2004-05-07 - 12:09 p.m. Mean Girls I saw Mean Girls last night. This is a movie where a bunch of teen girls all try to get revenge on each other. I have seen it before in my life. I think that�s why I liked it. The actions of these girls was very close to I imagine real high school girls to act. Girls can be really sneaky and mean when it comes to fighting when they are angry at someone. They want to feel superior, but since they can�t confront them directly, they are sneaky. They hold grudges, spill secretes, and �burn� people in their burn book. That actually plays a critical part in movie. The burn book is like this collective binder when there is trash talking about anyone and everyone in school. You see when a girl is angry at someone for doing something; you put a picture of them in the book and then write something really nasty about them because you are so mad at their actions. It�s both a cathartic expunging of emotions and a way to feel superior over that other person. A big example of this was when Lindsey Lohan was really upset at her teacher for telling her that she shouldn�t be failing math, which she was doing for a guy. So she made up this lie about her teacher being a drug pusher. The idea was that because of their anger, they really wanted to talk about all the people at school behind their back to make up for their own inadequacies. Most of it was really funny to a third party (the audience). �She�s a fugly bitch� and so on. But the cool thing was, the thing that worked, was how you could see how it would hurt the characters in the movie, and yet it was funny to us. The best part about the movie was it never tried to be funny in every scene. It never took itself too seriously, but it wasn�t a bunch of skits thrown together, which is what I expected from a SNL writer. Cheers Tina Fey! I also liked it because I think she writes girls really well. The guys in the story were not really that important, and only two characters (Tim Meadows and Kevin G) were constant moments of comic relief. But not zany pie in the face, fall over a bench comedy. Their actions were funny because of how it related to everything and their actions made sense. I think that comedy writers lately don�t worry about if something makes sense or not. I think they think of something funny, and then get to that moment however they can, even at the cost of the overall story. But the performances were really good. I felt like I connected with the girls for the most part, and I did feel their angst and betrayal. The weakness of the movies were a few things that didn�t need to be in there. There was a scene where Lohan fell into a trash can. There was a gay joke at the beginning which was really bad. (Like the last skit of the night on SNL bad). I didn�t think that Lohan�s parents were that great either. I didn�t really understand the scenes with them all that much, and I didn�t feel like they connected with their only daughter in the film. Also I just want to comment� Take a look at the following photos. Lohan seems to have aged at least 8-9 years in between these photos, when really it�s barely five years apart. She is older here and just a little bit younger here. That�s just stupid. I remember watching her in Parent Trap and thinking, she's a nice child actor. I guess sometimes you forget that child actors grow up. Overall I give the film a B. I liked the comedy style, and the way everything worked together, but I didn�t like that sometimes the comedy was a little forced, and that the important peripheral characters (parents and boyfriend) were one dimensional. In the end, this was a good teen comedy that I think most people would enjoy. | |||||||||||
