Mean Girls is among the new millennium’s most influential movies. From the comedic genius of Tina Fey, the film stars a who’s who of future movie stars, including Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, and Lizzy Caplan. Especially with the recent Mean Girls musical reboot, there is no better time than the present to get into the glamorous and cutthroat mood that Mean Girls and other teen films so effectively provide.
Endlessly quotable, hilarious, and infinitely rewatchable, Mean Girls is a generation-defining film and one of the best teen movies in American cinema. Fans of the movie might want to watch other similar films, and, luckily for them, there’s no shortage of options. From films with similar themes to the dark comedies that inspired it, these movies are perfect companions for Mean Girls.
20 ‘Mean Girls’ (2024)
Directed by Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne
As far as films that recapture and fully embrace the type of slick, pop energy of Mean Girls, it’s difficult to find something more similar than the musical remake that came out earlier this year. Adapted from a stage musical that was adapted from the original 2004 film, this modern interpretation of Mean Girls features a new cast and the same distinct energy and style that made the musical such a hit. It mostly follows the same story and beats as the original film, yet updated for a modern audience.
While it’s easy to be harsh on modern remakes due to usually not being able to compare in quality to the original film, the 2024 Mean Girls‘ musical angle helps distinguish itself as a separate experience from the original film. At the same time, the film features a lot of the same inherent strengths and qualities of the original story, such as the dynamic between Cady and the Plastics and the array of quotable lines.
19 ‘The Clique’ (2008)
Directed by Michael Lembeck
2008’s The Clique is based on the eponymous series of teen novels. The plot concerns Claire Lyons, a young girl who desperately attempts to join the most popular girls in her new school, the Clique, doing increasingly questionable things to sneak into the group. The film’s plot and characters find a great deal of inspiration from films like Mean Girls, but instead of simply attempting a blatant copy of the formula, The Clique has a genuine understanding of the important themes and messaging of Mean Girls.
The Clique might as well be middle-school Mean Girls. The plot is similar, visiting the same themes of the dangers of popularity and sacrificing individuality to fit in with the “cool” crowd. However, The Clique is charming enough to warrant a watch, especially for fashionistas; the film is a worthy heir to the Gossip Girl legacy of stunning preppy fashion.
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18 ‘Legally Blonde’ (2001)
Directed by Robert Luketic
One of the most defining romantic comedies of the era, Legally Blonde follows the story of sorority girl Elle Woods, who in an attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend plans to follow in his footsteps and attend Harvard Law School. However, she soon finds herself taking a liking to the judicial process, and decides to prove to her peers that she goes against the nasty stereotypes surrounding preppy blondes like herself.
While not as directly tied to the trends and cliques of high school as portrayed in Mean Girls, Legally Blonde shares a connection with the film through their shared love and importance placed upon female empowerment. Elle is a character who fits perfectly within the style and world of Mean Girls, almost acting as a kind-hearted, perfect version of a preppy plastic-type, combined with Reese Witherspoon‘s signature performance, making her an incredible main character to watch.
17 ‘Wild Child’ (2008)
Directed by Nick Moore
Emma Roberts became a teen icon with her explosive performance in the 2008 comedy Wild Child. The plot centers on Poppy Moore, a wealthy and rebellious girl who gets sent to a prestigious English boarding school to correct her attitude. However, things don’t go as planned when Poppy brings her unique brand of disruptive energy to the school.
Wild Child is a star vehicle for Roberts, who shines in a role similar to her future iconic turns in American Horror Story: Coven and Scream Queens. Wild Child is a great companion for Mean Girls, with both films focusing on young and rebellious girls who learn valuable lessons without sacrificing their individual fabulousness. However, the major difference and focus is the more character study-styled singular focus on Poppy, as opposed to a more generalized story about all of high school.
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16 ‘Plan B’ (2021)
Directed by Natalie Morales
One of the core facets that makes Mean Girls such an effective teen comedy is its focus on female camaraderie and friendship, themes that are greatly felt throughout Plan B. The film follows straight-laced high school student Sunny, who after a regrettable sexual encounter at a party finds herself on a wild road trip across the countryside with her best friend Lupe in search of an elusive Plan B pill. Their journey sees them facing off against numerous unexpected hurdles and strange characters as the duo reevaluates their friendship and forms a tight-knit bond in the process.
Plan B features an effective blend of raunchy, R-rated comedy, likable female leads, and effective themes of coming-of-age friendship that is sure to make it a hit with fans of Mean Girls. This film is greatly elevated by its inherent charm and execution, getting a great deal of comedic mileage and earnest emotional moments thanks to the tone and style that it creates for itself. As far as modern teen films go, Plan B is one of the best when it comes to having as much wild fun as it has a great emotional core.
