That is so fetch...

This post is part of Nathaniel's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series in which the participants must post a single image from a movie he or she deems as the "best shot" for any particular reason.

Today's movie is Mean Girls starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. The film came out April of 2004, still a few years away from Lohan's eventual train-wreck, but only two months away from McAdams' starring vehicle The Notebook. The one-two punch of playing bitchy Regina George and then opposite future fiancé Ryan Gosling made 2004 McAdams' unofficial coming out party to Hollywood. This whole thing is a bit tangential to my "best shot" post, but I'm still amazed at how much would change for these two actresses in the next six years.

With many shots/scenes to pick from, I decided to focus on two people not named Lohan or McAdams. Instead I picked a shot from a scene that not only succinctly showed the rampant cliquishness of high school, but also highlighted two very fine comedic actors. The scene involves Janis, played by Lizzy Caplan, along with Damien, played by Daniel Franzese, taking Cady (Lohan) under their wings. First lesson? How to navigate the cafeteria, complete with a fantastically-drawn map:

Here. This map is gonna be your guide to North Shore. Now, where you sit in the cafeteria is crucial, because you got everybody there.

Janis then lists the different groups on the map as the camera swoops into the drawing as it transforms into the actual cafeteria. The audience is then showed each group as she narrates quickly panning from one group to the next.

You got your freshmen, ROTC guys, preps, JV jocks, Asian nerds, cool Asians, varsity jocks, unfriendly black hotties, girls who eat their feelings, girls who don't eat anything, desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually active band geeks...

And without missing a beat, she slips in one of my favorite moments (and shot!) in the entire film:

...the greatest people you will ever meet...

I remember when I first saw the film, I had to actually rewind it because I was taken aback by this shot. It was such a blink-and-you-miss moment in the film, but I just found it absolutely hilarious. Most of that can probably be attributed to Caplan's expert delivery, but how do you not smile when you see those faces? Franzese is blowing a kiss while Caplan looks on goofily. The camera quickly pans to the next, and final, group.

...and the worst. Beware of The Plastics.

A beautifully done sequence with a funny and unexpected shot thrown near the end. And as I end this post, just want to give props to the characters Janis "Dyke" Ian and "Too Gay To Function" Damien. In a movie with many more well-known names, they managed to steal the show quite a few times. It was a pleasant surprise for me when I saw both actors just this summer reuniting on screen for one episode of the shortly-lived show Party Down. Unfortunately, the two didn't share an actual scene together, but I swear, it was totally fetch.