Mean Girls

REVIEW
Watch out Heathers, there's a new clique in town, and they're taking no prisoners. They're called the Plastics, and they embody everything good and everything evil about such young girls who wield such power in the hallways of American high schools. Taking its cue from Clueless and Heathers, the charmingly funny, often rude but never tasteless Mean Girls is based on Rosalind Wiseman's book "Queen Bees and Wannabes." With a sharp, funny screenplay adaptation from Tina Fey ("Saturday Night Live"), the story focuses on young Cady Heron (Lohan), who at 16 is attending school for the first time. Pretty, intelligent and quickly befriending the school misfits, Cady is taken in by the Plastics and groomed to be one of their own. Only she's doing it get the dirt on them . . . that is until she starts to like being a queen bee, not a wannabe. Lohan, who is reunited with Freaky Friday director Waters, is absolutely captivating. There's not a false note in her performance -- whether falling in love with the class hunk, being a good-natured wannabe or a mean-spirited queen. The ensemble is first-rate, and they fortunately have some delicious dialogue to repeat. Like Cady or Lindsay herself, Mean Girls is a cut above the rest. It's a smart look at the social strata of contemporary teens, and presents it in a thoroughly entertaining and humorous fashion.