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Mean Girls poster

Movies that feel likeMean Girls (2004)

Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.

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).

🍅 84% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Mark Waterscontemplativewittyplayfulwarmwistful
7 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Mean Girls hit the spot, these will too

Lady Bird poster
Lady Bird
2017 · dir. Greta Gerwig
🍅 99%★ 7.4drama · comedyMaxHulu

High school social codes navigated by a girl figuring out who she is

The difference: Tender mother-daughter drama — laughs from truth, not zingers

Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her upbringing are questioned and tested as she plans to head off to college.

Slums of Beverly Hills poster
Slums of Beverly Hills
1998 · dir. Tamara Jenkins
🍅 82%★ 6.7comedy · drama

A teenage girl deciphering womanhood amid mortifying instability

The difference: Scuzzier 70s-set indie — family chaos outranks school politics

In 1976, a teenage girl struggles to cope while living with her neurotic lower-middle-class family of nomads on the outskirts of Beverly Hills.

The Squid and the Whale poster
The Squid and the Whale
2005 · dir. Noah Baumbach
🍅 91%★ 7.3comedy · dramaNetflix

Adolescent posturing dissected with a merciless comic eye

The difference: A caustic divorce drama — nobody here is fun to be around

Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.

Eighth Grade poster
Eighth Grade
2018 · dir. Bo Burnham
🍅 99%★ 7.3comedy · dramaNetflix

The school social hierarchy seen from the very bottom of it

The difference: Cringing anxiety, not satire — it hurts more than it jokes

Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school — the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year — before she begins high school.

Rushmore poster
Rushmore
1998 · dir. Wes Anderson
🍅 90%★ 7.6comedy · drama

A school kingdom ruled by a schemer who overplays their hand

The difference: Wes Anderson's mannered diorama style — precocious, not catty

When a beautiful first-grade teacher arrives at a prep school, she soon attracts the attention of an ambitious teenager named Max, who quickly falls in love with her. Max turns to the father of two of his schoolmates for advice on how to woo the teacher. However, the situation soon gets complicated when Max's new friend becomes involved with her, setting the two pals against one another in a war for her attention.

The Edge of Seventeen poster
The Edge of Seventeen
2016 · dir. Kelly Fremon Craig
🍅 94%★ 7.3comedy · dramaPrime Video

A best-friend betrayal detonating a teenage girl's whole world

The difference: Sharper pain under the wit — closer to crying than quoting

Two high school girls are best friends until one dates the other's older brother, who is totally his sister's nemesis.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl poster
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
2015 · dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
🍅 81%★ 7.7drama · comedyRent or buy

Self-aware teen narration hiding real feeling under the jokes

The difference: Illness reshapes the story — bittersweet where Mean Girls is barbed

Greg is coasting through senior year of high school as anonymously as possible, avoiding social interactions like the plague while secretly making spirited, bizarre films with Earl, his only friend. But both his anonymity and friendship threaten to unravel when his mother forces him to befriend a classmate with leukemia.

3 Idiots poster
3 Idiots
2009 · dir. Rajkumar Hirani
🍅 94%★ 8.4drama · comedy

Campus friendships and rigid pecking orders skewered with heart

The difference: A three-hour Bollywood dramedy — songs, sentiment and lectures

Rascal. Joker. Dreamer. Genius... You've never met a college student quite like "Rancho." From the moment he arrives at India's most prestigious university, Rancho's outlandish schemes turn the campus upside down—along with the lives of his two newfound best friends. Together, they make life miserable for "Virus," the school’s uptight and heartless dean. But when Rancho catches the eye of the dean's daughter, Virus sets his sights on flunking out the "3 idiots" once and for all.

Ghost World poster
Ghost World
2001 · dir. Terry Zwigoff
🍅 93%★ 7.3comedy · drama

Female friendship strained by the question of who you are becoming

The difference: Deadpan outsider melancholy — cliques are beneath its contempt

Two quirky, cynical, teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives following high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle-aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls’ friendship.

The Breakfast Club poster
The Breakfast Club
1985 · dir. John Hughes
🍅 87%★ 7.8comedy · dramaHulu

One thread runs through both: growing up

The difference: Takes it somewhere less warm than Mean Girls does

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

Superbad poster
Superbad
2007 · dir. Greg Mottola
🍅 88%★ 7.6comedyApple TV+Paramount+

The teen social ladder scaled through humiliation after humiliation

The difference: Raunchy boys'-eye chaos — sweetness buried under filth

Two co-dependent high school seniors are forced to deal with separation anxiety after their plan to stage a booze-soaked party goes awry.

Mud poster
Mud
2013 · dir. Jeff Nichols
🍅 97%★ 7.3drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: growing up

Two teenage boys find a fugitive hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River and help him reunite with his lover and escape an avenging family and their armed posse.

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The best-reviewed films that share Mean Girls’ defining feeling.