
Movies that feel likeMean Girls (2004)
If you loved Mean Girls, the closest films we have are Lady Bird (2017), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) and The Squid and the Whale (2005). All three share Mean Girls' contemplative and witty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Ghost World (2001).
Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.
If Mean Girls hit the spot, these will too

High school social codes navigated by a girl figuring out who she is
The difference: Tender mother-daughter drama — laughs from truth, not zingers

A teenage girl deciphering womanhood amid mortifying instability
The difference: Scuzzier 70s-set indie — family chaos outranks school politics

Adolescent posturing dissected with a merciless comic eye
The difference: A caustic divorce drama — nobody here is fun to be around

The school social hierarchy seen from the very bottom of it
The difference: Cringing anxiety, not satire — it hurts more than it jokes

A school kingdom ruled by a schemer who overplays their hand
The difference: Wes Anderson's mannered diorama style — precocious, not catty

A best-friend betrayal detonating a teenage girl's whole world
The difference: Sharper pain under the wit — closer to crying than quoting

Self-aware teen narration hiding real feeling under the jokes
The difference: Illness reshapes the story — bittersweet where Mean Girls is barbed

Campus friendships and rigid pecking orders skewered with heart
The difference: A three-hour Bollywood dramedy — songs, sentiment and lectures

Female friendship strained by the question of who you are becoming
The difference: Deadpan outsider melancholy — cliques are beneath its contempt

One thread runs through both: growing up
The difference: Takes it somewhere less warm than Mean Girls does

The teen social ladder scaled through humiliation after humiliation
The difference: Raunchy boys'-eye chaos — sweetness buried under filth

In the mood for more contemplative?
all contemplative movies →The best-reviewed films that share Mean Girls’ defining feeling.









