Girls Like Girls · reception & legacy

How Girls Like Girls has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

It arrived already carrying a decade of anticipation: the 2015 music video became a sapphic anthem first, and the 2026 film opened to warm reviews (86% on Rotten Tomatoes) as the payoff fans had been asking for since the Obama era.

What's debated

The gentle split among fans and critics: is its soft, tender conventionality exactly the low-stakes queer teen romance the genre was owed, or a too-safe throwback from a debut director?

Its footprint

The lyric 'girls like girls just like boys do, nothing new' was a queer cultural touchstone long before the film existed — the original music video has over 150 million YouTube views, and Kiyoko's fandom famously crowned her 'Lesbian Jesus.'

Where it stands

Less a canon climber than a fandom event: the rare film a comment section willed into existence, and pre-loved on Letterboxd by a generation who grew up on the video.