Before the 1950s, filmmakers saw teenagers as nothing more than budding adults, props for adult characters in movies. That replaced the release of Nicholas Ray’s flagship James Dean vehicle in 1955, Rebel Without a Cause, whose good fortune made studios realize that teenagers were driving their own cars and spending their disposable income on movies.
After that, we started watching films that depicted the (melo)dramatic inner lives of young people, along with comedies in particular aimed at reaching younger audiences. By the 1970s, the genre was even established enough to spawn a wave of nostalgic films for young people. films. In the ’80s, many of the biggest blockbusters were aimed almost exclusively at young people.
The genre has seen a decline in recent years, basically because studios are more interested in four-quadrant movies that sell to all demographics at once, but we’ll never go back to a time when teens weren’t the mainstream film market. Here are 30 classics to stream and find out why we shouldn’t need it.
For all its epic sci-fi elements (including a score that’s far more complicated than that of a typical teen comedy), there’s an undeniable concept at play here: what if a fashionable young man (well, circa 1985) was able to meet and interact?with their parents when they were the same age. Would they be friends?Would his mother, who is very practical, do anything?These are big existential questions in a movie set in the best schools in another two decades.
Where to stream: Peacock, Fubo
It may not be the most sophisticated metaphor for puberty, nor is it the most elegant, but Carrie’s famous ending, in which a woman’s moment of humiliation leads to bloody revenge against her tormentors, is among the most famous depictions of high school emotional turmoil and trauma. And for a clever reason. Sissy Spacek plays with the late Piper Laurie, and I don’t know which one delivers a more iconic performance.
Where to stream: Maximum
Nick Robinson is Simon, a locked up A-list student, who is encouraged through the anonymous confession of a student who is also locked in his school to pass out. Unaware of “Blue’s” true identity, Simon develops an online friendship that turns into something more. Think of the corner store where you have a messenger, but with the best queer school students in fashion and a queer twist.
Where to Stream: Hulu
Of all the movies of the 1970s set in the best schools of bygone eras (this one is set in 1964), Cooley High is the best. Cochise (Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs), a basketball star, and Preach (Glynn Turman), an aspiring playwright, plan to play tricks in their final weeks of senior year. His plan leads to a series of adventures and misadventures that closely resemble a more typical teen comedy, before the comedy slowly gives way to more serious introspection. This film had a profound influence on filmmakers from John Singleton to Spike Lee.
Where to stream: Prime Video, The Roku Channel
When Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is accepted into her public school’s cool clique, she soon realizes that’s not all she claims to be and plans to eliminate “plastics” from within. Tina Fey wrote the quotable script, which you probably know. From the heart, whether you like it or not (thanks, internet).
Where to stream: Paramount
Jennifer’s Body fell hard in 2009 and took a long time to become the cult crop it was meant to be. Popular teenager Jennifer (Megan Fox) becomes a succubus through abusive men, who gleefully kill children at school, much to the general horror of her friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried). Screenplay by Oscar winner Diablo Cody!
Where to stream: Maximum
Some of the most iconic faces of the ’80s (also known as the “Brat Pack”) spent largely unguarded detention together on Saturday. Each is there for a different reason and each represents a different clique. It’s all a little shallow, but John Hughes’ iconic (if not the best) film leans into a kind of emotional honesty rare in young adult films, and it’s hard not to get swept up in his island world.
Where to Stream: The Roku Channel
There are several contenders for the title of best Gen X movie, but probably none is more worthy than Amy Heckerling’s deyet, a teen sex comedy that’s smarter, funnier, and a lot braver than the others that came before and after. It is, first and foremost, a coming-of-age story, which brought the world closer to a number of young actors who would go on to become stars, as well as Cameron Crowe, who would go on to have an impressive career as a director. .
Where to stream: Netflix
Having directed one of the most influential teen comedies of the 1980s, Fast Times at Ridgemont High director Amy Heckerling pulled off a trick with this hilarious and sarcastic coming-of-age comedy, based on Jane Austen’s Emma, set among the popular children of Beverly. Saws.
Where to stream: Paramount, Pluto TV
This vintage, modern, but very ’90s romantic comedy tells the story of The Taming of the Shrew in one of America’s best schools (and without some nasty misogyny). The ultimate swap of a guitar for the name poem is delightfully memorable, and an explanation for why the film made Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger stars.
Where to stream: Disney
Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) straddles the worlds of her poor, predominantly black community and the largely white high school she attends. Witnessing a murderous act of police brutality, he finds himself at odds with almost everyone as it becomes more and more in our minds to say what he wishes to be said. Stanberg is phenomenal in this adaptation of Angie Thomas’ best-selling novel, YA.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
In Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, prom is a moment of achievement for Saoirse Ronan’s title character, who remains popular with her Catholic school’s group of wealthy young men despite her own family’s money struggles. at the most sensitive point of that wave and about to crash, with the moment on the edge of the precipice giving her a chance to reconsider everything she’s given up, adding her most productive friend from the formative years (Beanie Feldstein).
Where to stream: Netflix
Everyone has their favorite John Hughes movie (well, everyone is old enough to know who John Hughes is), but Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is mine. Like a lot of people, I’m drawn to the main character, even though I know it. he’s a jerk (and I’m Cameron). He is an excellent triyet to the force of doing anything other than what you are supposed to do.
Where to stream: Netflix, AMC
Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is one of the geeks at his best school, hoping to leave his highest criminal community and go to Harvard. A steep ascent, but not impossible. . . That is, until a drug dealer hides a bunch of ecstasy in his purse and has to spend a night dodging other people in need. A clever and impressive thriller, with excellent functionality from Moore.
