Midweek Mention...Mean Girls

Mean Girls

Sidey: This week's midweek movie we're going to chat about is mean girls,

Reegs: Yeah,

Sidey: which is a very appropriate movie for a bunch of four year old dads to yarn on about, because this is one you really pushed for.

Reegs: I did push for this because I thought it would be funny to review it. And I'd also heard it was a half decent movie. So um,

Sidey: on with it?

Reegs: I didn't watch it sadly.

Dan: Oh, you watch it. You've

Reegs: no, I didn't. No,

Dan: other

Sidey: I had seen it before and I watched it again for this.

Dan: fuck for that. Cause otherwise it's just me.

Reegs: that was commitment for you to be fair. I do still want to see it, but

Sidey: should say it because we get it out of the way, right? The start it's it's all right. It's pretty good fun. I did end up watching it with my daughter and it's probably not

Dan: Probably a bit racer. Yeah, probably a bit racy for a

Sidey: but we also watched Mission impossible rogue nation with her this week, which is certainly not appropriate.

So we just thought, fuck it. Let's just, let's just go all in. This is the story of Lindsey, Lohans, Katie Heron, and it's spelled C a D Y, and it crops up a lot in the film of people missing. Pronouncing her name. And I think it's supposed to be funny that she has to keep correcting them. It's one of the jokes that kind of falls a bit flat.

And I think when Americans say it does sound more like Katie, Katie but. I don't know if it's a common name or whatever it is, but it's just one of the things that so she plays Katie Heron, who parents are zoologists and they were based in Africa. I don't think they were more specific than that. But they have now relocated. Stateside. And she's only ever been homeschooled. So this is her first high school experience. So we get the introduction to school.

Reegs: Is she kind of a door core.

Sidey: texts, basically all the boxes in that she's very, very intelligent. But also hot,

Dan: Ready hot

Reegs: Okay.

Sidey: hotness is played down because she wears like a baggy t-shirt.

Dan: before I say she's really hot. How old is she when this is kind of a breakthrough role? Isn't

Sidey: a 16 year old in there so that we're in statutory rape territory and it's made that clear, but we should also point out that her tits are fucking massive

Dan: she was like 22 playing this role or

Sidey: Yeah. Fucking wild. So she was coming off the back of her sort of Disney years. So she'd done the parent trap some other fucking shot

Reegs: This is the way she just went totally bonkers. Wasn't it for ages and drugs and,

Sidey: if it was during this or after this, because she was pretty big name once this came out.

But the, the, the actual cost in this is phenomenal. So you've got Lindsay Lohan. You've got Rachel McAdams. You've got, obviously Amanda C freed, who I think they were just on the cusp of becoming. Stars at this point it's written by Tina Fey and she's also in it. You've got Amy Poehler as well. And Lizzy Caplan, who's someone who I really, really like.

She's great. Do you remember her from hot tub time machine?

Reegs: Yes.

Sidey: She was also in true blood and gets all

Dan: Which characters she played in this.

Sidey: she was the sort of stereotype goth character who

Dan: Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She was

Sidey: And then they make the really, really shit, Joe, that she's not lesbian. She's Lebanese.

Reegs: Uh,

Sidey: Out.

It does fall foul of a lot of the sort of stereotyping of people in school sort of tropes.

Dan: classic sort of, this is where the Asian nerd set. This is

Sidey: yeah,

Reegs: jocks, the goths.

Dan: Exactly. All the, all

Sidey: Well, it hurt her two initial friends that she makes as a school are Genesee and played by Lucy Kaplan and Damien played by Daniel for Nazy I think is how you pronounce his name. And so he is a gay character and she is a goth character.

So they are on the fringes of all the different groups or they actually make Katie a map. And it's got written out where all the people, the different cliques set, so you've got and I don't know if this ends up being kind of, sort of stereotypically sort of crudely racist, but it's like geeky, Asians.

And then like somebody says something about the black women you know, it's sort of really pigeonholes all these different groups together. But that,

Dan: but it's kind of true, isn't it? I mean, we like to think about, but people do sit together. You know what I mean? If you've got, you know, if you're from India and you're in a high school in anywhere, then you might find yourself sitting with other Indian people. Or if

Sidey: I should have looked it up

Dan: Sporty

Sidey: almost exactly the same scene was done in 10 things. I hate about you

Dan: It's a

Sidey: Joseph Gordon-Levitt shows what's his name around the school and he points them all out. Is it like exactly

Dan: since

Reegs: it's a classic scene though.

Dan: why? It's true because it's true. Cause when you go to a skull, you will see all the football team hanging around together. You see all the popular girls hanging around together. You'll see all the compute nodes

Sidey: say, that's the, that's the last group that she gets introduced with. Those are the plastics. So this is your Rachel McAdams is the, the, the leader she's Regina, she's the leader of this trio of superficial blondes. Well, they're not all blonde, but you know, there's, so they call them the plastics and they sort of befriend Katie for no real reason other

Dan: she's the new gal bit exotic.

