Making the grade: The 25 best high school movies of all time
Grease, Fast Times, and Ferris Bueller are just some of the classics that earn a spot on our Honors List of films that nail the fun and fears of high school
Film Features Christian Slater
Few things are more nostalgic than a high school movie to bring back all those frightful and fraught memories of cliques, crushes, mean teachers, dressing for gym class, and nasty cafeteria food. Whether your high school experience was painful or pleasant, we can all remember the emotions and situations we went through as teenagers.
Movies about high school have been a Hollywood staple for decades, covering pretty much all genres from comedy to musical to horror. And with hundreds to choose from, we did our homework and narrowed down our picks for the 25 best high school movies to titles that hit us in the feels or the funny bone. From John Hughes’ 1980s classics like The Breakfast Club to modern comedies like Booksmart, we give you a chronological look at genre-defining high school movies that made us laugh, cry, and cringe—sometimes all at once. Consider it your new must-see syllabus.
136 Comments
How in the ever-loving fuck can you have a list of the best high school movies ever made and not have American Graffiti???
The characters were high schoolers (or people who had just graduated), yes, but school played almost no role in the movie (although you could argue that about some of the movies they did pick, to be fair).
I mean, I certainly get that, but the structure is almost identical to both Dazed and Confused and Superbad (and Booksmart, if I recall? I only saw that once and only have a vague recollection…)
That’s true for a fair number of the movies here, and graduating from high school and plans for after were central themes in the movie.
Absolutely right. Could chalk it up to youngs not having any connection to movies made before 2000 but Graffiti is in 50th anniversary promotion now.
Need to stretch back a little earlier into the 70s and include American Graffiti. Plenty of movies on this list can be bumped on its behalf.
It’s high school movies, not teen movies. AG has nothing whatsoever to do with high school.
*cough *
Edge of Seventeen!*cough*
I think “Superbad” and “American Pie” are the movies that best capture what it’s like to be a teenage boy. To be good-hearted and well-intentioned, while also being unrelentingly horny – and the way that volatile mix can make you behave.
C’mon A.V Bot. No ‘Not Another Teen Movie’? I say this half in jest.
Does Heathers hold up post-Columbine? I haven’t seen it since I was in high school, at one of the schools that’s on the same distinguished list as Columbine.
I only saw it for the first time post-Columbine, and didn’t find it very amusing, so at least for me, no. But I may be an outlier
I think it depends on when you saw it. Also, if we’re talking Christian Slater then Pump Up the Volume should be on this list.
Still fantastic.
I think it still holds up but man, is some of that imagery disturbing post-Columbine. But the script is still fantastic. I absolutely love the two cops who discover Kurt and Ram’s bodies.
Normally, I sort of sneer at how heavily these lists are tilted towards more modern movies (these kids today…), but I genuinely can’t think of a single high school movie made before the 1970s. Maybe Rebel Without a Cause, but if I remember correctly, very little of the film actually takes place in a high school setting.Also worth noting that the TV show What’s Happening is somehow an unlikely distant descendent of Cooley High.
There’s 1955’s “Blackboard Jungle” about a young idealistic teacher teaching at a rough high school in the Bronx, with Sidney Poitier as a gifted but troubled student. 1967’s “Up the Down Staircase” is another (the title refers to how in large urban high schools certain staircases were designated for going up or down in order to aid traffic”)
Completely agree. That was my first thought: Wow, where’s anything pre-1970? You mentioned “Rebel Without a Cause.” That was the title that came to mind. But those who suggested “Blackboard Jungle,” “Up the Down Staircase,” and “To Sir, With Love” are also right on the money. I would also make the case for “Ordinary People.” Sure, it’s primarily about Conrad’s — a traumatized teen — relationship with his parents. But his high school experience is such a rich and essential background for Conrad’s journey, that I think it’s arguably a candidate for the list.
There’s also Splendor in the Grass.
To Sir, With Love. And it belongs on this list.
At the top.
Teenagers, as a market demographic, didn’t really exist before then.
