Movie Night Was Soooo Fetch!

On Tuesday night we hosted our very first HCOM 214 movie night! The movie we selected to screen for the fun-filled night was Mean Girls. The film portrays the relationships between new student, Cady Heron, and the Plastics, a clique composed of  Regina George, the mean queen bee, and her two minions, Karen Smith and Gretchen Wieners. When we revealed the film selection to our audience they were quite excited. We gave them a brief synopsis of the classic comedy and assigned each movie-goer a character to analyze. We told them to focus on the character’s thoughts, actions, and how other characters viewed them.

Some audience members reported seeing the film through a different lens than before because they were concerned with the analytic aspect of the film. Alan stated that he did not realize how detrimental the girls’ behavior was and how that could affect their lives in the long run. Furthermore, the audience pointed out that Regina could be so mean due to familial problems when Gretchen reveals that Regina’s parents don’t sleep in the same bed anymore. Regina could be displacing the pain she feels inside and turning it into anger.

Another insightful point was the importance of intervening in teenagers’ lives as soon as they begin declining, not after. In the film, Ms. Norbury facilitates constructive, team building exercises with every junior girl at North Shore High School only after the burn book is recovered. She sees Cady falling behind in class and dressing more promiscuous, but only talks to her once about it. Furthermore, Jamie went on to say that the majority of conflicts presented in Mean Girls could have been avoided if Ms. Norbury would have reached out to Cady. However, one moviegoer disagreed. She thought Ms. Norbury's role as a math teacher exempted her from being obligated to pry into Cady’s life. Also, she said Cady’s personal affairs, are just that-personal. She thinks Ms. Norbury was giving Cady privacy and trusted that she would do the right thing to resolve her own issues.

Even with the audience disagreeing, we considered movie night a success. Many thought provoking themes were discussed and analyzed. More importantly though, everyone had a blast!