Lohan, Waters click again in teen comedy 'Mean Girls'

A handful of 'Saturday Night Live' cast members play key roles.
By MILAN PAURICH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Director Mark Waters reunites with his "Freaky Friday" star Lindsay Lohan for "Mean Girls," a teen comedy so smart and sassy that it feels like a tiny miracle.
Is tweener fave-rave Lohan a good luck charm for Waters? Because "Friday" and "Girls" are so much better than Waters' two previous non-Lohan flicks (1997 Sundance flop "The House of Yes" and Freddie Prinze, Jr.'s dopey "Head Over Heels" from 2001), it's certainly beginning to look that way. Not since the mid-'80s John Hughes-Molly Ringwald dream team ("16 Candles" and "Pretty in Pink") has there been such an inspired pairing of director and adolescent leading lady.
Based on Rosalind Wiseman's best-selling book, "Queen Bees and Wannabes," "Mean Girls" casts Lohan as Cady Heron, a 16-year-old raised in the African bush country by her research zoologist parents.
The plot
When Cady's mom gets tenure at Northwestern University, the Herons pack their bags and return to the states. Home-schooled her entire life, Cady must now enter the public school system for the first time. Next to the cliques, hierarchies, and unwritten social rules of her new suburban Illinois high school, the jungles of Africa look downright tame.
Adopted by "art freaks" Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (a scene-stealing Daniel Franzese), Cady quickly resigns herself to being just another geeky misfit.
At the urging of her understanding calculus teacher ("Saturday Night Live" anchorwoman Tina Fey, who also penned the witty and perceptive screenplay), Cady even joins the math club, further cementing her dork status.
All that changes, though, when Regina George (Rachel McAdams), leader of the Plastics clique, invites this ugly duckling to sit at her highly-coveted cafeteria table. The prettiest, snobbiest and (naturally) most popular girl at North Shore High, Regina is the closest thing to teen royalty, and Cady is too flattered and confused to just say, "no thanks."
Surrounded by worshipful Plastics flunkies Gretchen (former "Party of Five" child star Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried), Regina rules her roost with an iron fist -- and impeccably manicured nails. A diva to end all divas, Regina tutors Cady on the Plastics' fashion do's and don'ts (only wear pink on Wednesdays; jeans are only acceptable on Fridays; etc.), and even encourages her new pal's budding romantic interest in ex-boyfriend Aaron (Jonathan Bennett).
Conniving Regina's matchmaking ruse is really a diabolical scheme to get back with Aaron.
After Cady gets wind of Regina's ploy -- everything comes to a head at the big Halloween party -- she decides to get her revenge. Using all the "tricks of the trade" she learned from Queen Bee Regina, Cady transforms herself into North Shore's hottest, most in-demand chick. And, like the devious master she apprenticed under, Cady does it all behind Regina's back while still pretending to be her friend.
Other 'SNL' people
The wonderful Fey isn't the only "Not-Ready-for-Primetime" player to make an appearance here. Ana Gasteyer plays Cady's understandably perplexed mom; Tim Meadows is the clueless school principal; and Amy Poehler earns some of the biggest laughs as "hipper-than-thou" Mrs. George. The heavy concentration of "SNL" talent isn't terribly surprising since "Mean Girls" was produced by that show's creator, Lorne Michaels.
It might be premature to start comparing Waters and Lohan with Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman (another popular director-actress team), but Cady's tit-for-tat vendetta against Regina is nearly as much fun to watch as The Bride's "roaring rampage of revenge" in "Kill Bill 1" and "2." Just not as bloody.
XWrite Milan Paurich at milanpaurich@aol.com.