The best high school movies ever feature the hottest young actors, great settings and play with the stereotypes of the US high school system. This offers so much stuff for comedy and drama and everyone who attended high school can easily relate to it. So here is the Top 10Â high school film ranking.
You can roughly divide them into two groups: High school love movies and high school comedy movies. The former focussing on romance and the latter one of course is more about humor and gags.
Top 10 Best High School Movies
10. She`s all that
The 90s romantic comedy was a box office surprise hit and a pioneer of high school love movies. Probably because it featured many young and refreshing actors like Freddie Prince Jr. and Paul Walker. The high school star Zack has been dumped by his prom queen girlfriend and now Zac bets that he can make any girl the new prom queen. Unfortunately his friend chooses Laney the wallflower as betting object. So lots of work for charming Zack, will he transform Laney into prom queen material?
9. Mean Girls
16 year old teenage girl Cady (Lindsay Lohan in her best role) returns from a longer trip to Africa with her parents and has to realize that high school with its clique structure is just another type of jungle. If you are in the mood for a high school film, you can`t go wrong here!
8. Easy A
Hollywood newcomer Emma Stone in a clever and entertaining version of high school love movies. As Olive Penderghast she becomes the school`s tramp simply because she offers virgins to tell that she slept with them and has to deal with the consequences. Stone`s performance as rebellious high school girl outshines everything and her eloquent comments as voice from the off are the icing on the cake.
7. Can`t hardly wait
The movie mostly taked place at a high school graduation party, where several charcaters deal with issues like unreturned love, insensitive boyfriends or being bullied. Enchanting Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry and Peter Facinelli take the lead and it`s an absolute insider tip, very charming and with an extraordinary number of special appearances of actors that were or later moved on to become Hollywood stars, e.g. Seth Green, Jason Segel, Jenna Elfman, Clea Duvall, Donald Faison, Melissa Joan Hart or Breckin Meyer.
6. Varsity Blues
This one will always be remembered for the legendary whipped-cream bikini worn by Ali Larter, when she tried to seduce the football quarterback (James van der Beek). Apart from that this a an intense high school film football drama, located in the fictional city of West Canaan where football is everything and the team`s coach (Jon Voight) would sell his own grandmother for success. He is worshipped by the citizens for leading the team to several national titles, but when star quarterback Lance Harbor gets injured and back up Jonathan Moxon (van der Beek) has to take over, things change. When he questions the coach`s methods and doesn`t follow his instructions, the tension rises. Will the powerful coach come out on top? Not the typical example of good high school movies – an intense coming of age drama about the impact of high school football on teenagers future, great watch!
5. Clueless
90s cult movie with Alicia Silverstone as spoiled and girly Beverly Hills teenager, who`s taking a new girl under her wings trying to turn her into a decent high school chick. Watching the adorable blond girl finding herself and love is simply fun to watch and therefore my no. 5 pick in the ranking of the best high school movies.
4. Girls United
Charming Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union lead two rivalling Cheerleading groups on their way to national championsships. Lots of highschool drama, teenager love and funny cheerleading accidents included. You don`t have to be into Cheerleading to enjoy this high school movie.
3. The Breakfast Club
Widely considered as the best high school film ever and I can see why. It`s not an easy to consume light comedy, it is more a coming of age drama, an deep analysis of the social constructs in high school and how the teenagers cope with their status. So it`s kind of a must see for everyone who attends or attended high school. But there are two movies I simply enjoyed even more…
2. Ten things I hate about you
For me this is one of the best high school movies ever and in the “high school love movies” department it even is the best for me. It is losely based on Shalespeare`s “The taming of the shrew”, but don`t get discouraged by that. The high school-beauty is only allowed to go out when her older sister also has a date. Thats pretty tough because she is an inapproachable, men-hating cow. An admirer of the beauty now tries to set up the sister in order to get a date. This causes lots of funny moments and not one but two great lovestories. Can Heath Ledger tame the shrew? Come in and find out!
1. Get over it
My number one of the best high school movies is loosely based on Shakespeare`s “A midsummer night`s dream” and it features a musical version of this, called “A midsummer night`s rockin eve” staged by the high school`s drama class. When Berke Landers (Ben Foster) is dumped by his long term girlfriend, his world is shattered. And as if that`s not enough, she soon hooks up with slimy boy group member Striker (Shane West). To win her back, he wants to be part of the musical and asks his friends sister (Kirsten Dunst) for help, who has a little crush on Ben herself. This love rectangle is so funny due to the good-humored leading actors and delivers lots of laughing-out-loud scenes. The supporting actors aren`t too shabby either, Martin Short in fact steals the show as drama teacher Dr. Desmond Oates. Sisquo, Colin Hanks, Mila Kunis and Zoe Saldana make it round and therefore the best of high school film genre . I love it!
Do you agree with the ranking of best high school movies? Or do you have another high school film in mind, you`d consider for the Top 10? If so, feel free to leave a comment.
