Mean Girls

Mean Girls arrives as a comedy directed by Mark Waters, and its first strength is a clear sense of purpose. Lindsay Lohan and Jonathan Bennett give Mean Girls a recognisable human centre before the larger mechanics take over. The central situation in Mean Girls comes into focus without a long explanation: 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. Across its 1h 37m running time, Mark Waters keeps Mean Girls careful about tone and generally effective.

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In Mean Girls, Mark Waters directs with a manner that is careful about tone and generally effective rather than eager to prove itself. Scenes in Mean Girls gain weight when Mark Waters holds attention on a decision instead of hurrying toward its result. The film delivers more often than it misses for Mean Girls, since the film keeps returning to its clearest dramatic priorities. The caveat is that Mean Girls occasionally reveals how the middle loses a little urgency, which slightly weakens the build.

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Lindsay Lohan approaches Mean Girls with a useful mixture of commitment and restraint, making the role feel inhabited. Jonathan Bennett provides Mean Girls with an effective change of temperature whenever their character enters the scene. Even in limited space, Rachel McAdams gives Mean Girls another recognisable personality rather than a simple plot function. Mark Waters maintains a shared performance language across Mean Girls, which matters when tone or pace begins to shift.

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Mean Girls gains much of its identity from performer rhythm, a choice that makes the world readable as well as attractive. The contribution of Paramount Pictures allows Mean Girls to combine performer rhythm with a consistent visual language. Within its United States setting, Mean Girls makes particularly good use of comic timing built around character when the story needs to change scale. Sound and editing preserve the personality of Mean Girls by supporting detail instead of announcing every intended response.

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Mean Girls finds its clearest story engine when Cady Heron comes into conflict with Plastics. That engine gives Lindsay Lohan something concrete to pursue and protects Mean Girls from empty movement. In the hands of Rosalind Wiseman, Aaron Samuels becomes a useful complication rather than a detached twist within Mean Girls. The final use of Plastic Regina George is familiar, but Mean Girls has already established enough context for the turn to matter.

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The thematic thread that gives Mean Girls weight is embarrassment, status and the gap between confidence and reality. Lindsay Lohan grounds that thread so Mean Girls never has to choose completely between entertainment and reflection. A recurring focus on Plastics gives the ideas in Mean Girls enough dramatic pressure to matter. Under Mark Waters, Mean Girls works best when viewers are invited to notice the theme before any character explains it.

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Taken as a whole, Mean Girls is a likeable film whose strengths survive its limitations for comedy fans who respond to personality and timing. Mean Girls leaves its strongest impression through performer rhythm, the work of Lindsay Lohan and a clear understanding of tone. The limitations around how the middle loses a little urgency should be acknowledged, but they do not erase what Mean Girls does well. I would return to Mean Girls for its personality and its willingness to connect genre pleasure with recognisable feeling.