Your Favorites?
Entertainment Weekly has ranked The 50 Best High School Movies. While I've seen and enjoyed a majority of them, a few were my personal formative favorites while I was actually in high school:
Say Anything - I wanted to be Lloyd Dobler
Dead Poets Society - The awakening of my inner-poet
Heathers - Overthrowing the high school social order; brilliant; I wanted Winona Ryder (well, Veronica, really, as I came to realize the more I saw her in other roles)
And, to a lesser extent, Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Because it's so much fun
(Ditto Better Off Dead, but it didn't make the list)
What are yours?
Their Complete List
1) The Breakfast Club (1985)
2) Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
3) Dazed and Confused (1993)
4) Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
5) Heathers (1989)
6) American Graffiti (1973)
7) Clueless (1995)
8) Boyz N the Hood (1991)
9) Election (1999)
10) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
11) Say Anything (1989)
12) Mean Girls (2004)
13) High School (1968)
14) Donnie Darko (2001)
15) Carrie (1976)
16) Lucas (1986)
17) Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
18) Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
19) The Last Picture Show (1971)
20) Dead Poets Society (1989)
21) Grease (1978)
22) American Pie (1999)
23) Cooley High (1975)
24) Rushmore (1998)
25) Hoosiers (1986)
26) Pretty in Pink (1986)
27) To Sir, With Love (1967)
28) Back to the Future (1985)
29) Gregory's Girl (1982)
30) Bring It On (2000)
31) The Karate Kid (1984)
32) Scream (1996)
33) Hoop Dreams (1994)
34) Get Real (1999)
35) Brick (2006)
36) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
37) Friday Night Lights (2004)
38) Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
39) The Virgin Suicides (2000)
40) Risky Business (1983)
41) Can't Buy Me Love (1987)
42) Fame (1980)
43) Stand and Deliver (1988)
44) Can't Hardly Wait (1998)
45) My Bodyguard (1980)
46) Flirting (1992)
47) Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
48) Just One of the Guys (1985)
49) Sixteen Candles (1984)
50) Splendor in the Grass (1961)
(And if you've seen enough as many of these as I have, you'll get a kick out of Not Another Teen Movie.)
I wonder how much of this is a matter of timing. You'll notice my three favorites, which I stand by as good movies regardless of timing, all came out the year I graduated.
posted by Degolar @ 10:43 AM
11 Comments:
For me, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off definitely top the list. Of course, I'm partial to Ferris Bueller for a number of reasons, not the least of which is my identification with Cameron. Not a point that needs much discussion here, I'm assuming. Though, as an interesting side note "Cameron" was in fact a college nickname.
I hate the stupid fucking breakfast club with an all consuming passion. "Teen angst" makes me want to show some kids the business end of a hammer. And then hit them with it. In the head. With the hammer.
Hadrian, you have gone on record saying that you didn't like Ferris Bueller. What gives?
Perhaps he listed it because it was a formative favorite, not necessarily that it still is.
I can definitely see the connection with Cameron. How badly would you hurt us if we started calling you that?
And you never answered the question, Gobula. What was there to your high school experience other than lack of angst, and is there a film set in high school that captures it?
You must have a faulty record Gobula.
Clueless, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink (really, any movie with Molly Ringwald!)
Thanks for your comments over at Wordpress. I really appreciate it.
Veg
Dead Poets Society, Rushmore, Dazed and Confused. Those are the ones I still love. But I had my share of Breakfast Club, 16 Candles and Ferris Bueller. Pretty good list.
One day at the library we got on the subject of Ferris Bueller and you said "You know, I didn't really like that movie" and we were all surprised. You said it didn't really do anything for you.
There isn't a film that really captures anything about high school for me. High school was pretty much just pure boredom. Several years of organized sitting. I hardly remember much.
I'm serious about the Breakfast Club, too. I swear to God, if I ever see Anthony Michael Hall or Molly Ringwald I will run them down with my car.
Ok, I just saw "Harry Potter" on that list. What the hell?
You are obviously remembering that wrong, because I guarantee you I never said anything even resembling that. It's just not possible. You must have it confused with another movie.
Hmmm... denial is definately one of the warning signs...
Maybe I dreamt it, or maybe you were being difficult. I'm leaning towards the latter. I don't often remember wrong.
One movie I did like, but released after my high school days... was Pump Up the Volume with Christian Slater and Samantha Mathias. Pretty scenery and good music.
Probably the most resonating school movie released at a formative time in my life? Real Genius with Val Kilmer.
Which just now made me realize they didn't have Weird Science on the 50 best list. That is a travesty!
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