Sidey: and she's kind of hot.

So they want to,

Dan: Claimer claimer before another group does I think

Sidey: Yeah, it wasn't really clear to me what their

Dan: what was it? W was it because the, one of the, the boyfriend the who's the hot guy, there's a hot guy in it, and he kind of pays her a bit of attention. And then I think one of the plastics, yeah, Erin, it may have been Erin.

One year the plastics pays him a bit of attention.

Sidey: she, she gets kind of hit on or, or like the guy tries to embarrass her in the at lunch time and he says, have you had your muffin buttered?

Dan: right. Yes.

Sidey: was going to be a different line, but there were lots of things that got

Dan: I'm getting confused, but that w that was what it was. That's happened right in front of the plastics table. Didn't it at lunch break.

Sidey: I'd they, they basically stick up for him and tell him to fuck off. It's the only sort of decent thing they do in the movie barely. they have history basically with Lizzie captain's character Genesee and I buy. Want to take Katie under her wing. And the two original frames basically see this as a way to infiltrate their gang, listen to all the stupid shit they say and kind of take them down for some reason,

Dan: just because the school kids, the school kids, that's not of a weighting reason, is it because they can,

Sidey: And you'd never guess what happens, but Katie basically becomes a plastic shock horror.

Dan: Well, she kind of does fish. She kind of doesn't she's she's like on the fringes of it. Oh, is he? Because she still keeping open communications with the other team, but she's let them down on a couple of occasions as well, where she should have

Sidey: No, I think, I, I think it's, I'd say she goes for plastic.

Dan: Oh, I didn't know. I think she would argue, she was always a little bit short of full plastic. Yo. That's why she could keep the ties open. You know why she could keep both groups kind of pissed off and kind of happy?

Sidey: something happened. I don't want to spoil it for your race. Cause I would like

Dan: I can see you're absolutely

Sidey: has to take some time out for some reason. And it's a pretty brutal scene actually. And. Katie becomes the defacto leader of the plastics,

Reegs: Hmm.

Sidey: have, they have this thing called the burn book.

This is the crux of the

Dan: This is shit. This book, this is like a book where they've all written the nastiest shit and they put on photographs of that person and then said, this goes a real slot or this guy's  and, you know, whatever. And there's some. There's some heavy shit in there, even to the point.

Wait, who's it. Coach, coach, whoever

Sidey: coach what's, his name is banging some,

Dan: one of the

Sidey: he's got a thing for Asian

Dan: So he's banging one of the A's and students. Yes.

Sidey: into them. And then

Dan: of them.

Sidey: Tina, his character, the teacher she's having to work a couple of jobs because she's divorced. And they've written in the book that she's a drug dealer or there's got a really bitchy shit.

And eventually the book gets leaked. It gets photocopied and put all around the scores. So everyone gets to read

Dan: you and your daughter was watching this bit or ye you must be phasing out or this side, looking around over your shoulder and just going, maybe I should turn this down or off.

Sidey: so we have, we've got to have this journey where they reconcile effectively Katie has to own up because she had written some, she had joined in and she actually uses one of their catch phrases about Damien about being too gay to function that's that's written in the book. And so they know.

Dan: that's one of their lines. You know what I mean?

Sidey: the book because she's lifted that line directly out of them.  So there's all this, you know, the reconciling getting back in with the old click and not pissing off the odor and there's a kind of happy resolution at the end, but I'm sure you'll be relieved to

Reegs: I am relieved. Cause I didn't know which way it was going to

Dan: well, yeah, cause it's, it's a little bit cleverer than your average trash, to be honest, it is marketed as your average trash market, I guess, you know, it's just,

Reegs: It's it's literally marketed as your average trash

Dan: Yeah. It's a, it's a teen flick where they'll just want to get people in for a bit of a vom comedy kind of thing. But this with the writers have taken it to a and the acting is taking it to another level, to be honest.

And as side, he said, it turns out there's a bit of a stellar cost in this. You know, you got a few years down the line and you realize, actually, these are some fine actors in this that played in this

Sidey: well, Tina Fey's writing does elevate it, you know, above your usual kind of um, just sort of horny teams or silliness. I mean, it does have a lot of that. But also Tina Fey's Saturday night live alumni. Isn't shared as there's three, I think others in this, and also it's produced by Lauren Michaels.

So it's got a lot of

Reegs: Clout.

Sidey: high quality comedy clout behind it.

Dan: Yeah. It sets it

Reegs: I'm getting the sense that you guys enjoyed this.

Sidey: I did enjoy it. Yeah, I did enjoy it. It's it's after

Dan: wasn't torture, you know?

Sidey: not, it's not, I don't think directly aimed at people about but if you've got, you know, we've got daughters it sort of makes you think Christ or mighty, what's it going to be like when they go

Reegs: Uh, Yeah.

