Mean Girls

Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.

Mean Girls landed as a sharply written high school satire that critics found smarter than the genre usually delivers, with Tina Fey's screenplay and the ensemble — particularly Lohan and McAdams — drawing consistent praise. Its reputation has only grown since release, with retrospective lists repeatedly ranking it among the best comedies of the century, though original critical scores were more measured than enthusiastic, suggesting the film's cult status outpaced its initial reception. The one area of genuine agreement, then and now, is the script: quotable, structurally clever, and unusually insightful about how social power actually works among teenage girls.