MEAN GIRLS (2023)
Catchy songs, a real lesson — and a worldview that undoes both.
Should You Watch It?
Here's the honest tension. This musical version of Tina Fey's Mean Girls is genuinely entertaining — great songs, fun choreography, and a resolution that lands a real lesson about being honest with people without being cruel. The craft is there.
But the package around it is the problem. The film carries a strong, godless Romantic worldview with pro-homosexual content, a racist attitude toward black men, a stream of foul language, sexual references, and underage drinking at teenage parties. The good message doesn't outweigh what surrounds it.
So our answer is simple: this one isn't for your family. The music may be catchy, but the worldview and content push it past what a Christian conscience can recommend — for teens or adults. Skip it.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESCady is a 16-year-old American girl, homeschooled in Kenya, uprooted when her single mother takes a college job back in the States. On her first day at a cliquish high school, she's bewildered — the cliques, the rules, even finding a seat at lunch.
Two outsiders take her in and warn her about the Plastics, the three most popular girls, led by the icy Regina George. Then Regina, unexpectedly, invites Cady into the group. Cady goes along — until she makes the mistake of falling for Regina's handsome ex-boyfriend. And that is where the trouble begins.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars, and they're earned on the entertainment side. The musical version of Mean Girls is pretty entertaining, with some great songs and fun choreography, and its resolution delivers a genuinely positive message about honesty tempered by kindness.
One craft complaint stands out. As with many new musicals these days, some of the lyrics are drowned out by loud music and bad pronunciation — a real shame, and annoying, especially set against the old Hollywood musicals of Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland, and Gene Kelly, where you could hear every word. It's a modern habit worth naming, and it costs the film here.
The Worldview
Like the 2004 original it's based on, this Mean Girls runs on a strong, godless Romantic worldview. The film implies there's a sinful, hateful mean streak in everyone — a note that rings true — but then insists people are mostly innocent, corrupted only by the social world around them. That's the Romantic lie: locate the fault out there, in the milieu, rather than in the heart.
There is real good mixed in. The story rebukes manipulation, deceit, and revenge, and it lands on repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, and honesty offered without cruelty. Those are worth naming.
But the film also carries strong pro-homosexual content, a racist attitude toward black men, plenty of foul language, sexual references, and underage drinking during teenage party scenes. Taken together, this is why the film crosses the line into the excessive and unacceptable.
Underneath the whole story is the ache to belong — to find a seat at the table, to be wanted. Scripture answers that longing not by climbing a social ladder but by adoption: "you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'" (Romans 8:15).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong Romantic worldview with pro-homosexual content/messages, mitigated by redemptive, morally uplifting content and values such as repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, and the main message at the end urges being honest with other people without being cruel
Foul Language
Nine obscenities (two “s” words and a few “b” words) and 10 light profanities, plus a few insults like the word “slut” is used, and a girl says another girl has hair on part of her chest
Violence
High school students act like animals in musical number (the number is developing a metaphor depicting high school as a bit of a zoo because of all the teenagers), teenage girl almost hit by a school bus, another teenager girls is hit by a school bus (the impact is not shown, but she has to wear a back brace after recovering), teenage boy deliberately breaks a vase in someone else’s house, and teenage girl falls down hard while performing a musical number for the school talent show
Sex
Two or so teenage homosexual kisses and holding hands and dancing, several teenage heterosexual kisses, health teacher tells students they’ll be handing out condoms in the spring after teaching sexual abstinence earlier in the school year, teenagers flirt at party, at least two references to a teenage girl losing her virginity 11 times, and other brief sexual comments
Nudity
Upper male nudity in two scenes, and some teenage female cleavage especially in one musical dance number
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drug use, but one character makes a comical quip about doing drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Teenage girls write down mean things about other teenage girls in a “Burn Book,” high school girls are manipulative and deceitful with other students, lying, betrayal, miscellaneous insults, lead female character connives with two other characters to ruin a mean girl’s reputation out of revenge and the victim does the same thing in reverse when she learns about the plan, but all of these things are eventually rebuked.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film says people are mostly innocent and only get corrupted by the world around them. Is that true? What does Scripture say about where our meanness actually comes from?
Jeremiah 17:9 · Mark 7:20–23Cady is drawn into a scheme of revenge against Regina. What does the Bible say about paying back cruelty with cruelty?
Romans 12:17–21 · 1 Peter 3:9The story's best lesson is honesty without cruelty. How does Scripture describe telling the truth in love?
Ephesians 4:15, 25So much of this story is about the desperate need to belong. Where does the deepest belonging come from, and how is it different from earning a seat at the popular table?
Romans 8:15–17 · Galatians 4:4–7The Final Word
There's real talent here — good songs, a lesson worth hearing about honesty and kindness. But the worldview and content around that lesson are exactly what make this one a pass. So here's our answer, the same one we opened with: skip it. Looking for movie night your whole family can enjoy? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.
