From John Hughes' genre-defining films to more recent classics like Booksmart, the best high school movies of all time make for a compelling syllabus.
When it comes to the best high school movies of all time, the competition is fierce. The sheer amount of top-tier classics isn’t just whelming — ask 10 Things I Hate About You’s Chastity Church — but overwhelming. In the 1970s, films like Grease, which were merely set against the backdrop of high school, kicked off a trend that would reach new heights in the ‘80s: movies about teens that aimed to really capture their high school experiences — both good and bad.
14 The Half of It Writer-director Alice Wu is best known for her groundbreaking 2004 lesbian rom-com Saving Face — a queer film that actually boasts a happy ending. Over a decade later, Wu crafted a different kind of queer love story in the coming-of-age dramedy The Half of It. Leah Lewis stars as Ellie Chu, a Chinese American student who writes essays for cash to support her dad.
12 Do Revenge One of 2022’s best films, Do Revenge is packed with references and homages to the best high school movies of the ‘90s and early aughts. Part-Clueless and part-Heathers, the black comedy stars Riverdale’s Camila Mendes as Drea, the queen bee at an elite private school. However, unlike the rest of her popular peers, Drea attends on a scholarship — a fact she hides to avoid classist ridicule.
10 Blockers For audiences looking for an update to an American Pie-style film, Blockers is a must-watch high school movie. Best friends Julie , Kayla , and Sam form a pact: before college, they’ll all “lose” their virginity. Meanwhile, their overprotective parents — Lisa , Mitchell , and Hunter — go to unhinged lengths to stop their respective prom-night hookups.
8 Lady Bird Before Greta Gerwig adapted Little Women or directed Barbie, the acclaimed writer-director gave audiences the sure-to-be-timeless Lady Bird. With five Academy Award nominations, Lady Bird is the rare high school movie that won over both audiences and critics upon its debut. Starring Saorise Ronan, the film traces the highs and lows of Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson’s senior year in 2002 Sacramento.
6 The Breakfast Club Whether viewers have seen John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club or not, they can probably recall Judd Nelson’s raised fist as he triumphantly walks across a football field at the film's end, the song “Don't You ” blaring over the scene. But Breakfast Club is more than just these flashes of cinematic iconography, and it endures for a reason.
4 Clueless Over 10 years after Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Amy Heckerling helmed Clueless, a teen comedy that takes the plot of Jane Austen’s Emma and grafts it onto a high school setting. Specifically, a ritzy Beverly Hills high school, whose queen bee is Cher Horowitz , a well-intentioned but wildly out-of-touch teen.
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