It's September, which means that many students will be starting classes shortly, if they haven't already. Movies that take place in high school belong to a genre all their own, as the rules of adolescence operate on a different wavelength than that of children or adults.
Teenagers are uniquely situated at the place between the dreamlike naïveté of a child and the higher-stakes world of adulthood. This translates to an experience that's uniquely elevated to extremes. If you're headed back to school, or just like to reflect on this time in your life with fondness and/or relief that it's over, read on for 10 back-to-school movies to watch this September.
10 Booksmart (2019)
Booksmart is about best friends Amy and Molly, who are reaching the end of high school. They've spent the last four years incredibly focused on their grades, and they fear they've missed out on a fun high school experience.
They decide to spend one wild night together with all of their classmates, and what ensues is both incredibly funny and painfully relatable. It's a coming-of-age story about the end of high school, heartbreak, and friendship.
9 Brick (2006)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in this psuedo-noir tale about a high school loner trying to find out what happened to his ex-girlfriend. Her body is found and Gordon-Levitt's character has to infiltrate a surprisingly complex network of organized high school crime to uncover how she died.
Like everything Rian Johnson writes, the screenplay is sharp and intelligent. If you liked Knives Out and are looking for another Johnson mystery, check out Brick.
8 Carrie (1976)
If high school felt like a horror movie to you, check out Carrie. This horror classic follows the titular Carrie as she's abused by her ultra-conservative mother and mean-spirited classmates.
Her rage manifests in some pretty frightening powers, which she unleashes on the student body and faculty when she's the subject of an awful prank at prom. Carrie is a thrilling and frightening story about power and cruelty.
7 Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is about the lead character, Ferris, and his escape from the mundanity of high school to have an amazing day with his friends. Watching this movie feels like a vicarious escape for the viewer, as we're swept up in Ferris' fourth-wall-breaking boyish charm and increasingly complicated schemes.
It's iconic, funny, and surprisingly emotional, following the trend of movies made in the 80s about high schoolers really touching on what it feels like to be a bored, scared, angst-ridden teenager.
6 Lady Bird (2017)
Lady Bird, starring Saoirse Ronan and directed by Greta Gerwig, is about as perfect as a movie can get. The fact that it takes place in high school only makes the emotional experiences Lady Bird is having feel all the more real.
Fighting with your parents, trying to be cool, falling in love and experiencing heartbreak, all of these are things that many youth experience at some point before they leave home. Lady Bird is about growing up while still being young, something all high schoolers can relate to.
5 Mean Girls (2004)
This list wouldn't be complete without a Mean Girls mention, as the 2004 classic has become one of the most quotable movies among a certain generation of Americans. It's a comedy about the tribalistic nature of high school, a dog-eat-dog wilderness in which battles for dominance are fought stealthily and only won at the cost of one's integrity.
It's a hilarious commentary on what it's like to be a teenage girl caught up in the struggle for popularity, and it provides a sweet conclusion that gives a happy ending to even the meanest of the mean girls.
4 Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
Somehow, the impossibly talented and good-looking James Dean managed to give a voice to the feelings of frustration that go with being a teenager. In Rebel Without A Cause, his character moves to a new town and enrolls in a new school amid discord with his parents, whose years have put too much distance between their lives and the hyper-emotional experiences of their teenage son.
All the hallmarks of the American teenager are here: a romance that moves quicker than Romeo and Juliet's - loud arguments with parents, where no parties appear to be speaking the same language, risk-taking to the point of sheer stupidity, and, of course, the obligatory ritual knife fight.
3 The Breakfast Club (1985)
What was it about the 80s that made people just get what teenagers were going through? Was it just John Hughes? The Breakfast Club balances perfectly between its awareness of the more ridiculous aspects of high school, while giving depth to characters that typically fall into stereotypes.
"The Brain" doesn't have things together as well as it looks from the outside, all of the popularity in the world won't satisfy "The Athlete" because it'll never be enough for his father, "The Princess" uses her reputation and veneer as a shield, "The Criminal" cares about what people think more than anyone, and the "The Basketcase" is possibly the sanest one of them all.
2 The Edge Of Seventeen (2016)
The Edge of Seventeen gives Hailee Steinfeld a place to shine, as she portrays all the nuances of a girl who's been through too much and isn't handling it all that well. The character is imperfect and sympathetic, and, despite having better jokes than the average high school student, feels like a real teenager through the emotion she portrays.
All these heavier feelings are offset nicely by the script's sharp humor, mostly in conversations between Steinfeld and her favorite teacher (Woody Harrelson, stealing every scene he's in). Whether you're going back to school or not this fall, check out The Edge of Seventeen and both laugh and cry at how it was to be a teenager.
1 Twilight (2008)
Somehow, this truly strange and wonderful story about an immortal 17-year-old and an awkward human girl captures the high school experience better than almost any other movie that's tried. There are no grand emotional revelations about the unfairness of life, no witty banter, and the ridiculously attractive high school students actually have an excuse for looking like 25 year-olds that just stepped out of a magazine. Twilight understands something fundamental about high school: teenagers are not cool, or particularly smart.
If you've ever had the horribly wonderful (or wonderfully horrible) experience of being a teenage girl, you probably know what it's like to have to apologize for what you think and how you feel. You also probably know what it's like to be ridiculed for having feelings and to be chastised for your melodrama. So, pop in Twilight and bask in the glory of unapologetic sentimentality, and wonder how it was that nobody asked more questions about why these adopted siblings were all dating each other.
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