Categories: Stories

Forever Young: The Best High School Movies Ever

Mean Girls

Combine Tina Fey’s witty screenplay along with a Lindsay Lohan in her prime and a breakout performance by Rachel McAdams and what do you get– Mean Girls. Filled to the brim with memorable one-liners, Mean Girls quickly reached cult success, and though it is the more modern of this top 10 bunch, there’s no doubt it will stand the test of time. Lohan’s Cady is an unsocialized teen who spent her first 16 years homeschooled when she is placed into the most dangerous jungle of them all– high school. Though Cady may not have the social skills up to par with many of the students, her looks land her a position in the popular mean girl group, The Plastics. Cady had formed a meaningful relationship with a group of outcasts, who push her to take on her role in The Plastics and take the mean girls down. But like any good high school flick, sometimes the drama and politics in the social hierarchy can get to even the purest of heart. Mean Girls is packed with powerful comedic performances, with Tina Fey as the lead teacher in the mix. It’s hysterical but also touches deeply on how mean girls can be in high school, and where the line needs to be drawn.

Clueless

Like many of the films that make the best high school movie list, Clueless centers on a group of wealthy, good-looking, and popular girls. Alicia Silverstone’s Cher has it all, all but a clue that is. High atop the social scene and easily securing anything she wants, Cher goes on the endeavor to try and make others happy, and curb her somewhat innocent selfishness. Clueless is a high school movie classic. Though the popular girl role is not an icon that is easy to relate to, Cher’s confusion and self-doubt are things every high school student experiences. Producers of the film had even sat in on Beverly Hills High School students, just to get a real feel for the culture. While obviously dramatized, the interactions between students of all different types makes this film even more endearing. Ending on a good-hearted note, and exposing to us what it means to be helpless and caring in a harsh and competitive environment was a fitting way to close a coming-of-age story. The cult following of this classic is well-deserved, especially thanks to the relatability and sincerity of Cher’s journey to finding a clue.

The Breakfast Club

It wouldn’t be a best high school movies list without The Breakfast Club, and it wouldn’t be an accurately ranked one without the John Hughes movie taking the number one spot. Considered the greatest high school movie of all time by both critics and fans alike the storyline brings together five teenagers of all different high school cliques to spend one epic Saturday detention together. Each realizing they probably have more in common than they would have ever realized in their day-to-day high school lives it gives us a look into the struggles that every high school student goes through, no matter the group they associate with. Filled with top notch performances from actors such as Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson and John Kapelos, the story itself gives viewers an opportunity to break down walls that high school movies often stick within and bring a ragtag group of unusual friends together in their own defeat. Friendships and romantic relationships form all as one day progresses, and the story which shows the unheard voices of different social statuses in the school shows why high school cliques never last, and the importance of seeing someone for who they are, not just what they represent at surface level. The insightful and witty look into the inner workings of what it means to be a teenager is a story that can attract an endless audience, standing up to the test of time and generational differences.

Grease

School is not about education, feeding the imagination or providing children with the skills necessary to succeed in life. No, it’s about music, fast cars, looking sharp and copping off with the opposite sex. And for this Hollywood truth, Grease is still very much the word. And as for Olivia Newton John in that leather suit…

Carrie

Has any film ever captured the agonising pain of being the scorned outsider whilst at school better than Carrie? The violent carnage that takes place at that most American of institutions – the school prom – is most definitely a case of the chickens coming home to roost. Sissy Spacek excels in this chilling adaptation of Stephen King’s memorable tale.

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Brad Rosenberg