The teenager as a marketing concept wasn’t invented until the 1950s, and Hollywood was slow to catch on. Not only would producers be reluctant to back a movie about teen angst, but I doubt many Hollywood writers had a clue on how to capture it. Besides Rebel without a Cause, that’s why most high school movies had the teachers as stars, not the students.
Class of 1984 is better & more fun than half of these.
Go ahead and name the 12 it is better than…
Ok. Class of 1984 > Cooley High, RR High, Fame, BF Club, Hoosiers, Peggy Sue, Dazed & Confused, 10 Things, Bring It On, Friday Night Lights, Easy A, 21 Jump, Booksmart. Class of 1984 is easily better than these 13.
This is a surprisingly solid list, given how poor you guys usually do on these. I have surprisingly few notes:Rock & Roll High School? Please.American Pie. How do you not have American Pie? And American Graffiti while on the subject of America.Can’t Buy Me Love?Lady Bird?Just One of the Guys?I’d argue The Karate Kid is in many ways a high school movie and belongs here, since the major driver of the plot is Daniel’s inability to adjust to his new school and classmates.I can live with Can’t Hardly Wait not being included, since it takes place in the immediate aftermath of high school graduation.I would also argue that Into the Spider-Verse is also, in many respects, a high school movie.
Just One of the Guys remains my favorite teen/high school movie. It is endlessly quotable.
good call on karate kid!! cant believe i didnt think of that one!
Jawbreaker?
Teachers, Teen Wolf (the original), Summer School?
No American Pie?! Wait til you see what happens to the pie!
Don’t tell me someone fucks it! ‘Cause that would be crazy!
Are you sure you haven’t seen the movie?
To say nothing of the flute.
My high school experience was more similar to (a more grounded version of) Napoleon Dynamite than to many of these other movies. It’s not so much that I lived in a dump in Idaho, but my high school had really no stratospherically cool people. There were plenty of people who were “cool” but not intimidatingly so; they were just nice kids. I feel like even at the time, many of the “popular” kids were a lot like Don and Summer in that people just disliked them because they were annoying.
Mine was Real Genius, except in high school.
Yeah, most of the popular kids at my high school were pretty nice and a lot of them were good students (including the athletes). They might not hang with you on weekends but it bore little resemblance to the over-the-top treatment you see in most high school movies. There were maybe five or six total between guys and girls who were just assholes, but most people ignored them.
Same here. The most popular students were popular precisely because they were nice and easy to talk to.The asshole kids were generally their less popular hangers-on, who aggressively guarded their position on the social ladder.
I feel like junior high was a lot closer to what the high school movies portray. That was a time when kids were really mean. But the time high school rolled around people just cared less? I also went to a big school so maybe that played a part. I feel like high school was easy in that respect.
How big was your high school and how wealthy were the students? I had a mostly similar experience, but there was definitely some pretty bad hazing and the occasional bullying. It wasn’t as bad as some of these movies and rarely did a large group consistently bully a small group, it was usually a few assholes who messed with everyone, but some people got it a lot worse than others. When I got to college and started meeting people who went to those 3000+ student schools with a pipeline of division 1 athletes, they had a very different experience. As would be expected when the group contains 3500 children instead of 800, there are simply more opportunities for wild things to happen, more rich kids to host wild parties, and more people with the money/notoriety to cover it up. They’re the exception, but a family’s house getting completely thrashed by an out-of-control party absolutely happens. The football & basketball players who are at the level of multiple offers and winning state championships generally are living a completely different life than everyone else around them, they’re just rare.
Yeah, my high school definitely did not have concrete social stratification of the Hughes (or, for that matter, Veronica Mars) kind. But I think if you broke things down by race, immigration history, and disability, or just talked to someone with whatever social challenges who was truly on the bottom rung, you’d get a less flattering view. And God help you if you were in theater tech.
“Angus” is another good one. Killer soundtrack.
