of them... still isn't something I'd consider seeing because I don't go to theaters to see big dramatic movies. Certainly not one where I don't recognize any of the people working on it. Very much deserved, though, considering they'd been nominated a couple times and it was the only award they won all night.

As for the TV and made-for-TV perspective, "Behind the Candelabra" was a huge winner for best mini-series or made-for-TV movie and Michael Douglas winning best actor. That was a really well done movie and I thought it was a very compelling portrayal of Liberace (who I saw a biography of YEARS ago that had an impact on me)... I just hated how the last hour ran... so slow and so depressing that took away a little from what made it good to begin with... Steven Soderbergh did that to me in "Magic Mike" too, which I saw just before that.

The winning actress in that category was Elizabeth Moss for a Sundance channel film "Top of the Lake"... never heard of it before tonight, same with "Dancing on the edge" (it's on Starz, apparently, not all of us are lucky to have that channel). According to my mom and dad, the actress Jacqueline Bissist who won for best supporting actress had been around for a LONG time and it was her first ever win.
It took a long time for her to get going with her speech (as was the case with a lot of winners who didn't expect to win), but once she did, she was kinda funny to listen to, especially with that accent.

Supporting actor went to Jon Voight for his work on "Ray Donovan"... the way he was dressed reminded me of his cameo in "Tropic Thunder" where he was expecting to win an Oscar and instead was annoyed that it went to Tugg Speedman (seriously, who gets nominated AND wins for playing a part in a documentary... I always found that kinda odd, no matter how much I love that movie).

One win proved that times really are a changin'... Robin Wright won for best actress in a drama... and that drama was the Netflix series, "House of Cards."
Yet part of me kept thinking how annoyed a lot of "Scandal" fans probably are that, once again, Kerry Washington got passed over. A couple of my friends on Facebook love her in that show... I've yet to see it.

After the first two awards, (J-Law and Bissett), they made a quick shift to TV.
The category was best actor in a drama... I half-expected it to be Bryan Cranston and was beyond ecstatic that he did get the honor... considering how much people have been raving about "Breaking Bad" and how much they already miss it (again, I have yet to see it, but after this, I'm starting to consider reruns).
But then, part of that enthusiasm was that James Spader DIDN'T win for "The Blacklist"... I'm guessing he's too busy filming that or the next "Avengers" movie to even show up, but I've got my own personal bone to pick with him that needs its own entry to fully go into.

Then the awesomeness continued when "Breaking Bad," which had been nominated every year since its inception, finally won for best TV drama.
I just felt this itch coming from all the fans of the series (they're everywhere, supposedly) and how much they'd explode if the show got that last bit of respect after it was over.
I remember them bringing up the category and thinking that Bryan Cranston should wait a moment cuz he might be going back up. And the cherry on top, I'm sure for a lot of people, was that Aaron Paul had the last word: "yeah, bitch!"... that's gotta be his catch phrase on the show or something.

There was maybe one other award that I felt didn't go to the right person...
just doesn't seem fair that Amy Poehler is co-hosting this thing and she won best actress in a comedy... not just cuz she and Tina Fey were giving Julia-Louis Dreyfus grief all night for going back and forth between the movie and TV tables, but also cuz my girl Zooey Deschanel got passed over again.
C'mon, now!

That little bit aside, and possibly the awkward "Mr. Golden Globe" bit, Tina and Amy were true-to-form great hosts. Their monologue poked fun in a playful way, just inches away from crossing any lines. The most memorable had to be the Matt Damon comment (which he continued on with when he took the stage to present later on, lol) and the George Clooney comment about him not wanting to date someone the same age.

I don't remember seeing him or Brad Pitt or even Angelina Jolie (who I was kinda pleased not to see, don't care for her much) there at all. Yet at the end of the night, the "12 years a slave" crew gave props to Brad Pitt for helping them get their picture made...
Clooney supposedly had a lot of influence on "Argo" the year before, so that has to be the latest big thing in Hollywood.
Get A-list toppers Clooney and Brad Pitt involved in your picture and it's bound to go far.

So ends that awards show... phew... I'm debating about whether to do an entry on the Oscar nominees later this week, but there's really no hurry with that one. The show doesn't come until March.

...one last night.
Lea Thompson was my other favorite moment of the night. She was presenting with her heels in one hand and a martini in the other. When it came to opening the envelope, she decided to toss the shoes behind her and trade the martini glass for the envelope :-P
still think she shoulda won for "Saving Mr. Banks"... another movie I'd like to see as well.

Like I said, there'll be plenty of time to see everything before the big night.