Lauren Johnson Mr. Newman Rhetoric 101 10 October 2013 I Know About Popular Mark S.

Waters, Mean Girls, has film critics James Berardinelli and David Rooney holding two varying positions, as Berardinelli isnt pleased with the movies predictable teenage movie plot, while Rooney explains the movie captures the plot well through the perfectly picked cast. Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron moves from the African Sahara to the suburbs of Illinois, trying to assimilate herself into high school by relating her life to the jungle world she has become accustomed to, however, after being inducted with the plastics, who are the most popular girls in school, Cady loses touch of who she is trying to fit in with the popular crowd. Though Cady encounters many different obstacles attempting to become the girl all the students envy, its the setup of the storyline that serves as platform for the plot to unfold. However Berardinelli and Rooney both reference that the plot plays a large role of the content of the movie, but their focal points of the plot differ. Berardinelli begins with his opposing argument by offering that Mean Girls is much like any other sappy teen movie he has seen, and compares the movie to Heathers, saying that he is unpleased that the movie didnt follow a plot similar to this one. Berardinelli explains his reasoning for Mean Girls by saying, I would have liked Mean Girls more if it had followed the Heathers/Election mold and not gone into compromise mode during the last fifteen minutes. . . Mean Girls gives up on being a comedy and decides to morph into a traditional teen movie,

(Berardinelli). In contrast to this view, Rooney rebuttals Berardinellis point claiming that the plot of Mean Girls is executed correctly in the sense that he hasnt witnessed a movie like this before and the movie keeps the audiences attention until the end. To justify this point, Rooney states, And while the films erratic engine often runs low on steam after an effervescent start, the director, writer and cast give even the most reprehensible of the characters enough heart vulnerability to keep the audience invested in them, (Rooney). As Rooneys attention was kept through the duration of Mean Girls, Berardinelli focused more on trying to predict what was going to happen next, concluding with him having weakly supported review. Also, in contrast, Rooney notes that the plot twists that are placed at the beginning of Mean Girls create the elaborate story line that the film becomes. Witty setup skips over the early life of Cady Heron (Lohan), whos been home-schooled through childhood by her zoologist parents in Africa and is experiencing her first day of real school at age 16 (Rooney). With Cady missing the social skills a typical 16-year-old girl would have, this marks one of the first teenage films where the main character doesnt start out as a social butterfly, but socially awkward, having the story completely turn when Cady is asked to be a part of the plastics. And from living in Africa for so long, the only way Cady can understand real life issues is comparing it to the animal world, Rooney contributes by adding, Constantly returning to the animal kingdom as her frame of reference, Cady soon gets a sense of complex subculture network of a Midwestern public high school (Rooney). Yet, Berardinelli opposes Rooneys points by saying that much of the plot was very predictable having a sarcastic tone speaking about the plot, Berardinelli says, They teach her the ways of the school jungle, which, as it turns out, isnt that different from the African jungle where Cady spent some of her life (Berardinelli). Berardinellis sarcastic writing

style makes Mean Girls plot appear to be unoriginal because the plot gave away the motives of the rest of the movie. Both Berardinelli and Rooney reference that the plot of Mean Girls plays a large role in the content of the movie. Rooney places his focus on the role the characters play in the progression of the movie, Lohan displays plenty of charm, verve and deft comic timing as she switches between innocence and craftiness, (Rooney). Cadys role is a pawn between the popular girls and the outcasts, as the outcasts are trying to get back at the popular girls ring leader, Regina George (Rachel McAdams). Regina is the leader of the two other plastics, Karen (Amanda Seyfried) and Gretchen (Lacey Chabert), all of them being pretty, rich and popular. Regina, however, is crueler and forces her sidekicks to do her dirty work or turn their backs on each other. Having their high social cast, the plastics induct Cady into their group, being the fourth and final member of their clique. By Cady expressing her purity to the public high school experience, Cady is vulnerable to being manipulated to carry out the malicious motives of Regina and her outcast friends, gothic Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and almost too gay to function Damian (Daniel Franzese). But, these antics wouldnt work if Lohan wasnt oblivious as to what Mean Girls references as the ways of the girl world, meaning that talking about your friends behind their backs and dating your friends ex-boyfriend is completely understandable. However, when Cady began to catch the attention of Reginas ex-boyfriend and tensions within the plastics really began to grow, Berardinelli notices this trend and states, Cady falls for tall, dark, and handsome Aaron (Jonathan Bennett), one of Reginas exes. This, along with Cadys growing popularity around school, creates friction within the plastics and eventually pits Cady against Regina. The ensuing battle includes numerous dirty tricks, (Berardinelli). Without Cady playing innocent and easily manipulative, Aaron playing the love interest making Cady and Regina turn

against each other, Cadys outcast friends feeding her cruel ideas of sabotaging the plastics or even Regina teaching Cady what it feels like to be popular, the progression and outcome of Mean Girls would convey a different message. With the comparing and contrasting of James Berardinelli and David Rooneys ideas on the plot, characterization and focal points of Mean Girls, Rooney appears to watch Mean Girls with a clear mind, but Berardinellis opinions offer that he expects something different, offering a more bias opinion because he didnt want to enjoy the movie. Nevertheless, Mean Girls is a timeless film that portrays the pros and cons of high school the way the audience would like to remember them.

Works Cited Reelviews. Berardinelli, 30 Apr. 2004. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. Variety. Wordpress, 25 Apr. 2004. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.