The film begins with high school junior Cady Heron, who is starting school for the first time in Illinois. She was previously homeschooled and lived the last 12 years of her life in Africa.

When she gets to her first class, she accidentally bumps into her teacher, Ms. Norbury. Ms. Norbury spills her coffee all over her. Principal Duvall checks on them and Ms. Norbury claims that everything is fine.

However, the first day of school does not go well for Cady. No one wants to be friends with her. Her teachers aren’t exactly nice to her, either.

Not long after, though, Cady does make a couple of friends. They are Janis Ian and Damien Leigh. They take her outside the building during her health class and explain everything she needs to know about the students at North Shore High School.

At lunch, Cady comes across these popular girls known as the “Plastics.” They include Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith, and queen bee Regina George. They unexpectedly invite Cady to sit with them. They ask her some questions and go over guidelines about being part of their clique.

Janis, however, isn’t fond of the “plastics.” She comes up with a way to ruin their reputation, especially Regina’s.

Later, while in math class (which is one of Cady’s strengths), Cady develops a crush on this senior, Aaron Samuels. But he happens to be Regina’s ex. Karen and Gretchen tell Cady that she cannot be with him because of that. But Regina says that she doesn’t care if they go out.

Despite Janis’s dislike of that group, Cady enjoys hanging out with them. They go to the mall and Regina’s house. Regina has a cool mom with few rules.

While at her place, Cady and the other three create this thing called a “burn book.” There, they write insensitive remarks about other students at North Shore, and even the teachers.

At some point, Cady attends a Halloween party and dresses as a zombie bride (although she called it an ex-wife). Regardless of what Regina told her about Aaron; she kisses him at the event. Cady leaves in tears and runs over to Janis’s house since she feels betrayed.

Janis plans a way to embarrass Regina. They include making her smell worse, changing her “hot body,” and breaking her up with Aaron.

During that plan, though, Cady still hangs out with the “plastics.” She even does a dance with them in the school talent show.

 She is also doing worse in math. So, Aaron tutors her.

While in their session, Cady confesses that she only did poorly so that she could find a way to talk to him. He is not happy about that.

Regina has gained weight thanks to the high-calorie Swedish snack bars that Cady and Janis tricked her into. So, she wears sweatpants.

However, that is against the rules of the “Plastics.” Therefore, Gretchen and Karen dismiss her, and Cady becomes the new “queen bee.”

Janis tells Cady that she is having an art show. But Cady has plans to go with her parents somewhere out of town. Yet she is able to talk them into letting her stay behind.

During that time, Cady throws a house party. She does not have a good time, though. If that’s not bad enough, she drunkenly admits to Aaron certain lies and throws up. Aaron angrily leaves the party. Janis and Damien also come and yell at her for what she’s done.

When school starts again, Regina tearfully brings in the burn book. Then Principal Duvall calls Cady, Gretchen, and Karen into his office and gives them a hard time about the book.

Meanwhile, Regina passes around printouts of different students’ bad decisions. Fights break out.

Shortly after, all the junior girls are called to the gym to be given a lecture about their behavior. Then they talk about their social problems and write apologies to different classmates.

Regina, however, furiously storms out of the school—only to get hit by a bus. Cady is rumored to have pushed her there (although she didn’t) and everyone hates her.

Her parents even find out about what’s been going on at school. They ground her.

But Ms. Norbury is willing to give Cady extra credit by having her join mathletes. The president of that club is Kevin Gnapoor. They’ve been wanting a girl on their team for a while.

Can Cady turn things around and fix her reputation?

This movie kept me engaged all the way through. The pacing was fast, and the scenes switched at just the right times.

The level of conflict was also quite high. It was one of the reasons I did not get bored once.

The characters were memorable, well-developed, and believable. They acted like real high school students, although not all of the actors were close in age with the characters.

Lindsay Lohan, who played Cady, was 17 when the movie was shot. The actress who played Regina, Rachel McAdams, was in her mid-20s. It is common for teenage characters to be played by actors in their 20s or even 30s because of child labor laws. But that’s a different topic.

Anyway, I admired how the high school had believable groups of students. Unfortunately, that included some stereotypes that might be offensive today.

There were several moments of outdated content and dialogue that could be insensitive to modern-day audiences. They included using the R-word or gay as a way to call something stupid and putting down people for being homosexual.

During the scene where Cady first meets the “plastics,” she says that she came from Africa. One of the girls then asked why she was white. That’s racist! Luckily, though, she gets told that she shouldn’t ask people questions like that.

Regardless of the outdated and inconsiderate material, they were not major enough to ruin the story for me. I still enjoyed it.

I also found the characters to be relatable since they reminded me of my high school days—well, sort of. I did not relate to everything from the teenage characters.

The teachers were not always believable. They would discuss things with students that would likely have gotten them in trouble in real life, as well as other inappropriate actions.

For instance, when Ms. Norbury tried to take off her sweater, her entire bra was exposed. She probably would have been fired for that in real life.

But then again, movies are not always credible. Regardless of Principal Duvall’s unnatural response to that moment above, he was believable for the most part.

Some parts were also kind of funny. For example, when Cady threw a party, some kids were playing catch with a vase. And she casually said, “Hey, put that down,” and placed it under the kitchen sink in a cabinet.

Another moment I found amusing was during the talent show scene, when the “plastics” dressed as female Santas and danced to “Jingle Bell Rock.” They accidentally kicked the stereo box playing the song and it got messed up. Luckily, everyone in the audience knew the lyrics and sang the rest of it. That was nice.

Like with any good movie, this one had a good number of twists and turns. See it to find out what they are.

Overall, I enjoyed Mean Girls. It was a fun movie with memorable characters and high school life.

Note that this movie is rated PG-13 due to language, underage drinking, and some mild sexual content. I recommend that audiences be at least 12 to see this movie.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.