I'm not sure how it managed to happen but this weekend I've been bombarded with high school movies. My roommate in a recent 90's craze decided to download Jawbreakers, a 1999 film starring Rose McGowan, Judy Greer, and Rebecca Gayheart. In the movie three of the most popular girls in high school accidentally kill their "best" friend with a jawbreaker in a prank. In the end viewers are warned of the dangers of conforming to what is popular and what happens when you let things go too far. As the weekend progressed I happened to catch Another Cinderella Story, a 2008 film starring Selena Gomez, the new Disney it girl. This Cinderella story tells the story of Mary who wins her prince through great dance moves and not backing down from her former pop star employer. High school for this class is easy to overcome with great dance moves in a similar fashion that High School Musical has made its success with. And while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to say about high school movies I started to watch Can't Hardly Wait, the 1998 film starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry, and Seth Green. After graduation the entire senior class goes to a house party where Preston, who has been in love with Amanda since she transferred to the school, tries to confess his love for her. We learn that what happened in high school doesn't define who you are the rest of your life. And just sitting here writing this I've seen commercials for a showing of Heathers this coming weekend. I can't help but feel amazed at our obsession with high school. Everyone always talks about how much they hated high school but we're always watching movies that focus solely on high school. here's a link to Entertainment Weekly's top 50 high school movies and AMC's list of films that didn't make the list.
Well here's my top ten high school movies:
10. Election
9. The Virgin Suicides
8. Scream
7. Heathers
6. The Faculty
5. Brick
4. Breakfast Club
3. Saved!
2. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
1. 10 Things I Hate About You
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interesting post. hollywood is totally obsessed with high school, I would argue even more than college. Do you think this reflects some sort of coming of age experience that everyone shares and thus plays upon? I don't know if you could find concrete research on this topic, but its a good one to theorize upon.
ReplyDeleteoh man, LOVED jawbreaker because it is kind of creepy and I was (am?) a weird little girl. Ditto Virgin Suicides and Saved. I like this observation: "Everyone always talks about how much they hated high school but we're always watching movies that focus solely on high school." and would like to see it elaborated upon. Because I hated high school but love these movies. Perhaps a bit of a nostalgia for a past that never was?
ReplyDeleteVery solid list, though I think you need to do some explaining of why "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" isn't there. Wow, wow.
ReplyDeleteI was sad to see that your list was missing "dazed and confused" which I love. However, I also love most of the movies on a your list. What would you say are the 5 requirements of a high school movie? The movies I love the most are the ones that remind me of when I was in high school. Movies that I can say "Man I remember when I did stupid shit like that!"
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