Awesome Writing in Media: Mean Girls

Continuing on with the Tina Fey love-fest (Tina, if you're reading this, I swear I'm not stalking you), I couldn't resist posting a bit about one of my all-time favorite movies: Mean Girls.

This is one of those movies I'll happily sit through again and again, and it was actually everywhere this past weekend because October 3rd is, unofficially, "Mean Girls Day". It's from a line in the movie. The voice-over (done by Lindsay Lohan who plays Cady) is talking about a boy she has a crush on who is in her math class. I'll let the picture explain it:

That's it in a nutshell. So, of course, the movie was on, and we watched it. For the record, my husband loves it too. Mean Girls is for everyone.

Quick summary: Cady Heron is the new girl at school after years of home-schooling and living in Africa with her academic parents. Unsure how to navigate teenage social norms, she befriends the "Plastics"--the queen bee clique--and a few misfit students who hate the Plastics and get Cady to spy on them. All goes well until Cady falls for the ex-boyfriend of Regina George, the Plastic's leader. But can she keep from becoming the kind of person she hates before it's too late?

One of the most quotable movies of all-time (no statistics; just because I said so), the writing (Fey did the screenplay, which is based on a book by Rosalind Wiseman) is sharp and on-point. It's a rare movie that can make you sympathize with the characters so much without becoming overly sentimental and mushy. Quite the opposite; Mean Girls is scathingly funny and clever. It's more than a collection of quotable one-liners; it's the writing in general that makes the movie so memorable.

It captures what it's like to be a teenage girl without jumping the shark (too much). We tag along with Cady as she tries to fit in at her new school, cringe when she makes social faux pas, and smile when she figures out how she fits in in her new life, for better or worse. Part of why it's so engaging is that we've all known people who remind us of the character archetypes: the new kid, the misfits, the queen bees, the put-upon teacher who believes in the students, the mom who goes to great lengths to be her kid's friend and not a parent, etc. We can revisit our own teenage years without actually having to suffer through them again.

And, despite coming out in 2004, the movie even ages well.

As a side-note, if someone tells you they don't want to watch it because Lindsay Lohan stars, they're missing out. Whatever her personal troubles, she's a good actress and shines in her role.

Are you a Mean Girls fan? What's your favorite line? C'mon, you know you have one. Share it in the comments!

xoxo Sarah


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Other posts in this series:

Joss Whedon

Quentin Tarantino

Horrible Bosses

Book of Mormon

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Mad Max: Fury Road

30 Rock

Awesome Writing in Media, Pt.6: Mad Max: Fury Road

No, I haven't lost my mind, and I haven't been abducted by pod people. A Tomatometer score of freaking 98% fresh can't be wrong. Just trust me on this.

So, full disclosure, I haven't seen any of the previous Mad Max films. I've heard that they're good; hubs has seen them and enjoyed them, but I never had the chance to. Nothing against the movies--it's one of those things where the occasion to watch one never really came up (or there was something else I'd rather watch on). But I love a good action movie as my lucky husband can attest, though, to be fair, I'm game to watch pretty much anything. It's him who doesn't want to watch Sharknado...

The previews for Mad Max: Fury Road all looked as good as any summer popcorn blockbuster could--explosions, ridiculous vehicles, vibrant settings, lots of intense staring. Hubs and I agreed that it was one of the ones we'd see this summer (besides any Marvel outputs) that was an absolute must to view on the big screen.

Sorry, Pitch Perfect 2...you'll have to wait for Netflix.

Hey, stop throwing fruit--I loved Pitch Perfect (the first one), but you really can't argue that it's a must-see for a giant screen. It comes across as good on our television as in the theater. I'll see the second one, don't worry...keep your shorts on.

Anyway, a quick scan of the Internet with the husband's help caught me up on the Mad Max mythology, though it must be said (by me here, and by many others on the web) that you don't need to know much at all, if anything, about the previous movies and the timeline. Fury Road stands on its own, no Googling required, and isn't hard to follow.

