Post by taxidriver on Jan 5, 2006 8:28:29 GMT -5
Mean Girls (2004)
See this if you liked… Clueless, Legally Blonde
Like. Oh. My. God.
First of all, I should mention that I’m a typical snobbish film geek, who likes nothing more than watching a couple an hours of soul-destroying Bergman, or analysing the cinematographic texture of a John Woo action sequence (OK, I don’t know what that means, but I’m sure I’ve done it sometime…). So when I put the Mean Girls DVD into my computer, it was with a certain amount of trepidation. A good friend of mine, who has sort of become my life coach (I’m really not very cool as a person), told me that I had to watch this, or bad things would happen. So I watched.
And you know what? Fuck Bergman. Fuck him in the ear. This is without doubt one of the most refreshing, funny, sharp comedies I have seen recently. And not in a post-modern, Buffy way, either – “The three-headed goblin from Hell is actually a metaphor for homosexuality, guys”. No, it’s got all the makings of a chick flick, but yet is loved by all men alike (I like to think I speak for the male population as a whole). It could be American Pie, but it’s just too clever. (Plus there are no boobies.)
Lindsey Lohan is Cady, a girl who has been home schooled her whole life, and is therefore thoroughly baffled by the conventions and hierarchies of modern American high school life. She is befriended by arty chick Janis and gay guy Damian, who show her all the different cliques in the school, including the sexually-active band geeks, the nerd Asians, the cool Asians, the jocks, and last but not last least, ‘The Plastics’, a trio of beautiful, superficial, back-stabbing rich girls, headed by Regina George, ably played by Rachel McAdams. The Queen Bee of the school, she is despised and admired by everyone else. Her sidekicks are ditzy airhead Karen, and insecure rich girl Gretchen (“Ex-boyfriends are just off limits to friends. I mean that's just like the rules of feminism.”)
The film would probably have played out like a typical teen comedy with a moral, had it not been for SNL headwriter Tina Fey on script duties. She manages to pack in hilarious jokes, smaller comic touches (the MTV-obsessed little sister, Cady’s blissfully-unaware dad), while still making the characters believable and deep, or appropriately shallow, in the case of Regina and Co. The v/o is also excellent, with lines like “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” Fey co-stars alongside veterans Neill Flynn and Ana Gasteyer, plus SNL’s Tim Meadows and Amy Poehler – scene-stealing as Regina’s “cool mom”.
Somewhat surprisingly, the kids are able to match up to their older co-stars, Lohan on excellent form as the naïve yet clever new girl, and McAdams threatening to steal the whole show with her uber-bitchiness burning beneath that beautiful smile. Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried, Gretchen and Karen respectively, provide good comic relief either side of their leader, and are unexpectedly loveable at times. The actors playing Janis and Damian have a great repartee, and their bitchy-yet-affectionate relationship is instantly recognizable in real life.
GOOD:
• Razor-sharp script that will appeal to everyone, boy or girl, old or young.
• Great performances all round.
• Lindsey Lohan: hoooooo yeah! (sorry, couldn’t help myself)
• Challenges Napoleon Dynamite for quotability – “I know, right?” “That is so fetch!”
SO-SO:
• The male talent is not that well represented, Flynn and Meadows with not nearly enough screentime, and the ‘man candy’, Jonathan Bennett, instantly forgettable.
BAD:
• Don’t see this expecting nudity and gross Pie style gags. This is PG-13, after all.
• The irritatingly MTV-style soundtrack might grate on some.
• Despite Fay’s attempt to bend the rules of the teen genre, the ending is sadly predictable and uninspired.
OVERALL: 8/10
“So fetch!”
See this if you liked… Clueless, Legally Blonde
Like. Oh. My. God.
First of all, I should mention that I’m a typical snobbish film geek, who likes nothing more than watching a couple an hours of soul-destroying Bergman, or analysing the cinematographic texture of a John Woo action sequence (OK, I don’t know what that means, but I’m sure I’ve done it sometime…). So when I put the Mean Girls DVD into my computer, it was with a certain amount of trepidation. A good friend of mine, who has sort of become my life coach (I’m really not very cool as a person), told me that I had to watch this, or bad things would happen. So I watched.
And you know what? Fuck Bergman. Fuck him in the ear. This is without doubt one of the most refreshing, funny, sharp comedies I have seen recently. And not in a post-modern, Buffy way, either – “The three-headed goblin from Hell is actually a metaphor for homosexuality, guys”. No, it’s got all the makings of a chick flick, but yet is loved by all men alike (I like to think I speak for the male population as a whole). It could be American Pie, but it’s just too clever. (Plus there are no boobies.)
Lindsey Lohan is Cady, a girl who has been home schooled her whole life, and is therefore thoroughly baffled by the conventions and hierarchies of modern American high school life. She is befriended by arty chick Janis and gay guy Damian, who show her all the different cliques in the school, including the sexually-active band geeks, the nerd Asians, the cool Asians, the jocks, and last but not last least, ‘The Plastics’, a trio of beautiful, superficial, back-stabbing rich girls, headed by Regina George, ably played by Rachel McAdams. The Queen Bee of the school, she is despised and admired by everyone else. Her sidekicks are ditzy airhead Karen, and insecure rich girl Gretchen (“Ex-boyfriends are just off limits to friends. I mean that's just like the rules of feminism.”)
The film would probably have played out like a typical teen comedy with a moral, had it not been for SNL headwriter Tina Fey on script duties. She manages to pack in hilarious jokes, smaller comic touches (the MTV-obsessed little sister, Cady’s blissfully-unaware dad), while still making the characters believable and deep, or appropriately shallow, in the case of Regina and Co. The v/o is also excellent, with lines like “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” Fey co-stars alongside veterans Neill Flynn and Ana Gasteyer, plus SNL’s Tim Meadows and Amy Poehler – scene-stealing as Regina’s “cool mom”.
Somewhat surprisingly, the kids are able to match up to their older co-stars, Lohan on excellent form as the naïve yet clever new girl, and McAdams threatening to steal the whole show with her uber-bitchiness burning beneath that beautiful smile. Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried, Gretchen and Karen respectively, provide good comic relief either side of their leader, and are unexpectedly loveable at times. The actors playing Janis and Damian have a great repartee, and their bitchy-yet-affectionate relationship is instantly recognizable in real life.
GOOD:
• Razor-sharp script that will appeal to everyone, boy or girl, old or young.
• Great performances all round.
• Lindsey Lohan: hoooooo yeah! (sorry, couldn’t help myself)
• Challenges Napoleon Dynamite for quotability – “I know, right?” “That is so fetch!”
SO-SO:
• The male talent is not that well represented, Flynn and Meadows with not nearly enough screentime, and the ‘man candy’, Jonathan Bennett, instantly forgettable.
BAD:
• Don’t see this expecting nudity and gross Pie style gags. This is PG-13, after all.
• The irritatingly MTV-style soundtrack might grate on some.
• Despite Fay’s attempt to bend the rules of the teen genre, the ending is sadly predictable and uninspired.
OVERALL: 8/10
“So fetch!”
