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.
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…