Nerds, Jocks, Stoners, Outcasts and Mean Girls: A Guide to 25 Excellent Films That Focus on American Teenagers

Mean Girls

Teenagers are a great subject for films. First of all they look good on screen. Some are beautiful, some are cute, all are young. Audiences would generally prefer looking at seventeen-year-olds rather than seventy-year olds. (I should here add that many who portray teens in films are actually in their twenties.) Teens make for good subjects because they are at turning points in their lives, often making decisions that will effect them forever. Coming of age stories are a staple of films as teenagers wrestle with the transition from childhood to their adult years. Sexual awakening is also a feature of teen films which in itself provides titillation for audiences, but also, if done sincerely, gets at some of the basic realities of navigating romantic relationships, sex and when the twain meet. 

Adults often like teen movies because they can evoke either halcyon days or remind us of struggles we've happily moved past. Teens, of course, love teen movies because they can be anything from a how-to guide, to a mirror on their own experiences, to a look at what many of their counterparts are going through.

Of course many films featuring teen characters are comedies, often of the raunchy variety. This is only natural. Teenagers frequently get into humorous situations, whether intentionally or not. Screenwriters, directors and actors like to exaggerate the zaniness of being a teenager and sometimes do so for good effect.

Of course many people have scars from their teen years. There are heartbreaks, struggles with authority, first exposures to life's harsher realities such as death, addiction, war and violence. Watching a film that explores these experiences can be cathartic.

Speaking of struggling with authority....Teen movies often capture the spirit of rebellion that comes naturally to many as they become self-aware and question society's rules. Usually teens are portrayed as the forward-thinkers, standing up to outmoded practices and ideas.

Never, Sometimes, Rarely, Always

Teenagers face a lot of pressure. Trying to be your own person. Trying to fit in. Trying to be liked. Trying to be loved. Not caring what others think of you. Looking ahead to college or work. Trying to understand love. Having first experiences with romance. Learning to drive. Going to war. Going off to college. Getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy. Earning a scholarship. Failing to get into a dream school. Becoming a star athlete. Getting high for the first time. 

They're tough years and we're not really ready for them until we reach our forties.

Teen movies also capture the different types of people we meet in high school (often creating and perpetuating stereotypes in the process). Meet the nerds, Meet the jocks. Meet the sexually active. Meet the especially mature. Meet the especially immature. Meet the cool, popular kids. Meet the outcasts. Meet the bullies. Meet the stoners. Meet the rebels. Most of all meet the totally normal everyteens, stuck in the middle of all the cliques and archetypes.

Teen films often stereotype teachers, principal and parents, although the better ones don't.

Suffice to say that there are many, many films that explore the teen years and some of them are damn good. What follows is 25 of those damn good ones. Please note this is a subjective list and includes my personal favorites. I could easily have made a list twice as long. Surely anyone else making such a list would have excluded some of mine and included many they prefer.

In compiling the list and noting the ten "runners-up" below, I noted that the vast majority of these films (twenty-five of thirty-five) were made from the 1990s on. This is curious in large part because far less of the overall movies I admire were made within this time span. Obviously the "serious" teen film and the truly funny ones are a recent phenomenon and it is well worth exploring why. I'd imagine one reason is that teens are the target audience and they've become a much more important share of the film-going public. Also I think it's following a trend as the teen film was popularized -- principally by John Hughes -- in the Eighties.

(My goodness I didn't have room for: Footloose (1984) Ross, The Breakfast Club (1985) Hughes, Booksmart (2019) Wilde, Lady Bird (2017) Gerwig, Juno (2007) Reitman, Thirteen (2003) Hardwicke, Heathers (1989) Lehman, Precious (2009) Daniels, Easy A (2010) Gluck,  and Clueless (1995) Heckerling).

Rushmore

1. The Last Picture Show(1971) Bogdanovich. Teens in a small, sad Texas town in the 1950s. Not a cheery topic but a compelling story featuring Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms and Cybill Shepard. All three struggle with early sexual experiences, romantic entanglements, and the shifting nature of friendships.

2. Rushmore (1998) Anderson. The rebel with many causes, none of them terribly important, but they combine to provide an eccentric, funny, touching story that is  perhaps  the quintessential Wes Anderson film. Our hero, Max (Jason Schwartzman) is a wonderfully iconoclastic teen and Rushmore is certainly a variation on the theme of teen films.

3. Mean Girls (2004) Waters. The classic high school story. Some drama, a lot of laughs in a cultural touchstone, as vibrant today as when it premiered over 16 years ago. It manages to be both insightful and honest and still hilarious. A brilliant script.

4. Moonrise Kingdom (2012) Anderson. Barely teens falling in love on an island and escaping together. Another Wes Anderson classic and a very different sort of teen love story. Puppy love and scout troops, social services (in the form of a single character) and an all-star cast including Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton and Tilda Swinton.

5. My Own Private Idaho (1991) Van Sant. Shakespeare-inspired, this is about older teens who leave home for life on the streets, hustling, bonding, living dangerously but on their own terms. River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star. It's something of a teen road picture with positive LGBTQ themes, narcolepsy and a dash of Falstaff.