In my effort to keep the majority of the posts under the Awesome Writing in Media tag spoiler-free, I do want to concentrate on why I chose this movie to appear in the series.

The writing (Fury Road was directed, produced, and co-written by the creator of the whole damn thing, George Miller), is a prime example of what editors (and writers) always tell you is best: showing, not telling. The dialogue is minimal--there are grunts and noises and spoken words, but actual conversations between characters is rare. Instead, we're treated to a talented group of expressive actors (and let's not forget the stunt people) showing us what is going on.

And show they do.

We don't hear Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa telling us that she's devastated about a new piece of information she's learned (sorry, I did promise no spoilers); instead we see her fall to her knees, face and body racked with emotion.

We don't hear Imperator Furiosa say what she intends to do, or why she's gone off track with her war rig; instead the reason is told to the audience through exposition.

We don't hear the reason Mad Max is, well, mad; instead we see the horrifying images that haunt him through violent, detailed flashes.

Mad Max: Fury Road is the best example I've seen in a long time of minimalism, at least in actual dialogue and writing. Now, that's not to say that there's no plot; that couldn't be further from the truth. The plot is heavy and driving, very like one of the intimidating vehicles seen on screen. The whole thing is a spectacle, and one of the most satisfying movies I've watched in a while.

It's a testament to George Miller's skill and vision that this movie (which, from what I understand, had quite a few bumps along the way to getting made) is as amazing as it is.

Have you seen Mad Max: Fury Road? What did you think?

xoxo Sarah

Awesome Writing in Media, Part 5: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Because I'm nice, below are links to the first four parts of this series (or you can search by the tag Awesome Writing in Media on the right in the sidebar).

Part 1: Joss Whedon

Part 2: Quentin Tarantino

Part 3: Horrible Bosses

Part 4: The Book of Mormon

So we're at part five, which, if you couldn't tell from the title, is about a comic book movie.

Yup.

For those of you rolling your eyes right now, feel free to click the little "X" in the corner. But I recommend that you don't... Captain America: The Winter Soldier is completely deserving of a place in this series.

There have been comic book movies for a long time spanning different franchises, but I'm not going to talk about those, either in terms of their successes or failures. We'll save that for another time. However, I will say that Marvel seems to be getting it right where others haven't quite succeeded in the same way (caveat: Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy is kind of its own animal). The Marvel movies are well thought-out, carefully crafted, and have a great continuity spanning the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The concrete schedule for these movies now easily goes into the late 20-teens with rumors of movies being scheduled out as far as the late 2020s, which in this time of "let's do a sequel to this movie 20 years after the original, yeah, that'll work!" movie-making, is almost unheard of.

And while, as I said, there is plenty of continuity between the movies, they each feel as unique as they are similar. That probably doesn't make sense, but whatever. A viewer won't confuse Iron Man or Thor (the movies or the heroes), and Guardians of the Galaxy, which has been kicking ass at the box office this summer, has a distinct sense of humor and a swashbuckling feel to it--kind of like if Star Wars had been entirely about Han Solo and Chewie (but with much better writing...sorry, George Lucas). That movie probably deserves its own entry here too, but for the rest of this, I'm going to concentrate on Cap.

The first Captain America movie was good. It had a vintage feel to it with it being 99% set in the 1940s, and it gave Chris Evans a chance to prove his acting chops in a role as something other than a smart-ass frat-boy. It all worked. We rooted for skinny Steve Rogers and post-serum Capt. America Steve Rogers. But it's the rare movie that outclasses its predecessor.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, was a fun, well-acted, action-packed movie, but above all else, the writing was superb. We got a smart political thriller--think Three Days of the Condor starring Robert Redford (who, incidentally, is also in CA: TWS, and who is awesome as always) with a side of super hero action. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone, but I will say that there are plenty of twists and turns during the film, and it's a credit to the writers that they managed to keep them from tangling. The writers also didn't treat the audience like a collection of idiots; they assumed you were paying attention and keeping up with what was happening. I can't remember there being any plot holes (really big ones, at least). The pacing was good--difficult to do in any type of movie, though in my inexpert opinion, I'd probably guess that it's hardest to achieve in a fast-paced action film) and the movie never felt like it was moving too quickly or too slowly. In fact, I remember having no inclination to check my watch. But I did have the urge to see the movie again immediately.

