Top 10 High School Movies
By Cinema Sugar
This was no easy task. In a genre stacked with iconic, nostalgic, and unforgettable films, we did our best to pick from the heart and speak to why our Top 10 High School Movies are so important to us and the culture at large.
10. Three O’Clock High
After Jerry Mitchell meets Buddy Revell for the first time in their high school bathroom, his dejected walk back to his desk in class is threatened by an imprint of Buddy’s fist still scrunched into the solar plexus of his sweater. The viewer is immediately thrown into Jerry’s vulnerability as the clock begins its countdown to the end of the school day and, presumably, Jerry’s life. The story goes that Steven Spielberg was an executive producer on this one but asked that his name be removed from the project ahead of its release due to being unthrilled with the film’s finished product. Whether or not this is true, it is a bummer to hear because director Phil Joanou cobbled together a flood of ocular gymnastics in this nerd-versus-bully comedy that ends with a fight scene that is whirlwind in its presentation and a conclusion we were all rooting for. —Natalie Bauer
9. October Sky
Chris Cooper and Laura Dern would be enough for a solid cast, but even at 17 years old Gyllenhaal brings the charisma and authenticity emblematic of his now long and impressive career. (Still, the secret star: composer Mark Isham’s devastating heart-punch of a theme.) The movie is about family and friendship and science and America, but ultimately it’s about a teenager with a dream. “This one’s gonna go for miles...” —Chad Comello
8. Booksmart
The most endearing, entertaining and original contribution to the high school movie in years. Uniquely told, endlessly quotable (“Who allowed you to take my breath away?”) and overflowing with love for its characters, Booksmart is pure joy from start to finish. But perhaps this film’s greatest superpower is its ode to friendship, performed effortlessly by its two leads. Their friendship is so lived-in, it’s impossible to imagine that it couldn’t exist off screen. Watch it, smile, then watch it again. —Kevin Prchal
7. 10 Things I Hate About You
Heath Ledger beaming with rascally charm (and pulling off an epic lip-dub years before they were cool). Julia Styles taking no prisoners. Joseph Gordon-Levitt aw-shucks-ing his way into our hearts. Sorry Clueless: this is the best ‘90s Shakespeare film adaptation and it’s not close. —Chad Comello
6. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
This film is forever baked into my brain. Without trying, I can close my eyes and picture Mr. Rooney’s face staring down Ferris Bueller’s dog through the door trap; Cameron’s eyes when his Dad’s beloved Ferrari plummets to its demise; Jeannie glaring at her brother, hell-bent on taking him down. And every now and then when the plot changes in my real life, I can even hear a faint “chicka-chicka.” —Kevin Prchal
5. Dead Poets Society
In the jaded age where all notions of sentimentality are subject to being mocked and memed to death, films like Dead Poets Society can feel a bit staggering in contrast. The warmth and sincerity Robin Williams brings to his role as John Keating is so contrary to the climate we find ourselves in, you can’t help but feel pulled out of time, longing for the days when that level of heart and soul was common language at the movies. His very presence, standing atop that desk imploring his class (and us) to constantly look at the world in a different way hit hard when I first saw it, and hits even harder today. —Kevin Prchal
4. Brick
If you found high school to be a dark, inscrutable enigma with a rigidly enforced social-class structure and impenetrable lingo, you’ll deeply appreciate Rian Johnson's lean and masterful debut feature that renders adolescence as gritty film noir. A young, sphinx-like Joseph Gordon-Levitt investigates his ex-girlfriend’s mysterious disappearance like a teen Dashiell Hammett detective, navigating double-crosses and life-or-death stakes that feel right at home in the high drama of high school. —Chad Comello
3. Heathers
Winona Ryder stars as Veronica Sawyer, a reluctant member of the viciously vengeful mean girls who rule the school, the Heathers. Veronica spends her days intermittently distressed by and obsessed with the escalating peer group peril her social clique has formed that allows nobody else to even stand a chance. It’s a chance, however, Veronica decides to take with the help of alienated teenage demolitionist Jason Dean, a role that belongs to Christian Slater, who plays the part with a proportionate amount of demented lunacy and defeatist bluster. What follows are some darkly, hilariously captivating moments of contemplation and critiques of society. Get cool guys out of your life. —Natalie Bauer
2. The Breakfast Club
To the great John Hughes, the human condition was something to be diagnosed and understood, not through the works of Steinbeck or Tchaikovsky, but through the lens of the American teenager. This was his true gift and one that he delivered time and time again. But it’s in 1985’s The Breakfast Club where that gift was fully and flawlessly realized. “You see us as you want to see us,” the film narrates in its opening moments. “A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal.” From there, we sit back and watch as the film quietly and powerfully cracks open the hardened layers of those identities and leaves us with five people bound by their messy, flawed and bleeding-heart humanity. Five stars, way to go, John. —Kevin Prchal
1. Dazed and Confused
Tag your high-school self: were you kinda skeevy like Wooderson, mama-bear protective like Jodi, effortlessly cool like Pink, pseudo-intellectual like Tony, a live-wire bully like Darla or O'Bannion, victimized like Mitch? Dazed lives on because it's all of us, and that’s alright, alright, alright. —Chad Comello