The Suicide Virgins

6. The Virgin Suicides (1999) S. Coppola. Sisters living under the repression of uber religious parents. Sofia Coppola’s debut films is a unique look at what it means to be a teenage girl and what it means to love from afar and certainly what it means to live in an oppressive home.

7. Wild Boys of the Road (1933) Wellman. Teens during the great depression. A hard as nails tail of teens taking to the road — via the rails — to ease burdens on families or get away from families while desperately hoping for a better life.

8. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Ray. They might not have had a cause but they rebelled for a reason. They were fed up with stifling home lives, parents who were absent, or unloving or inept. James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo were transcendent as the teens. Still resonant 65 years later.

9. Boyz n the Hood (1991) Singleton.  African American teens coming of age in a racist society. A powerful drama that is rich with themes and great performances. Teens struggling with an unjust society.

10. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) Hittman. The anti-Juno film about a pregnant teenager girl who decides to have an abortion. At times there is a documentary feel to this story of a girl and her cousin venturing from small town Pennsylvania to New York City for the procedure and the tribulations they face. The newest film on this list and one that deserves to be widely seen.

11. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) Hughes. Pure fun. Matthew Broderick starred in my favorite John Hughes film about teens who just want to have fun — and “stick it the man” in the process. Some hard truths are learned by one character but the film's theme, as expressed by the title character is:  "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Superbad

12. Superbad (2007) Mottola. A super good movie about teen boys looking for sex, love, sex, booze, sex, parties and sex. It's a wild ride and a fun one. McLovin is classic.

13. Waves (2019) Shults. The story of African American siblings in present day Miami and the divergent paths their lives take. To say it’s a powerful drama would be an understatement but also a trivialization of a beautiful film about choices and fate.

14. Little Women (2019) Gerwig. Nineteenth century teen siblings who love — and sometimes hate or envy — each other as they each seek different paths to their dreams. We miss the high school experience here, but Little Women captures the struggles of girls turning into women and making that journey with their sisters.

15. Election (1999) Payne. Reese Witherspoon's Tracy Flick captures a high school archetype: the driven, ambitious student who has to be a student leader while maintaining her 4.0. Tracy Flicks are at every high school and they can variously be a delight or a royal pain to teachers and fellow students. Usually they're both. Election is an irreverent but realistic comedy about the high school experience, most especially student elections.

16. Pleasantville (1998) Ross. A present-day teen, David (Tobey Maguire and his sister (Reese Witherspoon, again) aremagically transported into a Fifties sit-com and the teen world it portrays. They literally brings the color of his contemporary times to a stodgy, sexless, banal world.

17. The World of Henry Orient (1964) Hill. Teen girls with a crush on an older man. In this case a concert pianist played by Peter Sellars. It's what one would call a charming romp and is well worth a look as a peak into a bygone era. 

18. Elephant (2003) Van Sant. In some ways a look at a typical suburban high school but with the principle difference being that a mass shooting takes place. It is clearly based on the Columbine High School Massacre and helps shine a light on that tragedy and how high school cultures can be dangerously damaging to young, vulnerable psyches.

Yes, God, Yes

19. Yes, God, Yes (2020) Maine. Sexual awakenings are often the stuff of teen movies and this is one of the newest and best examples. Our protagonist, Alice (Natalie Dyer) has an extra challenge as she, like so many others, faces the strictures of being in a strict Catholic school. Alice experiences lust while also witnessing rank hypocrisy. Lessons are learned.

20. Dazed and Confused (1993) Linklater. The classic coming-of-age film featuring an ensemble cast and thus a variety of teen experiences. It takes place on the last night of school with all the madness that can entail.

21. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) Heckerling. Yet another coming-of-age classic with a wide-ranging cast. Fast Times is a school year in the life of a group of disparate characters that comprise some of the various types one meets in a high school. Notable in the cast is a young Sean Penn as a stoner.

22. My Friend Dahmer (2017) Meyers. This is about a future serial killer and cannibal so no, it's not your typical teen movie. It's based on the actual high school experiences of the notorious serial killer and flesh eater, Jeffrey Dahmer. It sounds like heavy fare, but in his school days Dahmer was more of a goofball making the transition into murderer. It's an oddly compelling film and as good a look at high school as you'll see.

23. Napoleon Dynamite (2004) Hess. The title character (John Heder) is the total oddball teen from a weird family (every school has them). He is lovably eccentric, especially when he dances and helps his friend's Pedro's seemingly quixotic campaign for student body president.

24. Eight Grade (2018) Burnham. At last a middle school setting. The middle school years can be particularly brutal as teens deal with physical and social awkwardness that can lead to anything from depression to self-loathing to harming oneself. Elsie Fisher is Kayla in the last days of 8th grade looking forward to and dreading the coming of high school. It is, as one reviewer put it, "sweet, sad and beautifully observed." It is also criminally underrated.

25. Dope (2015) Famuyiwa. Another terrific film that flew under the radar. Here we have three misfits (outcasts are best served by traveling together) who find adventure in a tough neighborhood. It has been described as a coming of age film for the post hip hop generation. An underground party is attended, choices are made and challenges ensue.