My Favorite High School Movies
In college an English Lit professor discussing Tom Brown's School Days as the exemplar of the English boarding school drama genre, and said the American equivalent was the high school movie, epitomized by Fat Times at Ridgemont High and almost every other John Hughes movie. So here I will celebrate my favorites from this singular American genre. Some are movies I loved while I was in high school, some I even discovered before high school, and some came after I graduated, but resonated with me for some reason or another.
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- DirectorAmy HeckerlingStarsSean PennJennifer Jason LeighJudge ReinholdA group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n' roll.
- DirectorStephen ChboskyStarsLogan LermanEmma WatsonEzra MillerCharlie, a 15-year-old introvert, enters high school and is nervous about his new life. When he befriends his seniors, he learns to cope with his friend's suicide and his tumultuous past.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsMatthew BroderickAlan RuckMia SaraA popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.
- DirectorRobert IscoveStarsFreddie Prinze Jr.Rachael Leigh CookMatthew LillardA high school jock makes a bet that he can turn an unattractive girl into the school's prom queen.
- DirectorCarl ReinerStarsMark HarmonKirstie AlleyRobin ThomasFreddy the gym teacher has to teach remedial English in summer (high) school, if he wants tenure. As he can only teach gym and his students want fun, emphasis is on "field trips" - until he's fired unless all his students pass the test.
- DirectorHoward DeutchStarsEric StoltzMary Stuart MastersonLea ThompsonWhen Keith goes out with Amanda, the girl of his dreams, Amanda's ex-boyfriend plans to get back at Keith. Meanwhile, Keith's best friend, tomboy Watts, realizes she has feelings for Keith.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsEmilio EstevezJudd NelsonMolly RingwaldFive high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a great deal more in common than they thought.
- DirectorAmy HeckerlingStarsAlicia SilverstoneStacey DashBrittany MurphyShallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other.
- DirectorOlivia WildeStarsKaitlyn DeverBeanie FeldsteinJessica WilliamsOn the eve of their high-school graduation, two academic superstars and best friends realize they should have worked less and played more. Determined not to fall short of their peers, the girls try to cram four years of fun into one night.
- DirectorPaul WeitzChris WeitzStarsJason BiggsChris KleinThomas Ian NicholasFour teenage boys enter a pact to lose their virginity by prom night.I guess one thing that resonated with me was Oz's relationship with Mina Suvari, both because I dared start a relationship right at the end of my senior year, and that girl actually looked a lot like her.
- DirectorPeyton ReedStarsKirsten DunstEliza DushkuJesse BradfordA champion high school cheerleading squad discovers its previous captain stole all their best routines from an inner-city school and must scramble to compete at this year's championships.Mostly I just think Kirsten Dunst is adorable.
- DirectorKenny OrtegaStarsZac EfronVanessa HudgensAshley TisdaleA popular high school athlete and an academically gifted girl get roles in the school musical and develop a friendship that threatens East High's social order.This is not my favorite movie in the HSM series, but I feel like I had to include it, since I wanted to include the other two
- DirectorKenny OrtegaStarsZac EfronVanessa HudgensAshley TisdaleSchool's out for summer and the East High Wildcats are ready to make it the time of their lives after landing jobs in a wealthy country club owned by Sharpay and Ryan's family.Mostly connect to this movie, which came out the year my daughter was born, because in elementary school she always wanted to watch it on the last day of school.
- DirectorKenny OrtegaStarsZac EfronVanessa HudgensAshley TisdaleAs seniors in high school, Troy and Gabriella struggle with the idea of being separated from one another as college approaches. Along with the rest of the Wildcats, they stage a spring musical to address their experiences, hopes and fears about their future.A poignant conclusion to the HSM trilogy.
- DirectorStephen HerekStarsRichard DreyfussGlenne HeadlyJay ThomasA frustrated composer finds fulfillment as a high school music teacher.Focuses more on a teacher than kids, but Richard Dreyfus is brilliant as always, Glenne Headley is luminous as always, William H Macy is great supporting role, and it really changes one's perspective of high school, how the kids only see their own four years, but teachers observe and are a part of so many kids' journeys.
- DirectorHoward DeutchStarsMolly RingwaldJon CryerHarry Dean StantonA poor girl must choose between the affections of dating her childhood sweetheart or a rich but sensitive playboy.I had the unrequited crushes, so feel for Ducky, and also loved the love across the tracks story.
- DirectorAlan ParkerStarsEddie BarthIrene CaraLee CurreriA chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted in the performing arts.I love the film's structured way of moving us through all four years of a group of kids' experiences in high school, I love the depiction of teenagers practically on their own in gritty pre-Giuliani Manhattan. And of course, they go to Rocky Horror - at the theatre that originated the cult following and shadow cast, just a few years after the film first came out.
- DirectorBrian RobbinsStarsJames Van Der BeekJon VoightPaul WalkerA back-up quarterback is chosen to lead a Texas football team to victory after the star quarterback is injured.I snuck this one in, because unlike most that take place in a suburban/urban high school setting, this is a rural high school, and it revolves around football players, which was NOT my scene in high school. But, it takes place in my home state of Texas, Scott Caan's crazy character, Ali Larter in the whipped cream bikini, and making fun of James Van der Beek's awful attempt at a Texas accent (Ah. Don't want. Yur Laif!") make it enjoyable for me.
- DirectorWill GluckStarsEmma StoneAmanda BynesPenn BadgleyWhen Olive lies to her best friend about losing her virginity to one of the college boys, a girl overhears their conversation. Soon, her story spreads across the entire school like wildfire.The effortlessly witty banter between Emma Stone and her parents the effortlessly cool Stanley Tucci and the ethereally beautiful Patricia Clarkson alone make this film a gem. Plus cool teacher Thomas Hayden Church and his cuckolding wife Lisa Kudrow.
- DirectorAlexander PayneStarsMatthew BroderickReese WitherspoonLoren NelsonA high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.The writing and acting in this movie are both so so brilliant, it makes you want Matthew Broderick to be able to get away with his dastardly behavior, while at the same time you really feel for Reese Witherspoon's character, her loneliness and desire to matter somehow.
- DirectorAlexander PayneStarsMatthew BroderickReese WitherspoonLoren NelsonA high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsJason LondonWiley WigginsMatthew McConaugheyThe adventures of high school and junior high students on the last day of school in May 1976.Another Texas movie that's a little different, skirting the surburban-rural transition that was very common at the edge of cities like Austin, Dallas, and Houston as Texas grew in the 70s-early 80s oil boom. It brilliantly captures one long night of hanging out, cruising, and partying with aimless purpose on the last day of school before summer, and the interactions between kids from different but overlapping social groups - jocks, intellectuals, popular girls, plus the transition from middle school to high school for the youngest characters.
- DirectorCameron CroweStarsJohn CusackIone SkyeJohn MahoneyA noble underachiever and a beautiful valedictorian fall in love the summer before she goes off to college.I saw this movie, with it's theme of graduating and moving to the next stage of life, at a friend's house the day after eighth grade graduation, so it is firmly linked to that milestone for me.
- DirectorTim McCanliesStarsBreckin MeyerPeter FacinelliEddie MillsFour high school friends that grew up together in a tiny Texas town, plan to leave for the big city the day after graduation. Over a week's time, their backstory and present day realities collide to determine how their plans play out.And another different Texas movie, also rural in character, but I like it because it's a well-written indie, it's beautifully shot in Fort Davis, which is just about my favorite place in Texas, the story of the pangs of guilt and fear of leaving everyone and everything you know to move out into the greater world is really poignant, and I think Ethan Embrey is a really underrated actor.