15 ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ (1999)
Directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont
Can’t Hardly Wait follows the stories and events surrounding a massive graduation party, consisting of nearly every student at Huntington Hills High. In each student’s attempt to have the best night of their lives, they each find themselves overcoming a number of unexpected obstacles and changes, resulting in a night that will surely go down in history. While the plot may initially seem completely different, Can’t Hardly Wait shares a lot of DNA with Mean Girls when it comes to its satire and commentary on the trends of then-high school cliques and stereotypes.
Can’t Hardly Wait makes a major effort when it comes to blurring the lines between the archetypes of high school students, with the lines between jocks, nerds, and popular students fading away by the end of the film. It’s also a laugh riot throughout its runtime, as the film’s simple party-centric premise allows for a wide variety of different stories and characters that constantly blend in with one another throughout the runtime. Much like Mean Girls, the film embraces the clichés and trends of the teen movie genre to create its own original story, reflecting upon the clichés themselves.
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14 ‘Election’ (1999)
Directed by Alexander Payne
Teen movies lend themselves perfectly as avenues for greater satires and social examinations of greater societal structures, something that Mean Girls greatly excelled at as one of the defining satires of the early 2000s. However, before Mean Girls took the world by storm, Election would provide a similar level of using high-school drama as an avenue for its adult satire, telling a hilarious story of abuse of power and elections. The film follows the chaos and infighting surrounding a student election, in which bright-eyed Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is running unopposed, to the major dismay of teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick).
What makes films like Election and Mean Girls stand out from the variety of other teen movies of the era is their distinct use of cynicism and dark comedy to excel its satirical themes and messaging. This style of humor and storytelling lends itself to the high school setting perfectly, creating an effective balance of petty drama and surprisingly high stakes that makes for highly memorable cinematic experiences. Even 25 years after its release, Election is still widely regarded as one of the best teen movies of the era, in the same vein of legacy and status as Mean Girls.
13 ‘Do Revenge’ (2022)
Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Netflix’s wickedly funny teen comedy Do Revenge stars Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke. Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock‘s classic Strangers on a Train, the plot follows two students at a prestigious Miami school who team up to get revenge against the people who wronged them. However, as several twists and turns come with their newfound popularity, their original plans prove themselves to be falling apart at the seams.
Campy, self-aware, and endlessly funny, Do Revenge is a pastel-colored teen nightmare elevated by a pair of committed performances from Mendes and Hawke. More than simply acting as a modern retread of classic teen movies, the film finds massive inspiration and growth from the original formula, acting as the perfect modernization of this style of film. The film features a genuinely clever twist that separates it from other teen efforts, and its distinctive visual style and intelligent screenplay echo the heights achieved by Mean Girls.
12 ‘Cruel Intentions’ (1999)
Directed by Roger Kumble
Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Reese Witherspoon cemented their legacies as 90s teen icons with 1999’s Cruel Intentions. An updated adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ seminal epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the film follows two scheming step-siblings who make a bet concerning a newly-arrived virginal student.
Cruel Intentions is a sexy and surprisingly witty update to a literary classic. Powered by a wicked turn by a never-better Sarah Michelle Gellar and with a memorable ending that ranks among the all-time best finales in the teen genre, Cruel Intentions is a scandalous thriller that fans of Mean Girls will undoubtedly enjoy.
11 ’13 Going on 30′ (2004)
Directed by Gary Winick
One of the quintessential coming-of-age experiences of the early 2000s, 13 Going on 30 stands head and toe alongside Mean Girls as a hilarious examination of teenage life that defined the era. The film follows the story of Jenna, a teenage girl who is tired of the painful social structures of teenage life, and wishes that she could simply be an adult and skip these painful teenage years. She suddenly gets her wish when she wakes up as a 30-year-old woman, complete with a stable career and full life, yet it doesn’t take long before Jenna learns that adulthood isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.
13 Going on 30 employs a similar style of coming-of-age comedy and humor as Mean Girls, with its focus simply placed on the contrast between teenage culture and adult life as opposed to entirely focusing on teenage life. Jennifer Garner gives a standout performance throughout the film, having to bring out the inherent optimism and beauty for the world in the eyes of a child, and elevating the entire experience as a result. Even despite there differing plots, there is an undeniable parallel in the tone and execution of Mean Girls and 13 Going on 30 that makes them complement one another perfectly.
