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Rachel McAdams: "Mean Girls"

 Most stories follow this prompt: "A stranger comes to town." Mean Girls is an iconic example: Having been homeschooled by brilliant parents in Africa, young Cady finds herself dumped in an Evanston calculus class. (Mom has accepted a job at Northwestern.)


Cady is poised and sensible, and the rituals of public school are baffling to her. The writer, Tina Fey, has vivid memories of the absurdity, the petty tyranny, of a classroom. When Cady stands to use the bathroom, the teacher doesn't allow this. But, also, the teacher doesn't just say: "Later." The teacher mentions a strange totem, a "hall pass," and, innocently, Cady requests the pass. It's only then that the teacher says: "Never! Back to your seat!!!!" Who hasn't lived through this moment?

Cady lusts for power--though she may not actually realize this--so she finds herself in competition with the Queen Bee, Regina George. What unfolds is like a spy movie; it's more Hitchcock than The Notebook. Regina aims to crush Cady through small assaults: "You look pretty. Oh, you agree? You personally think you're pretty?" Also, Regina stages three-way conference calls, fails to disclose the details, then has one friend betray another friend while all parties are covertly listening to one another.

Cady fights back by slipping Swedish "fattening pills" to Regina. ("They burn off all your calories. Trust me, I can read Swedish. Everyone in Africa reads Swedish.") Cady pretends to be bad at math as a way of stripping Regina of her special trophy boyfriend. ("I could really use some tutoring....") Finally, Cady may (or may not) push Regina in front of a moving bus. (If you ask me, the script leaves this question somewhat ambiguous.)

Second and third acts are a challenge, and the rehabilitated Cady is less interesting to me than the Cady who "breaks bad." Still, let's acknowledge that Mean Girls has the eleventh greatest film performance of this current century (according to "The New Yorker"). The performance belongs to Lindsay Lohan. Additionally, not one but two future Oscar nominees are in this cast: Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried. Seyfried's character has psychic breasts: They can tell when it might soon rain. Well, scratch that. With 30% accuracy, they can tell when the rain has *already* started falling.

In 2004, Seyfried was making clear that she wanted to be a character actress. America forgot this for many years. Then, The Dropout gave us a helpful reminder.
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