High School movies?

May 24, 2009 2:19 AM

I know Heathers, Clueless, Breakfast Club, Carrie, Dead Poets Society, all the obvious ones... can you complete this list? Thank you, Hive Mind.
posted by mooza to media & arts (59 comments total)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Pretty in Pink (1986)
Weird Science (1985)
Sixteen Candles (1984)

The problem is knowing which ones you consider to be the obvious ones? Those are all pretty obvious, but maybe you accidentally forgot one.
posted by sharkfu at 2:22 AM on May 24

I suppose an IMDB search plot keyword="high school" could help too.
posted by sharkfu at 2:25 AM on May 24

How about The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner? It's not a black teen comedy, but it's full of teen rebellion against school.
posted by zippy at 2:26 AM on May 24

Sorry, I guess I should have asked for obscure high school movies, or what everyone's favourite HS movies were.

Thanks for the IMDB search, it should have occurred to me straight away...
posted by mooza at 2:32 AM on May 24

Gregory's Girl
posted by cameronfromedinburgh at 2:37 AM on May 24

Additionally, behold: Netflix's entire "High School" category, which allows for sub genre searching, including movies from Fast Times at Ridgemont High to Teen Witch to Can't Hardly Wait (and more!)
posted by Mizu at 2:42 AM on May 24

Oh Netflix that looks great...but I'm not in America so I can't join, so I can't have a look at that list unforch.
posted by mooza at 2:56 AM on May 24

Dazed and Confused!
posted by jedrek at 3:01 AM on May 24

Hehe, while not exactly a 'high school' film, Ginger Snaps is pretty nifty cult film about adolescence .... and werewolves. Think 'Heathers' meets 'The Howling'.

I'm also rather fond of Pump Up The Volume.
posted by elendil71 at 3:06 AM on May 24

Specifically In High school:
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Say Anything
Better Off Dead
Lucas
Liscence to Drive
Rockin'Roll Highschool Forever
Class

High School Summers:
Porky's
Porky's 2: The next day
Porky's Revenge (3)
The Lost Boys (not that new piece of tripe)
Gleaming the Cube

Television Shows:
21 Jump Street

Other:
Young Guns
Young Guns II
St. Elmos Fire
Oxford Blues
Bad Boys (1983) - not the Will Smith Movie
The Outsiders
The Warriors
Red Dawn (aw c'mon)
posted by Nanukthedog at 3:07 AM on May 24

School Ties? Stand and Deliver? Dangerous Minds?
posted by Ghidorah at 3:10 AM on May 24

10 Things I Hate About You
Mean Girls
posted by amyms at 3:33 AM on May 24

History Boys(!)
Cute, and incredibly smart high school brits trying to get into Oxford/Cambridge and quoting Wordsworth on their days off.
posted by drea at 3:41 AM on May 24

Grease?
posted by TheRaven at 3:51 AM on May 24 [1 favorite]

But I'm a Cheerleader
posted by Carol Anne at 4:01 AM on May 24 [1 favorite]

Welcome to the Dollhouse (may have been middle school but very similar type of film)
American Pie
Napoleon Dynamite
Twilight
Three o'Clock High
posted by justonegirl at 4:03 AM on May 24

My Best Friend's a Vampire, of course!
posted by Asherah at 4:11 AM on May 24

My Boyfriend's Back
posted by jedrek at 4:34 AM on May 24

Election.
posted by applemeat at 4:39 AM on May 24 [2 favorites]

Theoretically, 2001's Not Another Teen Movie.
posted by seandq at 4:44 AM on May 24

Clueless, Can't Hardly Wait, Mean Girls, Superbad, Juno
posted by donajo at 5:08 AM on May 24

Saved!
Sister Act 2
Jawbreaker
Bring it On
posted by lampoil at 5:14 AM on May 24

Not strictly high school: Adventures in Babysitting and Goonies are both about how much trouble you can get into on the evenings and weekends.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:18 AM on May 24

Oh, and War Games fits my new category as well.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:19 AM on May 24

Mostly cheesy:
Senior Skip Day
Rushmore
Drive Me Crazy
Get Over It
She's All That
She's The Man
posted by knile at 5:38 AM on May 24

I tried Google Sets and got this:

clueless
dead poets society
heathers
carrie
breakfast club
mean girls
the breakfast club
jawbreaker
pretty woman
odd girl out
the outsiders
cruel intentions
high school musical
angus
she's all that
american pie
grease
the craft
weird science
dazed and confused
the lost boys
can't hardly wait
pretty in pink
bring it on
thirteen
varsity blues
kids
porky's
scream series
road trip
american wedding
bully
ken park
american pie 2
posted by SNACKeR at 5:42 AM on May 24 [1 favorite]

