Mean Girls 2004

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The funniest, most unassumingly subversive teen movie since 2000's Bring It On. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: What it lacks in freshness ... Mean Girls makes up for with its shrewd insights into the female adolescent psyche and all its accompanying neuroses. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Tart and refreshing, Mean Girls is the kind of high-school movie that really feels as if it's for grown-ups -- but hey, the teens can come, too. Read more

Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune: Though not a perfect comedy, it manages to be quite often laugh-out-loud funny. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Lacks the genuine bile that made Heathers so bracing. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It has a little bit of National Lampoon sensibility, kinda funny; I can't quite recommend it. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Lohan, who intrepidly filled Hayley Mills' sneakers in the remake of The Parent Trap and butted heads with Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday, has grown into an accomplished and beautiful actress. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The movie is always entertaining and frequently smart about the new ground one girl will break to humiliate another. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Originality is never the point of an entertainment like this; the point is that director Mark Waters, who capably guided Lohan through last year's Freaky Friday, has specific marks to hit in Mean Girls, and he hits them with confidence. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: With colorful characters and snappy performances, Mean Girls is a rare laugh-out-loud film. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Fey may be going for wickedly funny, but alas, she stops at wicked. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A harbinger of hope not only for future feminist comedies of any grit but also for SNL-staffed feature films that don't disproportionately suck. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Lohan ... is a good reactive young actress, and London, Ont., native Rachel McAdams is excellently evil. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Often clever and insightful. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: It's as if Waters assembled a bunch of performers ... who were born to be thorns in the flesh of the status quo, and instructed them to remain calm at all times and pursue the happy, morally uplifting ending. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Proves to be less than the sum of its parts, but when it rocks, it rocks you silly. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: A smart little teen picture that, for a change, actually features recognizable teens. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Takes on issues of self-loathing, body image, competition and female sabotage. Even better, it does it with a smile. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: [Fey's] snappy script and the deft direction of Mark Waters, who did Freaky Friday, keep the laughs coming. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: This tart and often charming new comedy is a version of the heart-of-darkness teen social comedy Heathers for the tweener audience. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: A teen movie I enjoyed enormously, much to my surprise. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: It's that rare teen comedy that both teens and former teens can enjoy. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: In the end, Mean Girls isn't mean enough. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: In a wasteland of dumb movies about teenagers, Mean Girls is a smart and funny one. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Mean Girls isn't a particularly deep picture, but it does have some weight and ballast. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A smart little comedy that tries, within the limits of the teen-movie form, to say some real things about high school girls and the struggle for popularity. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Even at its squarest, the movie's mixture of parody and therapy feels kind of... hip. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's hard to find something nice to say about Mean Girls. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It all seems, finally, as if Fey is pulling her punches, an unusually defensive posture for her. Read more

Jessica Winter, Time Out: Happily, Fey and Waters gently tweak the studios' usual high-gloss caricature of adolescence and aim for acutely hilarious and surprisingly empathic sociology. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Girls, which gets funnier as it goes, is [Lorne Michaels'] best since 1992's Wayne's World. Read more

David Rooney, Variety: As she did in Freaky Friday, Lohan displays plenty of charm, verve and deft comic timing as she switches between innocence and craftiness. Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: Director Waters and screenwriter Tina Fey ... aim less for the usual high-gloss caricature than acutely hilarious sociology. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Boasts a one-two-three punch in star Lindsay Lohan, screenwriter Tina Fey and director Mark Waters, and, indeed, it delivers a knockout. Read more