Cooley High (1975)

78% of critics liked it
(9 reviews)
90% of users liked it
(4,082 ratings)

Michael Schultz directed this deeply felt recollection of adolescent life on Chicago's near North Side in 1964. Like American Graffiti, Cooley High deals with girl, school, and police troubles as a group of high-school seniors prepare for post-high-school life. The chums are Glynn Turman as… More Michael Schultz directed this deeply felt recollection of adolescent life on Chicago's near North Side in 1964. Like American Graffiti, Cooley High deals with girl, school, and police troubles as a group of high-school seniors prepare for post-high-school life. The chums are Glynn Turman as "Preach," who loves to read poetry and history and wants to become a Hollywood screenwriter, but who has the worst grades in the school; and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Cochise, the high-school basketball star and suave lady-killer. Preach has to contend with love problems in the form of Brenda (Cynthia Davis), school problems with emphatic teacher Mr. Mason (Garrett Morris), and law problems with street toughs Stone (Shermann Smith) and Robert (Norman Gibson). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 47 min.
Directed By: Michael Schultz
Written By: Eric Monte
Genres: Drama, Classics, Comedy

In Theaters: Jun 25, 1975 Wide
On DVD: Jan 18, 2000

Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Uneven but generally funny.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Sometimes engaging comical and poignant black experience high school teen flick.
, Time Out
Something of a disappointment.
Bill Chambers, Film Freak Central
The film's resistance of pathos starts to feel not just counterintuitive, but also a little ghoulish
Frank Ochieng, TheWorldJournal.com
A crafty and cunning black teen comedy that exudes a slick urban giddiness...an ethnically irreverent big screen answer to television's Happy Days

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Michael G

Cooley High is essentially the black American Graffiti. It's a series of funny and mostly entertaining scenes that don't quite fit together (or necessarily go anywhere) until you stick them to the fumes of a minimalist plot. Throw in an amazing soundtrack and you've got… More
Cooley High is essentially the black American Graffiti. It's a series of funny and mostly entertaining scenes that don't quite fit together (or necessarily go anywhere) until you stick them to the fumes of a minimalist plot. Throw in an amazing soundtrack and you've got an enjoyable cult classic. For the most part Cooley High is just kind of there but a heartbreaking ending pulls it all together. Some great characters and really funny scenes--namely the hooker and the bathroom scenes. Not exactly essential viewing but definitely worthwhile.
Megan S

It was a good movie. I can see why people say that Boyz N the Hood is pretty much the same movie.
Lesley N

A 70's film about a 60's group of friends from the projects meandering through their last year of high school. The soundtrack is a gem, matching the soaring harmonica of Stevie Wonders fingertips to the exuberance of four boys playing hookey at the zoo. In these… More
A 70's film about a 60's group of friends from the projects meandering through their last year of high school. The soundtrack is a gem, matching the soaring harmonica of Stevie Wonders fingertips to the exuberance of four boys playing hookey at the zoo. In these little-incidents-strung-together-into-a-whole kind of films, a lot of the impact depends on how much you care about the lead characters so I was hamstrung by finding Preach cocky and mostly charmless but hey, that's teenagers for you, the scamps.