Dan: but also it's, it's kind of, it's clever than that even, you know, he's got, he's got more about it that you You laugh for long with some of the lines of some of that, the teachers the one that's accused of drug dealing, for example, she's gone through this divorce and she's really kind of coal as well.

How, you know, teachers can be and teachers are generally and as I said, the acting, I think just elevates this to another level. Along with the writing.

Sidey: It's quite sad because you've got this Gulu sort of fascination with what happened to Lindsay Lohan and she's decent in there. She does, you know, she could act all right. You know, she's not sh you wonder what, what her career might have turned out. Like, I don't know exactly the timeline I was trying to read through stuff last night.

That is so much stuff about her online about She, she was very, I think she had very difficult upbringing. Her father, I think, was abusive. Her mother is very, very pushy. I think her sister

Reegs: controlling. They always have controlling parents. Don't they.

Sidey: She'd done hundreds and hundreds of adverts and things when she was, you know, very, very young, single figure age, and then pushed into the sort of Disney route

Dan: like how his place.

Sidey: yeah, a lot of the kids that go through that Disney upbringing, it don't always come out.

The other end. Too healthy. And you do want to, it's difficult one because and I suppose totally should have sympathy for her because it's been difficult, but I was reading some of the other stuff where. People have tried to employ her. It was really one about, I don't know if you've heard a bit of film called the canyons, which I think was

Reegs: yeah, I had about that. Yeah.

Sidey: Paul Schrader who wrote taxi driver. He wrote and directed this one and I'm at a micro budget. And you know, the budget in total was 250 grand for the film at quite a few porn stars because it, it, the, the, the central concept of the film was about a sex scene that ruined the relationship.

Dan: The one,

Reegs: Canyon suffered or

Sidey: the canyons. But the, the, the article was, I was reading. I think it was in the New York times. It was just,

Reegs: she lost the plot. Didn't she?

Sidey: they had to report on, on the sat the whole time without going through just how a polling her behavior was, but also self destructive. And so you want to be sympathetic with someone, but you also, someone needs to help themselves a little bit.

Dan: Yeah, such a spot is it's such a spiral. You know, people can get

Sidey: And this she's fresh face, you know, she's dead young, she's fresh face. She's clearly got some towels. But you know, other factors took over and just kind of spoil she ended up doing some fucking God awful reality thing. I think on MTV, which is a fucking complete disaster as well.

Dan: Well, she

was hot in this and she was dated in this. So if you want to kind of have a look at it, food, those glasses and see the, the potential and potentially she's still has, you know, I mean, you'd never white people off, but it's. I love it. A redemption story. And so does Hollywood. So maybe we'll see her again and right at the beginning, vitally and let's hope so.

But wigs, they surprise me this because it was one of those where I thought fucking Migos really. I've got, I've got better shit to do. You know what I mean? I've got, I've got a pile of fucking work I need to do over there. I've got CA I'm going to squeeze in Mingo this week, Westheimer playing, you know, there's tons going on.

Um,  this was a pleasant surprise in the midst of all that. And

Reegs: I'd heard. It was pretty good. So you guys seem to confirm it, so I will definitely watch it at

Dan: Nice watch to watch with the messages or, you know, it's a nice light entertainment thing when you're not sure what the put on, put this on you. Wouldn't be too disappointed for an

Sidey: this was 2004 and there's a 2011 sequel with no one from. the, you know,

Reegs: Yeah. Because they were all stars by then.

Sidey: and I willing to wager that you will see that I haven't, you

Dan: You should see that one first.

Sidey: reckon the quality, you will see that

Dan: Good waste a couple of waste, a couple of hours on that one first and then goes to this one.

Sidey: This will seem like citizen Kane that in that case.

Reegs: we like to present the balanced view. So I do have a couple of Google movie reviews.

Dan: best this best.

Reegs: Hey, Lee travelin giving a five star review. So spoiler alert, this review contains spoilers that I'm alerting you to. I just love it when Regina gets hit by a bus, I wish my enemy could get hit by a bus sometimes.

Which I haven't seen. So I assume that's a pretty

Sidey: I was trying not to tell you about.

Reegs: yeah. One star.

Dan: Great line. It was a great scene though. It's very clever.

Reegs: The counter view was for a Matio Hessel bath who gave it a one-star rating. And he's put a one star rating because the whole plot is illegal here in Bolivia. Which I think is also useful to know. So that's the, that's the broad spectrum of reviews.

Dan: Wha I,

I

Reegs: rare.

Sidey: it's illegal to go to school in

Dan: Yeah, it must

Reegs: Maybe, maybe,

Sidey: Well, overall, I would say this is pretty solid. It's a, it's a good one, especially if you've got a age appropriate daughter to watch it with, because they'd get loud this as well.

Dan: I would say if you've got an evening where you're not sure what to put on, then check this out. You won't go too far. Well,