If you're on the fence about watching some of these, they often get better. Avengers was written and directed by Joss Whedon (the subject of Part 1), as will be Avengers: Age of Ultron. The writing in the Phase 1 movies (the earliest in the MCU) was good, but some of the more recent ones (CA: TWS, Avengers, GotG) are better writing-wise by leaps and bounds.

Have you seen CA: TWS? What did you think?

xoxo Sarah

Awesome Writing in Media, Part 3: Horrible Bosses

Okay, bear with me on this one.  I've decided to jump around a bit and will, instead of solely focusing on individual writers in this series, also focus on works as a whole.

Also, just so you don't feel obligated to stop reading, I won't spoil any of the movies or other media for you. Promise. Or, at least I'll try not to.

Hopefully none of these, so rest easy.

That doesn't mean I won't talk about the plots or characters, but I'll try not to give something away that would ruin the movie(s) for people.  On the other hand, if there's a movie (or its source material, if it was based on a book) that's been out for a long time, all bets are off.  People whining about Martin Freeman "spoiling" something in one of the Hobbit movies are ridiculous...that plot point has been out for seventy-something years.  Suck it up, buttercup.

Anyway, onward!

Honestly, Horrible Bosses wasn't a movie I initially had high hopes for.  Sure, I knew it would be entertaining--the cast includes Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, and Charlie Day among other notables--so when it came out and we got it on Netflix, I was looking forward to seeing it, but was expecting your standard comedy.

How wrong I was.

Now, this post, as are all of the posts in this series, is just my opinion, but I enjoyed Horrible Bosses far more than I thought I would, and that was due just as much to the amazing writing as to the great performances by the cast.  Was it a perfect movie?  No, of course not, but it was a smart, well-written  comedy.  And in the current movie climate, that is a rare thing indeed.

What was so good about it?  The cast, for one, deserves a lot of credit for their kick-ass performances, but the writers made it all happen.  The premise of the movie is that three guys each have a boss that makes their lives absolutely miserable--so they figure out that they'd be so much better off if the bosses weren't around anymore (in the dead sense).  See, it would have been so easy for the writers to phone in a script where the characters were flat and boring and made the illogical--and extreme--jump to murder to get their lives back.  But it's far more than a case of "Ugh, my boss is annoying." "So is mine!"  "And mine!" "Let's murder them!"  One of the main things that stands out about the script is how well-rounded and justified the characters are.  Each one of them--the bosses and our heroes--are shown in the beginning of the movie so we see exactly how each of the characters' lives are impacted by their, well, horrible bosses.  These hard-working folks are being slowly driven crazy by these people, and we, the audience, buys it hook, line, and sinker.

I like to say that with writing--any kind of writing--the audience or reader needs to identify with the characters or believe the story they're reading or watching could happen, even a little itty bitty bit.  Sci-fi, comedy, romance, action--doesn't matter.  If the audience doesn't buy into it, your movie or book is dead in the water.  And even though each of the bosses in this movie are caricatures, between the three there will be a tiiiiiiny bit of a supervisor you, the viewer, have had at one time, and that's enough.  You're in and along for the ride. 

Oddly, nothing feels forced about the movie.  Sure, some of the scenarios are ridiculous, but it's a comedy, and my suspension of disbelief never felt like it was about to snap.  The way everything ties together at the end is satisfying and, again, that's credit to the writers.

Will all of this hold true for the sequel?  I have no idea; it's a rare sequel that can recapture the magic of the original.  I guess we'll have to find out.  In the meantime, if you're looking for a fun, well-written comedy, check out Horrible Bosses.

Have you seen it?  What did you think?  Was the writing above-average for a comedy nowadays?  Have you seen one that you thought was far better?  Tell me!

xoxo Sarah