So it came to pass that I was watching Fast Times At Ridgemont High and came to reflect that it was most likely the best high school movie ever made. Then I reflected that the competition is minimal in that area. I realized that it would be easy to make a top 5 teen movies list. But could I come up with ten. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that, yes I could (sorry Barack and Bob The Builder). So here goes.
10 Best Teen Movies (IE: Any movie NOT starring Freddie Prize or Sarah Michelle Gellar).
10: Mean Girls. Released before Lindsay Lohan went from up-and-coming talent to rival of Paris Hilton for tabloid queen, this movie is in a sense a lighter Heathers, yet far more perceptive than most teen movies released this decade. Lohan is good and shows that she does have some genuine talent even if the off-camera antics makes us forget that. But the best performances are by Rachel McAdams as a nasty teen queen, Lizzy Caplan as one out to take down Ms. Queen, my former high school classmate Daniel Franzese as a gay observer of the HS scene and Tina Fey (who also scripted the movie) as a smart and observant math teacher.
9: Empire Records. Critically panned at the time of its fall 1995 release, this one actually holds up fairly well. Some of the acting is wooden (IE: Maxwell Caulfield). But the characters are memorable individuals especially Rory Cochrane as philosophical Lucas, Johnny Whitworth as lovesick AJ and Renee Zellweger before her breakthrough role. Overlooked in favor of the more popular Clueless, this one should be better known.
8: Real Genius. Val Kilmer is one actor who's always been off and on to me. He can give a good performance when he's not forced into the wrong roles. But he's also made his share of missteps. This is one of his better ones. He plays a genius who shows that geniuses also need to have a good time as well. Kilmer's Chris Knight is one of the epitome of cool characters in a movie. William Atherton also stars as a slimy professor who gets his comeuppance in the hilarious final scene. Full of interesting characters and intelligent humor, this is another teen comedy that transcends that tag.
7: Pump Up The Volume. Another overlooked one, this 1990 cult classics rips the raging hormone cover off teenagers and shows that their problems often extend beyond the trivial. Christian Slater gives one of his two best performances (more on the other one later) as Mark Hunter, an alienated teen in an Arizona suburb who starts a small pirate radio show that focuses on the problems of teenagehood. I read a review that referred to this one as the teen version of Oliver Stone's "Talk Radio". Seeing as that is probably Stone's most underrated movie, I can't think of a better compliment to pay Pump Up The Volume.
6: Say Anything. After writing the script for Fast Times, Cameron Crowe made his directorial debut with this, the film that worked as a bookend to the 80s teen movie era. Ione Skye and John Cusack play flawed human teen characters, the story keeps you involved and there are many great scenes throughout the film with the boom box one being only the tip of the iceberg.
5: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In which your classic non-conformist, anti-authoritarian, high school philosopher manages to skip school for a day, have some fun and teach his best friend how to stand up for one's self and not be afraid of being an individual in a sea of conformity. If you see only one movie about ditching school, this is the one to see.
4: Heathers. This is one case where I look at the movie and think "I wish I had directed that one!" Heathers is probably the darkest teen comedy ever and easily the best teen dark comedy ever. Winona Ryder (prior to her shoplifting adventures in Beverly Hills) and Christian Slater star in this film which takes the war between cool and uncool in high school and makes it literally come alive. While parts of it may hit some too close to home after Columbine, Heathers is one film that has achieved cult classic status for a reason.
3: The Breakfast Club. Was this the first high school movie to actually take the cliched characters from high school (and HS movies by extension) and rip the cover off? Probably not. Was it the best one to do it? Definitely. For a movie that takes place in one room for most of its running time, this one does not feel claustrophobic at all. This and Ferris Bueller prove that in the 1980s, John Hughes was the Scorsese of teen movies (before crud like Curly Sue and the live action 101 Dalmations wiped that status clean).
2: Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Scripted by the aforementioned Cameron Crowe and directed by Amy Heckerling (who would later write and direct the good but overrated Clueless) this one came out in 1982 around the same time Porky's did. While Porky's has become fun but dated, Fast Times still holds up. Why? Because it's still an accurate portrayal of high school life, even if one didn't go to HS in 82. In one's tour of duty through the war zone that is HS, they are bound to encounter characters like Stacy Hamilton, Jeff Spicoli and teachers like Mr. Hand. Clueless had its moments. But Fast Times still holds up and will hold up as the definitive high school movie aside from...
1: Dazed And Confused. Writer-director Richard Linklater managed with this (his follow-up to Slacker) to give us the definitive teenage movie of all-time, the definitive portrayal of teen life in the 1970s and a film that mixed comedy with a perceptive air of melancholy. Like Fast Times did for Sean Penn and Jennifer Jason Leigh, this one helped make some stars out of Ben Affleck and Matthew Mcconaughey. Some people will complain that this one doesn't really have a plot. But does high school life have a plot? There are many memorable scenes and some that are quite amusing. Yet Linklater's film is ultimately anti-nostalgic. As one character observes "If I ever say these were the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself",
Some runners-up
Clueless
Election
Rushmore
Sugar And Spice
Weird Science
Pretty In Pink
Last American Virgin
American Pie (Just barely)
Scream
Grease
Brick
Teen Movies Best Forgotten
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Not Another Teen Movie
Drive Me Crazy
Can't Hardly Wait
Sleepover
Any High School Musical Movie
Anything with Freddie Prinze Jr.
|
|