This iconic 2000s movie was miles better than the book it was adapted from. Mean Girls is a highly quotable teen drama that was ahead of its time.
The film was directed by Mark Waters and stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer and Amy Poehler among others.
Some may not know that the film was loosely based on a 2002 nonfiction self-help/parenting book. Fey, who also wrote the film, took inspiration from Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, a book that describes the female high school experience of social cliques, school bullying, and the resulting damage to teenagers.
The film’s synopsis reads: “Teenage Cady Heron (Lohan) was educated in Africa by her scientist parents. When her family moves to the suburbs of Illinois, Cady finally gets to experience public school and gets a quick primer on the cruel, tacit laws of popularity that divide her fellow students into tightly knit cliques. She unwittingly finds herself in the good graces of an elite group of cool students dubbed “the Plastics,” but Cady soon realizes how her shallow group of new friends earned this nickname.”
The film has become a pique of popular culture and has since been remade as a musical. It gained a largely positive response on its release and has an impressive 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, while Queen Bees and Wannabes, was an insightful read, it is not quite as memorable. Wiseman and Fey teamed up to write the film and due to the sharp wit of SNL’s Fey, the film was a complete enhancement of the book.
The film pokes a lot of fun at the high school experience, where the book has a more somber tone.
Mean Girls is available to watch on ITVX, Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.