Mean Girls

The source of Mark Waters’ 2004 film is not a novel but Rosalind Wiseman’s non-fiction study of teenage cliques, Queen Bees and Wannabes. The book carries no story, so Tina Fey invented the characters and plot from nothing. That is why the opening moves like a taxonomy: the cafeteria is mapped before Cady knows anyone, and interior life is deferred. Both leads ended up in the opposite of the part they wanted. Lindsay Lohan asked to play Regina and the studio steered her to Cady; Rachel McAdams read for Cady, was told she was far too old, and was handed Regina. Some of the most quoted lines exist in their present form because of a classification fight. To secure a PG-13 rather than an R, the production cut the sex act from the hot dog joke and replaced it with making out, which is exactly why the line lands so strangely. Waters refused to cut a separate joke about female anatomy and won. The story is set in Evanston but shooting took two months in Toronto. A warning for anyone watching with a young teenager: the plot includes a teacher sleeping with a student, a drunk mother and a heavy vocabulary of slurs. Best for a viewer who accepts a third act that trades satire for a reconciliation assembly.