Where to stream: Cinemax
Another wonderful top-notch school movie starring Shameik Moore, who here voices the one and only Spider-Man. It’s a startling visual achievement with a huge heart, featuring Miles Morales, a nerdy, clumsy top-notch student who attends a personal school for science kids whose family members’ lives and schoolwork become much more confusing when he’s bitten by a spider.
Where to stream: FXNow, Fubo
A look back at school life in the 1950s, filtered through the rose-colored glasses of 1970s filmmakers. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are the tough singing and dancing couple at the top-notch school, excited and obsessed with hot rods.
Where to stream: Maximum
A story about bored young people in a dying Texas, the city that no longer has an explanation for why it exists, this Peter Bogdanovich/Polly Platt film is all about atmosphere. The surprising cast includes Jeff Bridges, Cloris Leachman, Cybil Shepard and Ellen Burstyn. before they were awarded the Oscars.
Where to stream: Mubi
However, a film from the 70s that looks to the afterlife and is vintage in its own right. George Lucas’ American Graffiti takes us back to the last day of top-notch school for a teenage organization in the ’60s, as the director makes it clear that some facets of expansion are fairly universal (and that he has something to say about anything other than galactic area battles).
Where to stream: Paramount, Showtime
Many slasher videos have teenagers (or, at least, actors who act as teenagers) in the more sensible part of the cast, but Halloween stands out not only for being one of the first to do so, but also for the pervasive humanity and truth of its content. Teenage characters. This comes in large part thanks to co-writer and producer Debra Hill, who gave her characters bags of weed and sex lives not out of a desire to punish sin, but because that’s the kind of thing teens do.
Where to stream: Shdder, Crackle, Redbox, AMC
A dark-as-night comedy satire about two murderous high-level academics (Christian Slater and Winona Ryder) who take revenge on a like-called cabal of extraordinarily wealthy girls?This diabolical adventure through Daniel Waters (whose brother Mark would go on to track down Passod fortune with the equally witty but more engaging Mean Girls) remains a cult classic.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Shudder, The Roku Channel, Hoopla, Starz
The wonderful Reginald Hudlin wrote and directed this vintage with an undeniable and charming premise: Play’s parents are out of town and he’s making plans to throw the party of the year. . . however, his most productive friend, Kid, has been punished and is forced to do so. to escape tranquilamente. de the house. Sequels and remakes are usually mediocre, but the original is clever in its silliness, with lighthearted power and a stellar soundtrack.
Where to stream: Tubi
Like many teen sex comedies of yesteryear, there’s some stuff here that doesn’t hold up very well, but there’s so much quirky charm on offer, along with unexpected sweetness, that it’s easy to see how the film started such a cool non-franchise. The movie also gave Jennifer Coolidge a prominent role and she deserves some love for that alone.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Vince Lombardi Middle School can’t keep being vice principal: the kids are too addicted to rock ‘n’ roll. P. J. Soles leads the way here as Riff Randell, the leader of the school’s punks; She is determined to see the Ramones, his favorite band, and will literally burn down the school to get there. The Roger Corman-produced film is reasonable and completely anarchic, with the only lesson being “don’t get between punks and their music. “
Where to stream: Peacock, Tubi, Crackle, The Roku Channel, Freevee, Shout Factory TV
Sidney Poitier rode a wave that led him to star in three of the most important films of 1967: In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?and this one, in which he plays Mark Thackeray, an engineer and forced immigrant in Britain. to accept the task of coaching naughty teenagers at a school in London’s difficult East End. It’s the defining crop of the “new teachers/tough kids” genre, and the one named after the song.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
I wasn’t a student at one of the best performing arts schools in Manhattan in the ’80s, so I wouldn’t really know it, however, director Alan Parker captures a vibe that feels authentic, with filming involving genuine schooling and employing tons of authenticity. academics as background artists. Tackling oddly heavy themes for a musical, children’s stories border on melodrama, but they work wonders.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Francis Ford Coppola directed the adaptation of H. E. Hinton’s enduring novel, about Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), his rowdy Greasers gang, and the fatal ramifications of a fight with their rivals. Starring C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane, the film gave birth to the Brat Pack of the ’80s. It’s still gold.
Where to stream: Maximum
A documentary that deals as much with the promises and dangers of the American dream for young black men as it is with basketball, Steve James’ poignant feature follows two up-and-coming academics recruited to play basketball at a predominantly white high school in Chicago. . , and what happens to them as they pursue their NBA dreams.
Where to stream: Max, Peacock, Tubi, The Criterion Channel, The Roku Channel, Crackle, Shout Factory TV, Freevee
The best beach movie of the era, Gidget, starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson and James Darren, introduced a genre as well as a franchise (including several films and some television shows).
Where to stream: Tubi
Before Rebel, videos largely treated teenagers as non-entities, comic relief, or threats. Nicholas Ray and James Dean replaced all that. The juvenile antisocial Jim Stark (Dean) is fully realized and, although he is overly dramatic at times, well, he’s just a teenager.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Perhaps the best teen movie of the summer, Dazed and Confused, follows Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London) and his friends on the last day of school. The concept is simple: they climb, talk about conspiracy theories, and walk. city, to get into trouble. It’s a glimpse into suburban Texas life, where there’s still nothing to party in the middle of nowhere. This is demonstrated by the young Matthew McConaughey and Milla Jovovich, top and hilarious. If you miss out on summer days to relax with friends, this is the ultimate nostalgic trip.
Where to stream: Hulu
Former child star turned dog owner.