View:
Connections, in both directions
Heathers (1989)
Directed by Michael Lehmann
influenced Mean Girls (2004), Vampire Academy (2014)
Themes Plot Characters
The entire sub-genre was basically worked over in Heathers’ wake, with movies like Mean Girls and Jawbreaker and television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer depicting high school as a virtual (sometimes literal) hellscape — jaded, cynical, bitter little pills.
The early part of Mean Girls is like a mixture of Heathers (1989) and Goodfellas (1990), complete with breezy, journalistic narration: The nonconforming outcast Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan)—not the singer-songwriter but maybe a tribute to her—lays out the school's sundry cliques and draws a map of the segregated cafeteria.
Like Heathers with the edges filed down a bit...the kind of smooth, clever (and rare) entertainment that critics and audiences can all enjoy, guilt-free.
Sheâs hot, of course, so the Heathers â I mean, the Plastics (McAdams, Chabert, and Seyfried) â glom onto her.
The result is weirdly schizophrenic in tone; at times it seems like it wants to be a modern-day version of "Heathers" (which was written by Waterss brother, Daniel) and at other times, it seems content to be just another John Hughes knockoff.
I first heard Mean Girls described as Heathers without the killing.
The DUFF, adapted from Kody Keplinger’s 2011 YA novel of the same name, proceeds along the same broad path as countless high-school comedies before it—the echoes of Easy A and Mean Girls in particular are audible throughout the film—without a lot to distinguish it besides its title and a hyperactive, vlogger-influenced visual style that marks it as an artifact of the mid-2010s as strongly as its social-media obsession does.
While not as edgy as Mean Girls, The DUFF may have one of the more memorable headlining performances from Whitman, who many may recall as the forgettable Ann Veal on Arrested Development.
You won’t find much insight into teenage social circles — not that you were looking for it anyway — in this predictable comedy in the Mean Girls vein in which the title is a acronym for Designated Ugly Fat Friend.
While you wouldn’t put it in the same class as the similarly-themed (and still superb) Mean Girls - or even the under-rated Easy A - this film has its heart in the right place, and a strong cast that covers for most weaknesses.
The plot sounds an awful lot like She’s All That, Can’t Buy Me Love, 10 Things I Hate About You, Mean Girls, or even Some Kind of Wonderful, and it would be easy to dismiss sight unseen The DUFF as a copycat/rip-off of high school coming-of-age films from decades past.
While it's neither as biting as "Mean Girls" nor as sweetly referential as "Easy A," the earnest and sometimes amusing "The DUFF" is a fine addition to the canon.
(CNN) -- "Just Like Heaven" could draw comparisons to the wildly successful 1990 film "Ghost."
From here, the script follows the conventions of the traditional Hollywood supernatural romance -- from "Blithe Spirit" to "Portrait of Jennie" to "Ghost."
The movie is like a lot of things - such as similarly themed films "High Spirits," "Ghost" and "City of Angels" - but heaven isn't one of them.
The premise is a high-concept reimagining of Ghost, though director Mark Waters aims more for slapstick than mawkish sentiment.
Just Like Heaven: Reese and Ruffalo Remarkable in Thinly-Veiled Variation on "Ghost"…
Just Like Heaven tries to be an unholy union of Ghost and All of Me, and the result is rarely humorous, rarely romantic, and rarely affecting.
Of all the movies self-consciously referenced by this pulp-savvy series, who knew that “ Mean Girls ” would yield the most wickedly funny results?
It’s only after she’s busted by her guardian that she finally hangs up the mask, only to find her character dropped into a Mean Girls rip-off so blatant, they may as well have just had her rent that movie and point the camera at her TV.
But the filmmakers run out of script long before the climax, even inserting a "Mean Girls" theme with Mindy being duped by the popular girls at school.
Having renewed her pledge to her guardian - police detective Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut) - that she was done whacking criminals as Hit-Girl, Mindy ventures into a remake of Mean Girls, where Rachel McAdams' Regina is now Claudia Lee's Brooke.
