I’m glad EW decided back-to-school was a good time to create a list of The 50 Best High School Movies. Let’s face it: Adult life is just high school without cafeteria trays or a summer vacation. Also, I pretty much agree with the list itself — glad we found room for Brick, Hoop Dreams, Rock ‘N’ Roll High School, and Flirting as well as the usual John Hughes movies. (Speaking of which, what’s Sixteen Candles, shown, doing all the way down at No. 49?) My quibble: Movies have often been a safe place for our most rebellious and violent high school fantasies to play out, but maybe in the post-Columbine era, our listmakers were a bit squeamish about including such movies as Over the Edge, Elephant, The Basketball Diaries, Light It Up, If…, Toy Soldiers, The Chocolate War, The Secret Lives of Altar Boys, and Blackboard Jungle. (Then again, we did include Rebel Without a Cause, Heathers, and Carrie.)
Did all of your favorites make the grade, or did some get left back? Pass us a note in study hall, or let us know below.
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For me, the most ridiculous ommission was All the Right Moves. How does that not make the list?
What?! No Three O’Clock high? If ever there was a movie about High School and the angst of not being the biggest kid in school this is it.
How does “Three O’ Clock High” not make this list?
No Ten Things I Hate About You? No My Bodyguard? What about The Outsiders – is there a teen movie with a better cast than that? Are you kidding? I suppose I can forgive you leaving off Pump Up the Volume and She’s All That, but to put Say Anything at 11? Be serious!
How could you not mention GREASE ?
the top three are perfection! although, dazed and confused will always be number one, not just as a highschool movie but as the best movie of all time!
Whoops, you did….mea culpa!!
I know it’s technically set in junior high, but what about Welcome to the Dollhouse? It’s equal parts horrifying and hilarious, just like jr. high/high school, at least for me! And also, where is the Last American Virgin?
I agree about Ten Things being left off is a shame. Also, I don’t understand how Porky’s didn’t make it on the list.
Grease and My Bodygaurd were both on there.
I missed Cruel Intentions and Ten Things I Hate About You though.
My high school movie that didn’t make the list (and I understand why, but still) was “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. The witchy prom princess! The cluelessness! The cameos (look for Ben Affleck especially)! Pee Wee Herman! Luke Perry with a soul patch! And despite obvious medling by the studios, you could tell where the TV series got it’s heart from. One of the best bad teenage movies, for sure.
Pretty good list. I went in thinking of the titles that they probably wouldn’t have, and most of them were there. (Except for maybe GREASE 2)
I would argue that CAN’T BUY ME LOVE is too low. It probably is one of the more realistic 80’s high school films. At least more realistic than the sort of fairy tale-ish John Hughes films (which I like, but CBML felt more real).
Also would say THREE O’CLOCK HIGH deserved to be on the list. Although after the opening ten minutes, it goes downhill quite a bit.
And LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN, but that is quite possibly the most depressing film ever made. So, I don’t think EW wants to recommend it to others, only to get lawsuits to cover medication because of how the ending made them feel.
Another high school movie that should definetly be on the list is Footloose.
Happy to see SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS included on the list. Although tame by today’s standards, it packed a wallop back in the day.
So funny, I wrote my senior thesis on Fast Times, Risky Business (should have been WAY higher on the list–I mean really, behind Bring it on??), Breakfast Club and Ferris. Good times.
That said, a lot of issues with this one. Mean Girls should have been far down on the list, if mentioned at all. It was basically Clueless for the dim-witted and too snarky for its own good. Also, I’m baffled at the choice to include Scream but none of the old-school slashers (Halloween, Nightmare etc.) that inspired it. Boyz n the Hood is stretching the definition of “high-school movie” a bit much. And, again, there’s no reason for Risky Business to be so low…
Your top three kick major butt -good job
Summer School.
The Breakfast Club. I graduated from HS in 1985 and 21 years later and I still laugh at it.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun is my #1! Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a close second.
Great idea to kick off the season! So many great ones! Personal faves: Election,Ferris,Clueless,Fast Times& Bring it On. Tons I haven’t seen.Now I have a great list to add to my Netflix queue!!
How can “Spider-Man” be left off the list? After all, it IS the ultimate high school fantasy. Remember, Peter Parker was a teen who couldn’t get a date — but he could save the world!
Also, how about more props for “She’s All That,” starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook? It should have made the list just for the choreographed prom dance sequence featuring Usher, the luscious Jodi Lyn O’Keefe and Fatboy Slim’s “The Rockefeller Skank.”
Then there’s Martha Coolidge’s “Valley Girl,” the 1980s comedy about different worlds headlined by a very young Nicolas Cage and the much-missed Deborah Foreman.
And let’s not forget the Julia Stiles high school tripleheader — “10 Things I Hate About You,” “Save the Last Dance” and “O.” And when you consider the two latter movies, have there been many young actresses as brave as she?
“The Faculty” was enjoyable, and not just because of Josh “Hot”nett…And I agree with Billy about the original slasher-type movies. You should definitely have had, for instance, “Nightmare on Elm St.” on the list. Classic!
Some Kind of Wonderful…how was that left off the list????
There are def. some issues with this list. Mean Girls doesn not deserve to be on here. Second of all there are so many that didn’t make it. I agreed with some of them, but there are def. some favorites that got left out. One of my favorites that I believe deserved to be on this list is Varsity Blues.
Okay, your list sucked! Sixteen Candles, Ferris & Election should have been 1, 2 & 3. No ifs, ands, or buts about it!
In: Pump Up the Volume
Racing With the Moon
The Girl Next Door
Go
Out: She’s All That (stunk)
Napolean Dynamite (we’ll see how well this ages)
Harry Potter?
Now, I can handle “10 Things I Hate About You” and “Varsity Blues” not making the list- it sucks, but such is life. But no “Better Off Dead”- are you kidding me!?!? What’ll it cost to get EW to fix this list….say, “Two dollars?”
Loved, loved, LOVED this list! While I disagreed with the ranking of some of the movies (I agree Sixteen Candles should be higher), I agreed with every film on this list. I knew what the top three would be before I even started reading, and I liked EW’s broad take on each movie. I now have an overwhelming urge to pop in my Dazed and Confused DVD, sit back, and relive my teenage years: angst, desperation, and care-free joy all at once.
Oh yeah! How could you leave Valley Girl off the list? Ultimate high school issues: sex, stereotypes, music, even has a prom scene. Come on!!
No way “Sixteen Candles” should be #48! That’s outrageous. Also, where is “Last American Virgin?”