Good interview with Charlie Talbert on this pod…https://open.spotify.com/episode/0kYHb3oCcVVOJvj6yBnntI?si=aa2a0a6830484e34
Fast Times at Ridgemont High had a ridiculous number of people who went on to win Academy Awards.I saw Clueless at my local cinema when they did a 20th Anniversary screening back in 2015. Paul Rudd was distracting in how he didn’t look anywhere near 20 years older than when he appeared in this film.(Maybe not even 20 minutes …)
Don Phillips absolutely killed it as casting director of Fast Times. The number of relatively unknown young actors who went on to enormous fame is just astounding: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Nicholas Cage, Anthony Edwards, the late great Taylor Negron . . .As wonderful as Fast Times is, it could have been even better had the studio not insisted upon a mostly classic rock soundtrack. Amy Heckerling has great taste in music and wanted the soundtrack to feature the punk and new wave music that kids would have actually been listening to at the time. Instead, we got dreck like Jackson Browne’s “Somebody’s Baby.” That being said, you can’t beat Judge Reinhold watching his car to Petty’s “American Girl” for a quintessential California high school scene.
We did get Sleeping Angel by Stevie Nicks at least.
In My Bodyguard, he’s not a rich kid. His dad is the manager of a hotel (The Ambassador) and they live with his grandmother. He has more money than the bodyguard (played by Adam Baldwin), but I wouldn’t call him a rich kid at all.
Carrie is on here, which is a curious choice. If horror is being included, I’d cut some of these for more high school horror movies. Hoosiers and Friday Night Lights are on here, so that’s some nice high school sports representation, but I’d carve out more space for movies that celebrated regular high school teachers, too.
Like, say…Teachers?
The Faculty is better than Carrie, IMO.
If we’re including horror movies, then Scream seems like an obvious choice.
Back to the Future counts as a high school movie, right?Halloween could be an honorable mention.
Anthony Michael Hall’s performance in Sixteen Candles is one of the best on-screen comedic performances of all time, especially considering how young he was.
One thing that stands out about Fast Times to me all these years later is how well they handled the abortion storyline. No judgement, no agonizing back and forth about the decision. She just had it and her brother picked her up because he cared about his sister (unlike that little prick Damone).
I will never forgive Damone for not picking her up!
Damone is a little prick.
Cutting from Stacy calling Damone with news of the pregnancy and a request for a ride to the abortion clinic to closeups of the Elvis Costello’s Trust poster and then to the poster of Pete Townshend with bloody hands was just brilliant.
and soundtracked by stevie nicks best song. i will not debate this.
And Linda went to bat for Stacy, like a true friend would. “He’s not a guy, he’s a little prick.” Man, did she activate the heat-seeking missiles on Mike.
Way back when imdb still had message boards for each individual movie, the one for Fast Times had somebody on there that said he was there when Cameron Crowe was undercover, and would give details about the people that the characters were based on. The real life Linda sounded like she was really cool in real life, according to him anyway.
That is awesome.
I still don’t understand why he didn’t just show up with the money he was able to come up with. Oh well, if he had, we would have been deprived of the really sweet scene between Stacy and her brother.
Dead Poets’ Society a notable miss here. Yes it’s melodramatic but definitely captures the heightened teen angst.
Maybe boarding high school needs its own list. So, Dead Poet’s Society, School Ties and.. and… um… the only other entry I can think of is that terrible version of A Separate Peace, where they start suddenly singing “Hitler Has Only Got One Ball”, for some reason.
Yeah, Class, Taps and Scent of a Woman all come to mind but aren’t what I would consider “high school” movies.
…Harry Potter…No one’s done a truly accurate boarding school movie, in my opinion.
Could throw in Private School for boarding school movies although it wasn’t very deep.
Christian Slater in Heathers is the best Jack Nicholson impression ever to be on film.
Better than his impression in “Pump Up the Volume”?*checks notesYeah, it’s close but I agree.
Another good film left off the list.