Compounding his ineptness is his tendency to rip off movies right and left, from “Mean Girls” and “Carrie” to “Rocky IV,” presenting us with a female version of Dolph Lundgren in the person of evil commie Mother Russia (imposing bodybuilder Olga Kurkulina).
This time, Moretz gets to explore the more "girly" and "vulnerable" sides of Mindy, and the result is some of the movie's best moments, both on the superhero and civilian side of things (see: a Mean Girls -style lunchroom showdown).
She’s a less interesting Regina George, of “Mean Girls” infamy, rounding out the comparison with two silly sidekicks, played by Jada Pinkett Smith and Annie Mumolo.
Imagine “Mean Girls” for the soccer mom set, and you’ve got some idea of the horrors that await Amy every time she drops off her two kids at McKinley Middle School, an institution ruled by the iron fist of PTA president Gwendolyn James (Christina Applegate).
The other moms at the high school could be the grown-up versions of characters we first met in Tina Fey's "Mean Girls."
She rules the school from the driver’s seat of her Range Rover, lording over her “Mean Girls” (Jada Pinkett Smith, Annie Mumulo) and judging one and all.
Taking hints of inspiration from 2004's super-smart, Tina Fey-scripted high school satire " Mean Girls ," "Bad Moms" follows a trio of women who tire of trying to fit into the judgmental queen-bee clique of middle school PTA moms and carve out their own space as friends challenging the status quo.
“Bad Moms” wants very badly to be a mix of “Bridesmaids” and “Mean Girls,” but fails because it lacks heart.
Easy A (2010)
Directed by Will Gluck
influenced by Mean Girls (2004), Vampire Academy (2014)
Themes Characters
"Easy A" borrows copiously from the John Hughes catalog, and draws favorable comparisons to some of the smarter teen fare from the past few decades, including "Saved," "Juno," "Mean Girls" and "Clueless."
The Bible-thumpers are there to create conflict (and to provide a parallel to Hester Prynne's travails), but secular teenage girls can be quite viciously judgmental all by themselves, as Mean Girls proved.
In the contracted algebra of marketing speak, scribe Bert V. Royal has penned a script that references (both directly and indirectly) elements of Clueless, Mean Girls and the entire oeuvre of John Hughes.
Her engaging web-caster Olive Penderghast represents a spunky amalgam of girl power on film, showing hints of the depressed and dateless Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald in “Sixteen Candles”), the wannabe-popular Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan in “Mean Girls”) and the sarcastic-but-knowing Juno (Ellen Page).
This isn't just some pandering cinematic throwaway narrowly targeting the high school crowd, but, like 1995's "Clueless" and 2004's " Mean Girls ," strong enough to become a lasting, defining motion picture of its respective era.
And, of course, 2004's " Mean Girls " gave us a glimpse of what an engaging comedian Lindsay Lohan could be, while riffing on the classic sociological study "Queen Bees and Wannabees."
In that regard, imagine a “Mean Girls” where the gags are safely trite and characters seldom say or do the wrong thing: That’s the boringly amiable vibe here, a risk-free disposition that admittedly weakened several young-skewing movies of late, even worthier ones like “Booksmart” and the “To All The Boys” series.
The film also has a bunch of homages to high school comedies of yore (I clocked tastes of She’s All That, Mean Girls, and 10 Things I Hate About You, while But I’m a Cheerleader is an obvious progenitor), a few cute Easter eggs for anyone older who just loves the genre.
For instance, the “cool” mom who tries a little too hard (forever emblematized by Amy Poehler in “Mean Girls”) — she can stay.
That, in part, is what makes Booksmart stand above teen classics like Mean Girls with its cardboard cutout roster of jocks, goths, preps and nerds.
It also does what Mean Girls wouldn’t: It makes a main girl gay.
Not only that, but with its razor sharp script and electric lead performances, it could very well unseat the likes of Superbad and Mean Girls as the funniest high school comedy of the 21st century.
From Revenge of the Nerds to Mean Girls, past films had a clear evil force to punish, in order to reward the quirky protagonists’ “goodness”.