10 ’10 Things I Hate About You’ (1999)
Directed by Gil Junger
A film adapted from the Shakespeare classic, The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About You evolves the classic into the modern era, following the divide and love between teens in a high school setting. To steal the heart of the girl of his dreams, Bianca, Cameron devises a scheme to enlist the help of bad boy Patrick to hook up with her older sister, Kat, so that Bianca can be allowed to date. The scheme seems to go off without a hitch, but some struggles arise when Patrick begins to develop feelings for Kat, and Kat begins to catch on to the scheme being played against her family.
10 Things I Hate About You so effectively and seamlessly blends its story into the world and characters of a teen romance that it feels like the Shakespeare classic was always meant to be about high school students. The film perfectly captures the anxieties and pressures of first love, as well as the constant divides and upward forces that adolescents face in their time at high school. This can be massively attributed to the core understanding that the film has of the high school culture of the era, a facet that it greatly shares with Mean Girls.
9 ‘Easy A’ (2010)
Directed by Will Gluck
Will Gluck‘s 2010 comedy Easy A made Emma Stone a star. The future Oscar winner stars as Olive Penderghast, a seventeen-year-old who takes advantage of a salacious rumor about her to further her social standing by pretending to sleep with the school’s unpopular students.
Easy A is a spectacular showcase of Stone’s charm and comedic genius and a clever update of the classic The Scarlet Letter. Like Mean Girls, Easy A is a cautionary tale about the perils of infamy and popularity earned by questionable means. The film almost acts as a sort of last hurrah for this signature era of teen movies, being one of the last great teen rom-coms before the genre would see a sharp decline in the early 2010s. Funny, clever, and surprisingly quotable, Easy A is a modern teen classic.
8 ‘American Pie’ (1999)
Directed by Paul Weitz
While Mean Girls was the quintessential cult classic raunchy teen film for the female audience of the early 2000s, the male equivalent to the trend is easily American Pie, a similar exploration of youth and teen cliques that became infamous for its scandalous nature. The film follows a group of four teenage friends who make a pact with each other that they will find a way to lose their virginities by the time senior prom comes around, getting into all sorts of shenanigans and chaos to achieve their goal.
American Pie is emblematic of the culture and societal zeitgeist of the 2000s, having a massive focus on shock humor and raunchy moments, yet grounded thanks to its likeable characters and inherent charm. A wide variety of other films would attempt to recapture the magic of American Pie over the years, with the few that found success doing so because they understood that the charm and bonds of friendship were the most important pieces of the puzzle. Mean Girls may be the only other 2000s teen film that could match up to American Pie in terms of cultural impact on the youth of the era.
7 ‘Never Been Kissed’ (1999)
Directed by Raja Gosnell
Drew Barrymore stars in Raja Gosnell’s 1999 romantic comedy Never Been Kissed. The plot concerns a 25-year-old journalist who poses as a high school student pursuing a hot story. Things get complicated when she falls in love with her English teacher. While many teen movies deal with fish-out-of-water stories, Mean Girls included, Never Been Kissed changed the formula by having someone who already experienced high school get an unexpected second chance.
Never Been Kissed is silly, sweet, funny, and one of the best romantic comedies of the 90s, thanks to its clever writing and great performances from everyone in the cast. Barrymore especially is winsome as the title character, imbuing her with a naiveté that seems real enough to sell the unbelievable premise. Like Mean Girls, Never Been Kissed deals with the desire to be popular in high school and the lengths someone is willing to go to achieve it.
Watch on Hulu
6 ‘John Tucker Must Die’ (2005)
Directed by Betty Thomas
The teen genre underwent a severe rebirth in the mid-noughties, thanks to films like Mean Girls and the many efforts it inspired, like the 2005 revenge comedy John Tucker Must Die. The story revolves around a young high school student recruited by three girls from different clicks to get revenge against the popular jock who cheated and dumped them. Seeing these completely different teen movie archetypes coming together for a common goal makes for a hilarious and energetic fun time.
John Tucker Must Die adapts one of Shakespeare’s classics, The Merry Wives of Windsor, updating it for a teen audience. It might not be as acclaimed as other teen adaptations of literary classics, but John Tucker Must Die is a funny, energetic, and worthy effort featuring a stellar cast of future stars, including Brittany Snow and Penn Badgley. The film also parallels one of Mean Girls’s major underlying themes, the power and strength that come from female camaraderie and unexpected friendship in the face of hardships.
