My favorite high school movies.

I’m starting a movie series each month this year, by doing different genres! Next up, my favorite high school movies!

CLUELESS.
Righteous teen comedy starring Alicia Silverstone as Cher, Beverly Hills high school student and pampered daughter of a widowed lawyer, who tries to help her classmates and family with romance and fashion advice, while eventually coming to examine the problems in her own seemingly perfect life. Movie can be found here.

MEAN GIRLS.
In this survival-of-the-fittest teen comedy, high school is a dangerous jungle seething with teenagers who prey on each other like wild animals. The nonstop jokes are hilariously rewarding as they exaggerate adolescent vanity and satirize political correctness issues like race, class, and homosexuality. Here, the Plastics are the most popular girls in school. They wrote the rule book on Girl World, like always wearing pink on Tuesdays. And they’re mean. So when pretty new girl Cady arrives in school, the first thing they do is make fun of her. Then they try to win her over. Cady is torn between social cliques. She befriends the punky rebels Janis and Damian. But the guy Cady wants to date is friends with the Plastics-Regina, Gretchen, and Karen, so she has to be resourceful. Problem is, the two groups hate each other. Just trying to fit in, Cady jumps through hoops for the Plastics and becomes a mean girl in the process. Though her transformation is radical, when the final act of meanness is done, she learns a few valuable lessons. Movie can be found here.

BRING IT ON.
The Toro cheerleading squad has spirit, spunk, sass and a killer routine that’s sure to land them the national championship trophy for the sixth year in a row. But for newly-elected team captain, Torrance, the Toro’s road to cheer glory stumbles when she discovers their perfectly choreographed routines were stolen from a hot hip-hop squad across town. Now the squad must scramble to find a new routine to compete in this year’s competition. Movie can be found here.

SUPERBAD.
Two inseparable best friends navigate the last weeks of high school and are invited to a gigantic house party. Together with their nerdy friend, they spend a long day trying to score enough alcohol to supply the party and inebriate two girls in order to kick-start their sex lives before they go off to college. Their quest is complicated after one of them falls in with two inept cops who are determined to show him a good time. Movie can be found here.

AMERICAN PIE.
American Pie takes a hysterical look at four high school friends who make a pact to lose their virginity by prom night. As they try to manipulate their way into the, um… hearts of some of their classmates, their plans backfire with hilarity. Follow the raging hormones of four teenage boys and their girls as they gear up for the most important night of their lives. Movie can be found here.

SIXTEEN CANDLES.
One of the most iconic teen comedies of the 1980s, Sixteen Candles, returns in an all-new Flashback Edition with never-before-seen bonus features! Samantha Baker is ready to make the most of her sweet sixteenth birthday… if only someone in her family would remember it. She’s your average teen, enduring creepy freshmen, spoiled siblings, confused parents and the “Big Blonde on Campus” who stands between her and the boy of her dreams. Movie can be found here.

BACK TO THE FUTURE.
Teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is blasted to 1955 in the DeLorean time machine created by the eccentric Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), he finds himself mixed up in a time-shattering chain reaction that could vaporize his future—and leave him trapped in the past. Powered by innovative special effects, unforgettable songs and non-stop action, Back to the Future is an unrivaled adventure that stands the test of time! Movie can be found here.

CAN’T HARDLY WAIT.
This underrated teen comedy from 1998 is guilty of being a proud underachiever, and it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, but look closely and you’ll find the makings of a much better movie buried under all the keg-party antics. The basic story is typical for this kind of comedy. Movie can be found here.

CAN’T BUY ME LOVE.
Nowhere-man Ronny Miller is secretly in love with Cindy Mancini, the prettiest, most popular girl on campus. When Cindy finds herself in a desperate predicament, Ronny steps in to save the day … for a price! Cindy must pose as Ronny’s girl so that her popularity might rub off on him. But the road to popularity takes an unexpected twist when Ronny becomes so “cool” that his former friends feel the chill, Cindy is left totally out in the cold, and Ronny himself discovers that money might buy you popularity, but it can’t buy you love! Movie can be found here.

SHE’S ALL THAT.
Pygmalion” goes to high school in this sharp, funny tale. After betting he can turn any girl into his school’s prom queen, class hunk Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) has his work cut out for him when his friends select shy, nerdy artist Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook). As Zack woos Laney and makes her over, he becomes genuinely attracted to her, but what happens when she learns of the wager? Movie can be found here.