From the outside it appears to be your usual ramshackle college collective, the kind of groups sent up so brilliantly in Mean Girls, but the genius of Olivia Wilde’s film can be found in the way that it flips your preconceptions about the kind of kids you’re watching.
Booksmart is a teen dramedy that lacks the razor-sharp wit, intelligence and delicate blend of comedy, drama and satire found in coming-of-age films like Mean Girls, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ghost World, Clueless, Heathers, The Breakfast Club and many more that have managed to transcend their own genre to become timeless classics or cult classics.
With the exception of those omnipresent screens—and headphones—these are themes that have been explored in many films over many years, with varying degrees of comforting humor (from the caustic “Welcome to the Dollhouse” to the comparatively vacuous “Mean Girls”).
Nor does it traffic in either the bright, mock-Darwinian humor of “Mean Girls” (2004) or the corrosively dark comedy of “Welcome to the Dollhouse” (1995), to name two very different generationally beloved portraits of adolescent girlhood.
Burnham avoids most of the “Mean Girls”-style tropes in favor of a more gently humorous and nuanced approach.
What makes “Eighth Grade” so unique and different from “Superbad” or “Mean Girls” is the fact that this is a whole new generation of kids.
Neither is it a comment on millennials or Mean Girls bullying.
Consider this: Neither Kayla nor Kennedy had been born yet when the movie “Mean Girls” was released, and they’re both entirely too self-absorbed to be proactively cruel to their classmates anyway.
Written by "SNL"'s Tina Fey and scoring with Waters' once-a-movie affection for paying tribute to Hitchcock (a pair of broken glasses here for Strangers on a Train/The Birds effect) and Tim Meadows' hilarious transformation into a bat-wielding Joe Clark, the picture is moderately entertaining every time it jumps the tracks.
The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig
influenced by Mean Girls (2004)
Themes Plot Characters
Given that the genre has a pretty good record overall (Sixteen Candles, Clueless, Freaky Friday, Mean Girls), this wouldn't be too shabby.
Nor does it much resemble some of the more high school-centric teen comedies of the last several years, such as “Mean Girls” and “Easy A,” in part because Nadine so deliberately limits her interactions to those within a very small circle.
And while its tone is closer to the earnestness of John Hughes’ 1980s films than the bawdy zingers and pratfalls of Mean Girls or The To Do List , The Edge of Seventeen finds humour in a specifically feminine flavour of rage, yearning and humiliation.
Fifteen years later, a few bright spots ( Mean Girls , Juno , The Spectacular Now ) haven’t quite dispelled the sense that the Venn diagram between angsty white teenagers and meaningful art has drifted into two non-overlapping circles.
If this was Mean Girls , she'd be both Lindsay Lohan's Cady Heron and Rachel McAdams' Regina George.
Love, Simon belongs on the shelf next to Mean Girls, Legally Blonde, and 10 Things I Hate About You, among many other such teen- and college-aged stories.
Even though the new millennium brought a self-aware, hipper variant in movies like Mean Girls (2004) and Easy A (2010), they still have the same-old teen archetypes of earlier John Hughes films.
Love, Simon doesn't quite reach the heights of teen movie classics like Say, Anything..., Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Clueless, Mean Girls or The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but it comes close enough to be one of the best American romantic teen comedies in recent memory.
Even compared with, say, “ Moonlight ,” or “ Call Me By Your Name ,” this film is chaste; it avoids the oddball raunchiness of mid-aughts efforts like “She’s The Man” and “Mean Girls.”
“Seance” channels the spirits of “Suspiria,” “Mean Girls,” and “You’re Next” but never seems to become a monster with its own identity.
While somewhere on a broad continuum at the juncture of Mean Girls (2004) and Suspiria (1977), there are endless points of cinematic comparison with Seance .
Fortunately, there are at least some elements of “Mean Girls” dynamics that feel genuine and provide something resembling emotional arcs.
