The language is mostly mild, although girls constantly call each other “bitches” and “whores,” which the teachers address at an Apology Day in the gym. The girls all wear revealing tops, midriffs and skirts, and the Plastics perform a song in skimpy red plastic “Santa” outfits that make them look like cocktail waitresses in a seedy club and a student raps some disturbing lyrics. Kids drink and make out during a Halloween party, which is described as “the one time when girls can dress like sluts,” explaining the abundance of Playboy bunny costumes. The most concerning moral issues portrayed in the film, however, are the defiant, self-centered attitude of the girls, who have no qualms about lying, manipulating and gossiping in vicious and demeaning ways.

The problem with the SNL-like satire in this film is twofold. One, Fey’s writing is so scathing that it sometimes misses the mark. Two, she can’t resist turning the movie into a lecture about acceptance. The satire worked, but the Dr. Phil session toward the end upset the cinematic apple cart. Although something clearly needed to be done about the girls’ behavior, the feel-good psychobabble doesn’t even scratch the surface of this social blight. It isn’t enough to tell teenage girls to be nice to one another. It has to be modeled – and enforced – at home. Teenagers are reeling from anxiety, fear and pressure, and they’re taking it out on one another. The problem is, without any standards by which we can all agree to live, everyone follows their own way. For this reason, the film ultimately falls flat. It’s shockingly good satire that suddenly morphs into politically-correct shallowness.

The irony, of course, is that Fey is the ultimate mean girl. Her SNL skits make fun of people in the cruelest of ways. Yet with her film, we’re suddenly asked to believe that this is wrong. The other great irony is that, despite its mockery of home-schooling, it ends up being the biggest advertisement for that practice that I’ve ever seen.