5 ‘Clueless’ (1995)
Directed by Amy Heckerling
Jane Austen’s classic Emma received new life with Amy Heckerling‘s now-iconic teen rom-com Clueless. Alicia Silverstone stars as Cher Horowitz, a spirited and resourceful wealthy teenager in Beverly Hills who acts as a matchmaker for her friends and teachers while figuring out what she wants for herself. However, despite being an adaptation of a classic 1800s novel, Clueless is greatly defined by its brilliantly poignant modernization of the novel’s themes and messaging to a then-modern 90s audience.
The film received critical acclaim and was a commercial success. Clueless revitalized the teen genre, which had peaked in the 80s, and re-introduced it to a new audience. Clueless turned Silverstone into a star and influenced cinema with its fashion and endlessly quotable screenplay. The film inspired a new wave of teen movies throughout the decade, making it the Mean Girls of the 90s.
4 ‘Booksmart’ (2019)
Directed by Olivia Wilde
The defacto modern evolution of the teen romantic comedy, Booksmart follows the story of Molly and Amy, two best friends who have spent their entire high school lives doing the best that they can academically. However, this has resulted in the duo having an incredibly limited social life outside of schoolwork, so in an attempt to make up for lost time and experience, the duo set out to cram four years’ worth of experience into one unforgettable night. Their plans just so happen to fall into place of a massive pre-graduation party being held. They only have to find a way to get there.
Booksmart gets a great deal of inspiration from the wild and zany teen romantic comedies of the 90s and 2000s, Mean Girls most especially included. However, the film intelligently evolves and adapts this style of storytelling to the modern gaze and viewpoint of high school, following trends and situations that are much more relatable to modern-day teenagers. Brought home by a duo of amazing comedic performances from Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever, Booksmart is easily one of the most notable and promising teen movies in recent years.
3 ‘Jawbreaker’ (1999)
Directed by Darren Stein
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The 1999 dark teen comedy Jawbreaker stars a never-better Rose McGowan alongside a supporting cast, including Rebecca Gayheart, Judy Greer, and Pam Greer. The plot follows three popular girls who accidentally choke their friend with a lawbreaker and hide their crime by turning the sole witness into a member of their prestigious clique. Especially in terms of teen films that revolve around a group of preppy and popular teenage girls, Jawbreaker is easily one of the closest films to Mean Girls in tone and execution, only slightly on the darker side.
Jawbreaker is among the campiest films of the 1990s. Packing a severe punch underneath its bright and flowery clothes, the film is a scathing takedown of the high school social dynamics wrapped around a silly and campy plot that brings out the best in its well-chosen cast. The film is easily one of the most underrated teen movies of its era, capitalizing on all the tropes and styles of the genre while standing out as its own distinct vision.
2 ‘Bottoms’ (2023)
Directed by Emma Seligman
Bottoms is a stylish, in-your-face blending of the classic teen romantic comedy with a nice dosage of unexpected bloodshed and violence. The film follows the story of PJ and Josie, two friends who hatch a scheme to start a fight club at their schools as a background way to hook up with the hottest and most popular girls at their school. However, their plan suddenly comes with some issues, as it becomes a genuine success, providing a safe space for women at their school against the dangerous football team, making their lie much more impactful and dangerous than intended.
Much like Booksmart, Bottoms also draws a great deal of inspiration from the high school teen movies of old, yet Bottoms distinctly has a more satirical and absurdist approach to its comedy. This ironically gives it that much more in common with Mean Girls, as Bottoms deconstructs and comedically pokes fun at the cliches of high school films through a satirical lens while having a similar message of female companionship and friendship. While definitely much more adult and chaotic than other high school comedies, Bottoms is such a unique breath of fresh air for the genre that it deserves a viewing.
1 ‘Heathers’ (1988)
Directed by Michael Lehmann
The dark teen comedy by excellence, Michael Lehmann‘s Heathers is a classic of the teen genre. Winona Ryder stars as Veronica Sawyer, a member of her school’s most popular clique, the Heathers. When she meets the charming but dangerous JD, her world becomes unexpectedly chaotic – and murderous. Heathers is distinctly different and more ahead of its time compared to other 80s teen films, laying the groundwork for a multitude of teen satires throughout the 90s and 2000s, most notably with Mean Girls.
Heathers popularized the idea of the deathly clique in movies. The titular group is among cinema’s most iconic mean girls, paving the way for The Plastics to dominate noughties’ pop culture. Featuring a star-making performance from Ryder and a brilliant supporting cast of 80s teen icons, Heathers is one of the most influential and celebrated films of the 1980s. Even with its age compared to the films that would follow in its footsteps, the film has aged beautifully, still working wonders as a hilarious dark comedy over 30 years later.
