Putting together a master-list of the best high-school themed movies and TV:
Friday Night Lights (movie and TV show)
Freaks & Geeks
Dazed & Confused
Go Tigers! (great doc on high school football in Ohio)
Footloose (take that, system!)
Some Kind Of Wonderful (Watts!!)
Breakfast Club (defined the genre)
Pretty In Pink
Sixteen Candles (Ringwald kick here...)
American Teen (freaking BRILLIANT doc I just saw about high school kids in midwest--from the gal who did The Kid Stays In The Picture)
More?
And why is it these stories are so gripping? It's like part of me wants to relive it to be someone else vicariously, and part of me has to watch like when you slow down to see an accident on the freeway...and sometimes it's just nice to see the nerd win. I was pulling so hard for the geek in American Teen! I've heard it said we always see ourselves as the kid we were in high school...true for anyone else?
Dude, Superbad was genius. It was a perfect encapsulation of modern day American high school and a terrific study of relationships with a focus on separation anxiety, which is something many go through when they head to college.
Realistic? That's what they said about Mean Girls, and i couldn't stop laughing.
I just didn't find it funny, i mean we've seen it all before in Porkys, Revenge of the Nerds etc. and the post-modernistic repulsive characterisations just don't work on me as comedy, there is something self-important about the whole thing that just gets on my nerves.
To each their own, I suppose. I just found the performances and comedic timing of all the actors to brilliant, as well. And every time I watch the movie I seem to notice a joke or two I didn't catch the first time.
