Friday Top Five: High School Movies

So, school is back in session. But more than that, I'm hoping to FINALLY get to see The Spectacular Now this weekend. I'm not sure it's definitely going to happen, but I hope it does. This is a movie that's been on my radar for a while. I think there's been a sort of insurgence in movies about high school. There's been quite a few really good ones in the last few years: The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Easy A come to mind. Those aren't on my list but we can call them Honorable Mentions. (Note: I tried not to make this just a John Hughes list, because it very easily could have become one and I would have been fine with it).

05. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes, 1986)
In high school, who didn't want to skip school, cruise around with your best friend in his dad's super expensive car, hang with your girl and end up in the middle of an epic parade?? Sounds like the perfect non-high school high school movie, right?? Of course, Principal Rooney is the bad guy who is wise to Ferris and his smart ass ways, trying to catch him - and failing to do so - in lie after lie. Ferris really soars due to the witty commentary that plays throughout the movie, that is both uber-teenage life and wise beyond its years.
Best Quote: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." [Words to live by, right???]

04. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993)
The last day of school 1976 and the freshman are being hazed and the seniors are graduating and everyone is getting high. Oh, and Matthew McConaughey, in his best role ever!!, is the total older guy sleazeball who still hangs around town hitting on college girls. What is not to love about Dazed and Confused? It's a movie that may look artificial on the outside - drugs, girls, sports, alcohol - but actually deals with some pretty substantial issues and does so while being oh so cool.
Best Quote: "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older and they stay the same age."

03. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling, 1982)
When a movie is written by Cameron Crowe, the guy who directed my second favorite movie of all time (Almost Famous), you know I'm all in. Plus, it stars Sean Penn, my favorite actor of all time, who proved early on that crazy range he has an actor. He completely nails surfer dude Spicoli, but, of course, this entire cast is absolutely perfect. And I'm sure if you were a man of a certain age during this time, you idolized Phoebe Cates and her red bathing suit.
Best Quote: "All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine."

02. Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)
A lot of the movies on my list were before my time. Movies that I didn't get a chance to actually live through. I've seen them on DVD a hundred times and love them just as much, but Clueless was a movie that came out when I was of a certain age. I may not have been rich or lived in California. And I certainly wasn't popular or pretty, but this movie sort of spoke to my generation, thanks in part to Alicia Silverstone (who I worshiped, by the way) and her absolutely perfect performance as dim-witted but well meaning Cher. Based on Jane Austen's Emma, Clueless is the defining comedy / romance of its time.
Best Quote: "You're just a virgin who can't drive."

01. The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985)
Not only the greatest movie about high school ever made, but also one of the very best movies ever made, period. If I were to make a list of my top ten movies of all time (and I might sometime), this would definitely be on there. The Breakfast Club is perfect. It's the epitome of everything that's great about movies - the perfect cast, the perfect script, a writer / director who was just so perfectly attuned to the times and his character. This story of five totally different kids who spend a Saturday together in detention is the true epitome of movies that last forever. It's endlessly re-watchable, endlessly quotable, and just plain great. Also, just for the record, I had/have a pretty huge crush on Anthony Michael Hall, okay??
Best Quote: This is ridiculously hard and it could pretty much be anything Bender says, but... "Saturday, March 24,1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062. Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did *was* wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning. We were brainwashed."