Mean Girls 2004- From A Guy's Perspective

My Favorite Teen Movie Of All Time

When I hit my late teens, my parents decided it was time to introduce me to the ultimate teen movie of the 2000s: Mean Girls. At first, I wasn’t so sure. Just look at the cover—it doesn’t exactly look like it’s for guys.

But when I saw Tina Fey wrote it and the girl from Freaky Friday (the only other movie I knew Lohan from) was in it, I decided to watch it.

And thank God I did.

Some movies are meant to be watched at a certain time of your life, and I believe that Mean Girls is meant to be watched by teenagers (probably who Tina Fey was writing it for).

That was the most fun I’ve ever had while watching a movie—I ended up watching it not once, not twice, but three times. I think I just found my guilty pleasure movie.

The movie was perfectly cast. Lindsay Lohan was incredible as Cady Heron—she felt like a real teenager, someone I could meet and connect with in real life. You need to relate to the characters or the experiences they’re going through in a teen movie. And while I can’t relate to the teenage girl experience, I could totally imagine being at that school, interacting with all those characters. That’s what makes this teen movie so special to me.

At first, I thought the whole “I moved here from Africa” storyline felt a bit odd and took away from the typical teenage experience. But by the end, I loved it, thanks to Tina Fey’s brilliant foreshadowing and excellent character development.

The movie’s been out for 20 years now so I don’t think it needs a spoiler warning, but here’s a spoiler alert in case you haven’t seen it yet.

The scene near the beginning where Cady talks about how conflicts were handled in Africa—and it cuts to the kids acting like animals—completely caught me off guard. I felt a weird mix of being confused and kind of weirded out. But then, fast forward to the part at the end where Regina’s Burn Book gets leaked, and all the girls start fighting in school like animals. That’s when it clicked. All that jungle imagery going on in Cady’s head was foreshadowing the chaos to come. Looking back, it seems so obvious, but I didn’t catch it when I first watched it.

Seeing this while still in high school made me appreciate the movie even more. They captured the social hierarchy and awkwardness of high school perfectly. That said, nothing at my school was ever as extreme as the drama at North Shore High, but the exaggeration just made it more fun.

 

I also loved how, by the end, Cady became just a regular teenager. She stopped trying to live by everyone else’s expectations and found her own path. She joined the Mathletes and didn’t care what anyone thought about it. I respected that and felt like I could relate.

The whole “Plastics” group was so amusing. Everyone in this movie had their funny moments, like actual laugh out loud moments for me. I loved Tim Meadows as the Principal? Perfect casting.

This is one of those movies where, if I told someone I loved it, they’d probably be surprised. I’m a little surprised myself. But Mean Girls just connected with me on so many levels. I could easily watch it 100 more times—it’s so funny and surprisingly relatable.

High school teen comedies have officially become my guilty pleasure, and when one is written by Tina Fey and stars Lindsay Lohan at her peak, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

I honestly believe Mean Girls is the best teen comedy of all time. The cast was phenomenal, the plot was super fun and easy to follow, and the movie helped launch the careers of so many actors, like Amanda Seyfried.

This movie was such a fun time. I can’t thank Tina Fey enough for making this gem. I might be a little biased because I am a teenager, but my parents enjoyed this movie a lot too, so I’d say it's suitable for adults too.

At the very end of the movie, Cady says something that really stuck with me: “Calling someone else fat won’t make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid won’t make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George’s life did not make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem right in front of you.”

She’s right–why bring other people down when you can try to be the best person you can be?

I can’t recommend this movie enough. Go watch Mean Girls. You won’t regret it.