Teenagers React to 'Mean Girls' Ten Years After Its Release

Ready to feel old? “Mean Girls” was released ten years ago this month, April 30, 2004 to be exact. To put that into perspective, star Lindsay Lohan was only 17 years old when “Mean Girls” was filmed. If the high school comedy written by Tina Fey had been made today, its star would probably have been born in 1997. Ouch.

And how does the film hold up ten years later? According to the latest video “Teens React to…”, it’s holding up pretty well.

Even kids who were three or four years old when “Mean Girls” was released (they're high school students now! Gah!) look at the movie fondly. It's very rare for a film to appeal across generations like this one, let alone for it to be cited a decade later by children who were essentially infants when it was first released.

Starring Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert and Lizzy Caplan, the high school comedy has become something of a cult classic in the years since its theatrical release. Most of the people involved in the film went on to much bigger careers, including Fey, McAdams, Seyfried, and Caplan.

But why does “Mean Girls” have this kind of staying power? What did it do that other teen comedies of the same era didn't? (We're looking at you, “Get Over It.”)

On the one hand, the film manages to capture the experience of North American high school students – particularly the experience of teenage girls – in a way that is both entertaining and non-condescending. Although the characters may be to some extent caricatures, they are not that far removed from the people you may have known in high school. At its heart, “Mean Girls” is about the struggle to fit in, a timeless problem that's all too familiar to teenagers and anyone who's ever spent time in high school.

The film also benefits from having been made in the mid-2000s, a time when teen style and fashion was fairly neutral compared to films made a few years earlier or in the late 90s. Technology may have may have changed dramatically over the past decade, but unlike '90s teen movies like “Clueless” and “Can't Hardly Wait,” the way people dressed in 2004 didn't date from the movie (.. . For now). ).

“Mean Girls” is also very funny and very intelligent thanks to screenwriter Fey, who also stars in the film. Teen comedies are almost always vilified by film critics, but even the late critic Roger Ebert, who regularly decried the “desert of stupid teen movies”, praised the film in his positive review. And he was not alone in his assessment. The film currently enjoys an 83 percent fresh rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

Does “Mean Girls” have a modern equivalent? Will any of today's teen films be as well-regarded in ten years?

You could certainly point to films like “Superbad” (2007), “Chronicle” (2012) and “The Spectacular Now” (2013) as great examples of contemporary teen films that will have a lasting impact (mostly through concepts memorable). and fantastic reviews). Unfortunately, traditional teen comedies are becoming rare. The genre has largely been replaced by teen-oriented adventure films like “The Twilight Saga” and “The Hunger Games,” and the teen comedies that are currently being produced are mostly forgettable.

Will recent examples like “LOL,” “Easy A,” and “The To-Do List” be looked back upon fondly in 2024? We'll have to wait and see.