Written by "SNL"'s Tina Fey and scoring with Waters' once-a-movie affection for paying tribute to Hitchcock (a pair of broken glasses here for Strangers on a Train/The Birds effect) and Tim Meadows' hilarious transformation into a bat-wielding Joe Clark, the picture is moderately entertaining every time it jumps the tracks.
The debut work of director Jason Moore (who was nominated for a Tony for helming Avenue Q) and scripter Kay Cannon (a 30 Rock vet), the film also recalls a dulcet Mean Girls, Bring It On, and pretty much any other school-set tale about being a fish out of water, love-hate relationships, cliques, competition, and letting that little light of yours shine.
Screenwriter Kay Cannon must have learnt a lot from Tina Fey while working on 30 Rock, because her feature debut Pitch Perfect is clearly a descendant of Mean Girls.
(Echoes of Tina Fey’s screenplay for “Mean Girls, ” anyone?)
Combining the energy of Bring It On, the wit of Mean Girls and the vocal abilities of Glee, Pitch Perfect is an impossible-to-dislike burst of positive energy brimming with winsome performances from a game cast.
Like Mean Girls and Clueless before it, Pitch Perfect takes what ought to be a story with limited appeal and makes it so hilarious you can't deny it.
For those moments and more, "Pitch Perfect" is delightfully funny and geeky, and it's a fun addition to the sub-genre populated by films such as "Bring It On" and "Mean Girls" (and is just as funny).
Damsels in Distress (2012)
Directed by Whit Stillman
influenced by Mean Girls (2004)
Plot Visuals Themes
The initial conceit is a beaut: to upend Heathers and Mean Girls by turning the central trio of insouciant alpha-hotties into do-gooders who march into dorms, pull students off their suicidal ledges, and put them in tap shoes to sing and dance.
If you can imagine what Mean Girls would have been like had it been directed by Jim Jarmusch, you're on the right track.
What results is something of a highbrow Mean Girls , in which the introduction of a fourth wheel shakes up the group dynamic, and the new girl finds her own identity outside of it.
In admittedly reductive terms, Damsels in Distress — the first film from writer-director Whit Stillman since 1998’s The Last Days of Disco — is Mean Girls or Heathers transplanted to an Ivy League-like institution of higher learning where everything’s aglow and to which co-ed living is a fairly new concept.
Along the way, they end up in a series of romantic entanglements, silly subplots, and sanity checks that fall somewhere between Heathers and Mean Girls.
This time, he plays with the type of college comedy tropes we've seen in so many movies over the years and delivers one of his most inventive scripts to date in trying to create a movie that feels like "Mean Girls" by way of "Mystery Team."
It’s within the same vein of storytelling as the 2004 classic, Mean Girls .
Borrowing a few characteristics from Alexander Payne’s formidable high school classic “Election” blended with the sarcastic wit of “Mean Girls,” “Honor Society” doesn’t buck the trend around classic high school cinematic troupes (social cliques, sexuality, and hooking up) but it finds a winning personality in Angourie Rice (“Mare of Easttown”) who earnestly guides the viewer along her character’s trip atop the high-school food chain as she cements a life-long bid to get into Harvard.
At one point, a character is hit by a speeding car and it’s shot virtually in the same way that Regina George is mowed down by the bus in “Mean Girls.”
The result is A Simple Favor, a deeply confused movie that feels like a mash-up of Mean Girls and an episode of Law and Order.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui
influenced Vampire Academy (2014)
Themes
There is not a single original moment in the film, which borrows most of its ideas from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter.
It’s a self-aware horror/action comedy, first in a possible franchise (sigh) based on Richelle Mead’s books, that sits somewhere on the border between “Twilight”, “Harry Potter” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Based on Richelle Mead’s young adult supernatural novels, the Vampire Academy movie plays out as a blend of Harry Potter-style fantasy world building and Buffy the Vampire Slayer-inspired use of supernatural tropes as (very) thinly-veiled subtext for the modern high school experience.
Affleck nearly steals the movie by turning Pierre into a droll, preening, orgy-loving medieval Regina George.