Film Review Of The Movie 'Mean Girls'

Two of the six movies addressed in my presentation have female writers: Mean Girls (Tina Fey) and Clueless (Amy Heckerling). All six of these movies are directed by men. This is troubling, because while there are women who could have input on how the story should be told, the plots and characters of young females are ultimately developed by grown men who have never lived though the teen years of a girl victimized by the cruelty of high school.

The groups that are formed as adolescents often determine group associations as adults and define an individual within their social group that will either set them with or against other groups. This is described in an article on social groupings by Colin Allen, which mentions that our social associations as adolescents are strong indicators to future patterns of social norms as adults. Therefore, the group of students in the movie, The Breakfast Club, can also be extrapolated to adult group dynamics. However, the varying social norms between groups can present conflicts when adults are required to function within a very diverse group of individuals. In The Breakfast Club, the Jock, Geek, Prom Queen, Delinquent, and the Freak groups are brought together initially through an autocratic or directive leadership role, used to bring the group together in order to proceed to the next phase of group development. This stage is particularly important within a group of

In the famous movie, “The Breakfast Club, we see how five teenagers, each members of different high school cliques, who spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all more than their respective stereotypes. High school cliques determine who, what and where they belong. Most of the high schools have "cliques"; which are groups of students with similar interests that hang out together. When looking at what really goes on in the average high school, and how friendships are formed, it is amazing. When observing the jock, nerd and the popular kids, one must wonder where they fit in.

It has not been too long ago that I still remember my adolescent years. I always remember the unintelligent things I did that I wish could change, but this Psychology class made me realize that all adolescents go through the same things I experienced. Adolescents are known to try to find their identity, go through peer pressure, make mistakes, and try new things. The move I picked that closely represented what adolescents go through was “Mean Girls”. Some of the scenes in the movie seem a little exaggerated, but it has happened in certain high schools even though I had not experienced it personally.

Karen, Regina and Gretchen are considered to be the mean girls, the ones who think they are the best of the best in their high school and no one can mess with them. They see themselves as royalty, although Regina is the head backstabber and would even throw her two sidekicks under the bus in order to remain on top.

When watching a movie about high schoolers, there are usually many different groups of students who all conform to one social group only. Take the movie High School Musical for example. There is specifically one scene devoted to a song about fitting in with the “status quo”. There are stereotypical groups such as jocks, nerds, theater geeks, skater kids, and the popular kids in this movie and in other movies like it. Each of these groups can be broken down and explained more in depth.

I chose Mean Girl because is a comedy full of notable quotes, funny characters, and is a very entertaining film. However what many individuals may not recognize is that film it shows several psychological concepts like parenting styles, adolescent egocentrism, role identity, and orders. Mean Girls takes places in the high school scenery. It all being with a girl name Cady Heron from Africa that has been home schooled her entire life until her family and herself move to Evanston, Illinois. Cady had to start high school life all over, and learning many things about her self and others, she also needs to make friends and try to blend in. She made friends with two classmates Janice and Damien who gave her all the details about the cliques and hierarchy rules at their high school. Which lead them to talk about the “Plastics” which involve the three most popular girls at their high school Gretchen, Karen and most importantly the queen bee of the school Regina George. Everyone wanted to be like the “Plastics”. She becomes involved with a well know school clique called “The Plastic” and this is how everything started. This film shows very funny but real life

Many factors contribute to the culture of a school. That culture can also vary depending on gender. For example, on television and film teen boys are often portrayed as immature fools who have crude senses of humor. Males are often portrayed as loud Type A personalities. For example, the Mook in The Merchants of Cool, starts yelling at people in a very rude way, and is very loud and obnoxious (The Merchants of Cool). This sets a standard for teenage boys about how it is acceptable to behave badly. According to Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, Richard P. Appelbaum, and Deborah Carr, authors of Introduction to Sociology, “Once they have internalized a norm, they tend to follow through with the expectations of the norm in most of their interactions. Norms are important to sociologists because they explain some of the ways in which we are inside society and, simultaneously, society is inside us” (Giddens. et.

