Mean Girls

By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * * *)


Smart, funny, insightful - can this really be a mainstream comedy about girls in an American high school? Well, yes, but there is a catch. Mean Girls was inspired by a non-fiction, self-help book by sociologist Rosalind Wiseman, which trades under the title Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence, and served as a launch-pad for her Empower Program.

Lindsay Lohan (Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Freaky Friday) stars as Cady Heron, who was home-schooled in Africa while her parents worked there as anthropologists. When Dad returns to an American university, Cady finds she's the smartest girl in school - book-smart, that is, not street- or playground-smart.

Cady makes friends with the class outsiders, Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), who will oversee her social studies. On the other side of the playground are the Plastics, the popular girls who are so named because they look like Barbie - Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried). Naturally, we now have two cliques trying to do each other down.

Of the adults, screenwriter Tina Fey does extra duty as Ms Norbury, the maths teacher, and Tim Meadows is Mr Duvall, the principal you might have wished you had, because he's more grounded than most.

But this one is all about the girls, and how that old line about schooldays being the best years of your life just ain't true.

On the DVD, the stars recall their schooldays and the culture of bitchiness among girls; sociologist Wiseman gives a professional view in her short documentary, The Politics Of Girl World, touching on the peer pressure, self-esteem issues, and a society obsessed with image.

It's not all serious, though. There are features likely to be of more interest to the audience, like a detailed rundown of the clothes, nine deleted scenes, and a blooper reel.

* DVD, video rental, out now