We all have those "guilty pleasure" movies. You know the one I'm talking about. You'd never list it among your favorites, you don't admit to liking it in conversation, you'd never own a copy, but EVERY TIME you pass it in the cable listings you think, wow, I really like that movie, I should watch it again. And then you do. EVERY TIME.
For me, one of those films is Mean Girls, a 2004 film starring Lindsay Lohan (of all people), with a very young Rachel McAdams, everyone's favorite Tina Fey, equally hilarious Amy Poehler, the always sarcastic Lizzy Caplan, Neil "Dr. Jan Itor from Scrubs" Flynn, and Amanda Seyfried. Tina Fey has a writer's credit on the film. Although I don't consider it among my favorites (we'll leave those for another post someday), it is delightful. It's hilariously quotable and parodies high school in a way that is somehow fresh even though it contains a lot of the same tropes as classic high school films. It ends with a good message for teens about accepting yourself and dealing with your issues blah blah blah. Standard fare.
My one issue with the film, as it is presented on TV, since I don't think I've ever managed to see it NOT on TV, is in the way different channels censor it. I've seen it on ABC Family and on MTV (that I know, possibly others). MTV, at least in 2013, oddly does not censor out "bitch," but does censor the word "gay." MTV. Censors. The word. GAY. But not "bitch". I suppose I can't expect much more from the network that airs "Jersey Shore", but that spells to me an incredible disparity in the way our nation views perceived otherness. I find this incredibly sad.
More to the point, why will I watch Mean Girls anytime I run across it? Because it's fun. Simply fun. Mean Girls doesn't have life and death stakes, nor does it present a great, epic story, but it is funny and sweet. Not a meal, but a tasty dessert.
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