Anna and the Apocalypse
slightly surprised at the Can’t Buy Me Love omission.Always happy to see Election get some attention.Glad She’s All That didn’t make it — but when it comes to genre defining – the glasses/ponytail/overalls makeover is up there.While hardly a real depiction of HS in any sense, I do just want to put out there Never Been Kissed is more enjoyable than you remember.
umm, Lady Bird?
Wait you think Ferris is an unlikable jerkface? The whole point of the movie is that he gets away with everything because he is so beloved by everyone but Jeannie and the principal… and even Jeannie chooses him over Rooney.
I guarantee you that Ferris grew up to be one of those Enron assholes, then he moved over to banking and was knee deep in the 2008 crash. Hated the character and hated the movie. His sister was right to feel how she did about him.
I love the movie and the character, but as I grew older, I couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that Ferris is basically a manipulative sociopath. It’s not a coincidence that I too imagined him working in finance.As an adult being responsible for people working under me, my sympathies have moved towards Mr. Rooney.
Right? Why was Jeannie so crapped on in the movie?
Is she though? Her parents bought her a car.
I mean, the movie itself—the narrative—painted her as shitty and miserable. (Until of course she was reformed by the Magic Peepee of Charlie Sheen.)
I remember seeing it in the theater and the end credit was great with Rooney utterly defeated getting on the bus. Then had a great 4th wall break with Ferris “Its over, go home”
rushmore
In your defense, there are so many great HS movies it is hard to distill to a concise list. But I would def add: Valley Girl, American Graffiti, The Warriors, Back to the Future (can’t believe this is missing), Better Off Dead, American Pie (this one too?!), Welcome to the Dollhouse, Footloose, Pretty in Pink, Dead Poets Society, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Perks of Being a WallflowerEdited to echo the Can’t Buy Me Love… uh… love
What does Warrors have to do with high school? This is high school movies, not teen movies.
valley girl and footloose were the two notable omissions for me as well!
Drop Dead Gorgeous!
Wasn’t “Welcome to the Dollhouse” set in middle school, though?
Ah yes. Next list!
Was just about to say this. Fantastically, brutally unsentimental movie about the horror that is 7th grade.
Forgot about Valley Girl. Easy top 10.
Three O’Clock High!
The Outsiders
I love The Warriors, but a high school movie? I guess like Grease, they are supposed to be teenagers, but I had just assumed that all those characters had quit school long ago.
I always thought they were high schoolish; maybe I’m not remembering correctly. The scene after the fight where they’re all on the train and the giggling rich prom kids get on? Felt like that was a direct comparison.
Agreed that this is a cut above the recent AV Club listings, with only a few notable omissions.One I’d add: Justin Lin’s criminally underwatched Better Luck Tomorrow, which captures every stereotype about Asian high achievers and runs with it in a completely different direction.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this move also technically in the Fast and Furious universe?
Yep, I’ve read that Lin loosely connected it to as a character’s backstory for the movies, but given I’m not an F&F fan that’s about all I know.
And while we’re at it, Tokyo Drift is more of a high school film than some on this list.
Obviously other people’s mileage varies but I absolutely cannot stand Napoleon Dynamite and I still rate it as one of the worst films I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s right down there with Freddy Got Fingered.
Three O’Clock High – as far as I know, the only movie that Casey Siemaszko had the lead role inCooley High I suppose stands in for the whole “inner city true story” subgenre. Stand and Deliver, Lean On Me, Dangerous MindsIf Carrie, then also Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I just knew Three O’Clock High would get the shaft.
I was going to comment about the lack of 3 o’clock High. A good high school movie about bullying.
Damn, I forgot about Three O’Clock High. Also great soundtrack by Tangerine Dream for that movie.
Better Off Dead and Summer School should definitely be on this list!!!!
Better Off Dead is one of my favorite comedies, but does it fit into the ‘High School Movie’ genre? There aren’t many (memorable) scenes set in the high school. Although I guess the same could be said about Superbad and other movies on the list.Summer School should absolutely be on the list.