17 AGAIN.
Zac Efron and Matthew Perry turn the concept of Big on its head in this hilarious teen comedy about a middle-aged father who wakes to find he’s 17 Again! But attempting to navigate high school is no easy feat for Mike O’Donnell (Efron–High School Musical, Hairspray and Perry–“Friends”) — especially when your own kids are in attendance and your own teenage daughter (Michelle Trachtenberg) has a crush on you, not realizing who you really are. Movie can be found here.

THE BREAKFAST CLUB.
The Breakfast Club, an iconic portrait of 1980s American high school life. When Saturday detention started, they were simply the Jock, the Princess, the Brain, the Criminal and the Basket Case, but by that afternoon they had become closer than any of them could have imagined. Movie can be found here.

NEVER BEEN KISSED.
In this hilarious, heartwarming comedy, Drew Barrymore shines as a budding journalist who’s determined to go from “geek” to “chic” when she is sent back to high school on her first undercover assignment. Movie can be found here.

SUMMER SCHOOL.
A feel-good movie in which all the characters are clueless, but also kind of likeable for some inexplicable reason. Mark Harmon stars as Freddy Shoop, a lazy physical education instructor who is forced by his nemesis (aka The Principal) to teach summer school. He’s not lucky enough to get the overachiever kids who attend summer school because they want to; Shoop gets the students who have to attend because they’ve failed. As you might expect, his class is full of lazy losers who don’t think of summer school as real school. Movie can be found here.

FOR KEEPS.
Teen idol Molly Ringwald stars here as a bright high school student whose life takes an abrupt turn when she becomes pregnant by boyfriend Randall Batinkoff. Naturally their respective parents are completely at odds over the pregnancy and only Ringwald and Batyinkoff think they can make it as parents. Movie can be found here.

FINDING FORRESTER.
A drama about a unique relationship between an eccentric, reclusive novelist and a young, amazingly gifted scholar-athlete. Movie can be found here.

EASY A.
Olive (Emma Stone), an average high school student, sees her below-the-radar existence turn around overnight once she decides to use the school’s gossip grapevine to advance her social standing. Now her classmates are turning against her and the school board is becoming concerned, including her favorite teacher and the distracted guidance counselor. With the support of her hilariously idiosyncratic parents and a little help from a long-time crush, Olive attempts to take on her notorious new identity and crush the rumor mill once and for all. Movie can be found here.

HOUSE PARTY.
When party time comes, it’s time to tear the house down! If they getcaught, it’s all over. But if they don’t, it’s just the beginning. Kidn’ Play star in the uproarious comedy that launched the House Partycraze. Movie can be found here.

FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF.
Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is a tricky but harmless fast-talker. But he knows how to have fun, which is exactly what he sets out to do when he feigns illness and talks his parents into letting him stay home from school. The perpetually lucky Ferris enlists his hypochondriac best friend, Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), into springing his girlfriend, Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara), from class, and the three embark on a raucous downtown Chicago adventure. From Wrigley Field to the Art Institute of Chicago to a Polish pride parade, Ferris and his friends make the most of their day off. But Ferris, Sloane, and Cameron might not get away with playing hooky. Ferris’s sister, Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), is determined to prove that Ferris is faking sick and make him pay for it, and the bumbling school dean, Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), is sure that Ferris is pulling a fast one. Another classic from writer-director John Hughes (SIXTEEN CANDLES, THE BREAKFAST CLUB), this film features a star turn from Broderick as the charismatic Ferris. Watch for Charlie Sheen as the juvenile delinquent in the police station and comedian Louie Anderson in a brief appearance as a flower deliveryman. Movie can be found here.

SAY ANYTHING.
A high-school senior falls in love with an honor student bound for studies in England. Movie can be found here.

What are your favorite high school movies?

Movie series posts:
My Favorite Non Scary Halloween Movies
My Favorite scary Halloween Movies
My Favorite animated Halloween Movies
My Favorite Family Christmas Movie
My Favorite rom com Christmas Movies
My Favorite Action Movies
My Favorite Animated Movies
My Favorite Comedy Movies
My Favorite Crime Movies
My Favorite Drama Movies
My Favorite Fantasy Movies
My Favorite Musical Movies
My Favorite Based on a True Story Movies
My Favorite Fall Movies