Degrassi High: School's Out
posted by Midnight Rambler at 6:05 AM on May 24

Buffy the vampire slayer, the film, high school dance + bloodshed.
posted by sundri at 6:10 AM on May 24

all over me and kids. slightly more art housey cult films from mid 1990s new york with awesome soundtracks.
posted by iamnotateenagegirl at 6:10 AM on May 24 [2 favorites]

Brick

Donnie Darko
posted by Gorgik at 6:51 AM on May 24

If....
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:55 AM on May 24

Freaks and Geeks, if you're open to TV
2nding Donnie Darko

For the list:
Foxfire
Never been kissed
posted by degrees_of_freedom at 7:20 AM on May 24

Over The Edge
River's Edge
The Wild Life
The Last American Virgin
posted by Sailormom at 7:24 AM on May 24

Summer School.

Some Kind of Wonderful.
posted by Sassyfras at 7:27 AM on May 24

Cooley High
American Graffiti
Rebel Without A Cause
Virgin Suicides
posted by degrees_of_freedom at 7:33 AM on May 24

My Bodyguard
posted by miss lynnster at 7:50 AM on May 24

Entertainment Weekly's 50 Best High School Movies
posted by miss lynnster at 7:52 AM on May 24

I think that page was screwed up somehow. Here's the list again.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:54 AM on May 24

Catholic Boys, 1985. Erm, FWIW, the priest is brilliant [the guy with the speech defect from The Princess Bride].

Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984, had quite a lot of scenes set in school, from memory.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 8:18 AM on May 24

Pump Up the Volume
posted by frobozz at 9:46 AM on May 24

Risky Business
House Party
posted by fuse theorem at 9:50 AM on May 24

Can't Buy Me Love
Just One of the Guys
posted by Epsilon-minus semi moron at 10:12 AM on May 24

Teen Wolf
Napoleon Dynamite
posted by purpletangerine at 10:12 AM on May 24

The Sure Thing remade as Sex Drive
Can't Hardly Wait
Better Off Dead
One Crazy Summer
Wikipedia has a list of Teen Comedies
posted by P.o.B. at 10:47 AM on May 24

Revenge of the Nerds
posted by velvet winter at 11:17 AM on May 24

Sort of high school movies (youthful themes, involve people in HS) would be:
Breaking Away
Caddyshack
Vision Quest
posted by Antidisestablishmentarianist at 11:21 AM on May 24

Oops. Correction: Revenge of the Nerds actually doesn't qualify - it is set in the first year of college, not in high school.

I first saw it when I was in high school, though, so for me it'll be forever linked to high school memories.
posted by velvet winter at 11:23 AM on May 24

Velvet, in a way its a HS movie, as the themes would appeal to people younger than college age. Anyone actually in college might not relate to it as well. Another one along those lines is Real Genius perhaps.
posted by Antidisestablishmentarianist at 11:26 AM on May 24

Wow, lots of great ones here. I was just thinking of Breaking Away yesterday. My own personal favorite of the genre is the mighty Better Off Dead.

Once that I don't think has been mentioned so far: Once Bitten, an incredibly cheesy high school sex comedy/vampire flick, featuring Jim Carrey in his first starring role. (Bonus: my boyfriend is one of the co-stars.)
posted by scody at 12:23 PM on May 24

Oh yeah! Brick, discussed here.
posted by P.o.B. at 12:28 PM on May 24

Taps
posted by Jahaza at 2:41 PM on May 24

Evil (aka Ondskan)
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 4:55 PM on May 24

Elephant
The Perfect Score

Also seconding But I'm a Cheerleader. Although it doesn't take place in a high school it does have a boarding school-like setting to it.

TV Shows (these were some of my favourites growing up):
-Boy Meets World
-Smart Guy
posted by alona at 5:52 PM on May 24

For a highly unconventional but awesome "high school" movie I heartily recommend Hal Hartley's Trust. Kind of in the same dark vein as Heathers, but darker.
posted by ryaninoakland at 6:43 PM on May 24

Little Darlings
Slums of Beverly Hlls
posted by brujita at 11:25 PM on May 24

Flatliners
posted by salvia at 12:35 AM on May 25

St Trinian's. It earns bonus points for featuring Stephen Fry!
posted by pseudonymph at 8:19 AM on May 25

Valley Girl
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 7:51 PM on May 25

American Graffiti
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 7:54 PM on May 25