Well, there’s Lane hitting on the cheerleader who dates the entire basketball team, there’s the school dance, the teacher hitting on Lane’s ex (How would you feel if I took out Beth…)It has a LOT of HS stuff going on in it.
I think the whole high school girlfriend/school jock plot line (great cafeteria scenes!) along with a school dance being a pretty important plot moment justifies its inclusion! But I see what your are saying.
How the Christ is Lady Bird not on this list??
No Can’t Hardly Wait? I declare shenanigans!
Where is Disturbing Behavior ?The sound track was insanely good and it was Katie Holmes absolute peak.
WAYYYYYY too much John Hughes.And where is 3:00 High?Um: Risky Business?
Yeah, John Hughes’s ‘80s stuff has aged like milk. I know everyone loves The Breakfast Club—and there’s some good stuff in there—but I absolutely hate that after crapping on Claire the entire movie, Bender gets rewarded with Claire. All the Right Moves is a wonderful, often overlooked Tom Cruise movie about high school football and who gets scholarships in a dying steeltown.
I’d almost forgotten All the Right Moves, I might tuck that on my way too long list of movies to watch again someday.
Don’t forget Bender sexually assaults Claire too!
No Massacre at Central High? COME ON!
No American Pie?
I would think that “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” could have a place on here…it’s not about high school but it is a huge part of the makeup of the main character and many of the scenes. Besides, Stephen Root as the Principal is great. In the words of Pike, “I’m not angry, just disappointed.”
I mean I would agree, but the movie is garbage compared to the tv series.
I can’t respect a list that doesn’t include Brick, a film that not only closely depicts what high school is like, but also shows how many murder mysteries we always had to solve.
Also where the Weird goddamn Science?
“Twelve O’Clock High” deserves the spot for “My Bodyguard.”
“Can’t Hardly Wait” definitely deserves a spot.
I will defend Heathers as a pitch perfect depiction of the class-warfare Reagan 80s. I still quote it endlessly to this day! Yes, the ending is problematic— but what about the tasteless satire of “Teenage Suicide: Don’t Do It!”? I might bend the rules and include Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, a touching look at fitting in for the current generation.
Mean Girls was great and all, but let’s not pretend it was just a less nihilistic retelling of Heathers.
Mean Girls should be higher and Booksmart should not be there at all.
I like a lot of your choices, but I’d include Pump Up the Volume and Footloose, two movies about censored teens pursuing freedom.
Maybe not top 25 but Prom Night had a fair amount of high school happenings.
Three O’Clock High.
Anna And The ApocalypseAll Of Us Are Dead
I can’t believe this list doesn’t have the Jon Lovitz tour de force, High School High.
I was really hoping to see The Faculty on this list. Damn good high school horror.
You make it sound like Garrett Morris has a real big role in Cooley High. He’s barely in it. The movie centers around Preach and Cochise. They’re the foundation of the movie.
My Bodyguard really captures what high school was like at that time.
My memory of seeing the Breakfast Club is going with my sister to the Mayfair theater in North Bergen NJ. Before hand I had been playing basketball with my friends and was really thirsty. I grabbed a 2 liter bottle of Sprite from the fridge and started drinking it. Before I knew it I had drank it all. Now it was off to the movies. About 30 minutes into the Breakfast Club my stomach was hurting and I had to throw up. I went down the isle saying, excuse me, excuse me and ran to the bathroom and vomited. I went back to my seat and 10 minutes go by and I went down the isle saying, excuse me, excuse me and ran to the bathroom and vomited. I walked back to my seat and I thought it was over but I started throwing up and I went down the isle saying, excuse me, excuse me and then threw up on this girl. Who stood up screaming and the lights came up in the theater. My sister said, lets get out here! We ran and when I got outside the theater I threw up on the sidewalk. It was not a good day. So now whenever I see the Breakfast Club that memory floods back into my head.
DECADES of pretending gay teens dont exist.
Okay but this could not possibly have been written by a human: “Though it’s an unrealistic setup and familiar underdog story, My Bodyguard’s high school dynamics and kids like ones you probably knew recall those memories we all share.”