Students in High School are being pressured every day for publicity. High school is usually a place where someone can find themself, a friend group they feel comfortable in. High school students encounter many different situations that may lead them into a series of downfalls through high school. Being in this facility, students are often categorized in groups based on their personalities, what they wear, and their social connections. In The Breakfast Club there are five students categorized into stereotypical groups in high school.Those groups are the popular students, the nerds, and the emo students. Sooner than later, these five students figure they all have something in common with each other; high school, and the pressure of their parents has molded them into the people they never wanted to become. Despite the differences between the students in The Breakfast Club, they share similarities that divides them into different groups throughout high school.

Mean Girls was released in 2004, written by Tina Fey and mark Waters. The movie was based loosely on “Queen Bees and Wannabees” a self-help book by Rosalind Wiseman. Although the movie was released thirteen years ago, it is still highly discussed and watched today. This is rare for films that are marketed towards young people, and young women especially. Films like mean girls are often seen as frivolous and meant for children, but really Mean Girls is a film for all ages. Mean Girls is funny and hits home for people of all ages- especially adults although it is aimed at teenage girls. It brings back the awful memories of high school- but in a comedic light that lets everyone relate. Like in Girl World, serious themes in a comedy have to be

"Cold, shiny, hard, PLASTIC," said by Janice referring to a group of girls in the movie Mean Girls. Mean Girls is about an innocent, home-schooled girl, Cady who moves from Africa to the United States. Cady thinks she knows all about survival of the fittest. But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when she enters public high school and encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teen girls deal with today. Cady goes from a great friend of two "outcasts", Janice and Damien to a superficial friend of the "plastics", a group of girls that talks about everyone behind their back and thinks everyone loves them. Adolescent egocentrism and relationships with peers are obviously present throughout the film. I

A film that has influenced me and shaped the person that I have become is The Breakfast Club (1985). I was fortunate enough to watch this film before high school. I would end up being an outgoing person who was friends with everyone. This film shows that five high school students were all attending detention on the weekend. These five kids come from all sorts of backgrounds. You have your “jock”, your “preppy” girl, your “nerd”, your “gothic” girl, and lastly your “scummy” guy. We can all say we’ve seen these kinds of students in a high school environment. In a nutshell, they weren’t a fan of one another at the start of this film. After conversing and getting to understand one another, they get to the realization that they’re all pretty similar.

While high school in reality is full of surprises and twisty roads, teen television shows and movies are based off a strict set of conventions that allude to other teen films. In David Denby 's "High School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies," he describes the typical movie storyline and characters: the blonde, superficial cheerleaders that make up the popular crowd, along with the buff, handsome jocks versus the social outcasts comprised of geeks and freaks. Denby continues to explain the nature of these two social standings, including how the “cool group” bullies anyone below them. Denby goes on further to discuss how a particular outsider usually becomes the hero or heroine of the story, despite their social discomfort or awkward

There is no doubt that Jazz has become one of Japanese cultures, which was once linked to Japanese American and European cultures, and now, it could also represent Japanese culture itself. Jazz certainly has a major influence on Japanese music styles. This influence also affects Japanese society. Jazz is like a pot of wine with continuous fermentation, spreading its flavor to different generations of Japan. The love of jazz is very enthusiastic, people from kids to elders are all aware of this genre and many of them participate in school bands, society bands and other groups that perform jazz music. Here is one track of a Japanese high school band performing “ How high to the moon”. Second track is a Japanese film trailer “ Like Someone In Love”, the background jazz music was exceptionally charming, and has an indescribable appeal.

A movie that defines many of the issues adolescents are faced with is Rebel Without a Cause. For example, when Jim Stark repeatedly asks his father “what do you do when you have to be a man?” we see how Jim is dealing with Erikson’s stage of identity versus role confusion. Still only in high school, Jim is trying to figure out what stage in his life defines him as a man by his family and culture. He finds that although he may be gaining more privileges year by year, he is still under the control of his parents. There are also examples of risky behavior in this movie when Buzz challenges some thugs to a knife fight and when the teenagers engage in a game that involved jumping out of a car as late as possible before it goes over a cliff. Part of their logic behind doing this, as explained in the previous paragraph is because their brains were not yet fully developed and they felt as if they were indestructible. Lastly, there is also an example of peer pressure in the movie when Jim decides to engage in the knife fight after the thugs call him a “chicken”. Jim wanted to show his friends and others around him that he was not afraid to turn down a challenge and would do anything to beat these thugs, even if he secretly had some doubt in his mind. There are also other examples of peer pressure such as when the teenagers