25 Essential Movies About High School You Need To See

The high school experience is a fixture of coming-of-age films, as heightened emotional states and specific pressures give the transition from childhood to adulthood unlimited storytelling potential. Great high school movies cross many different genres, but always come down to the specific, yet somehow universal, challenges that teenagers face.

John Hughes is the filmmaker most closely associated with high school movies thanks to his groundbreaking work in the '80s to accurately depict these pivotal years. Hughes generated empathy for his characters by taking their fears and desires seriously, and his films launched the careers of many great young stars. While specifically catered towards teenagers who saw themselves in the characters, older viewers also were able to use Hughes' films to reminisce on their own youth. The genre has opened up in subsequent years to reflect diverse audiences, with recent hits such as "Booksmart," "The Edge of Seventeen," and "The Hate U Give." 

These are the movies about going to high school you need to see.

"Palo Alto" meditates on fleeting youthfulness through delicate reflection. The characters that populate a California high school are isolated by their struggles, and in her promising debut writer-director Gia Coppola reflects on the challenges young people have communicating their anxieties. Soccer star April (Emma Roberts) is flustered by the romantic advances of her coach Mr. B (James Franco), but nonetheless agrees to babysit his children. The stoner Teddy (Jack Kilmer) wreaks havoc on his community alongside his best friend Fred (Nat Wolff), but a shocking accident forces Teddy to face the consequences of their actions alone.

Coppola's hazy, dreamlike cinematography finds moments of beauty amidst the teens' lives, and the overtly poetic dialogue is well-suited for the naïve characters. The film depicts disturbing events, particularly as Fred descends deeper into addiction and Teddy is forced to end their relationship. However, as April and Teddy find each other amid the chaos, "Palo Alto" offers a window of hope.

Hughes' most famous film builds off of the notion that every person is an individual, despite what stereotypes may indicate. Hughes took five familiar archetypes and created a situation in which they were forced to interact, with each character's empathy growing as they hear about someone else's experience.

The troublemaker Bender (Judd Nelson), spoiled rich girl Claire (Molly Ringwald), promising athlete Andrew (Emilio Estevez), geeky Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), and basket case Alison (Ally Sheedy) are kept in their school's library for an entire Saturday by their overbearing Vice Principal Vernon (Paul Gleason). Vernon assigns each of them the task of each writing a personal essay. While the five are aware of each other in passing, they've never taken the time to get to learn about one another and discover that they have a lot in common. While their situations are different, each one struggles with the burdens placed on them by their parents, and seeks to break out of the singular trait that they've become known for.

"The Breakfast Club" balances comedy and drama. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments as the group gets high and defaces school property, but in the film's most famous scene they sit down for an intimate conversation and share their secrets. The unlikely friendship empowers its adolescent audience, proving that there's more to a person than the social clique they belong to.

"Election" is one of the quintessential movies about politics, but it's not about the Presidency. Alexander Payne's 1999 comedy depicts the fraught battle for the student body leadership role in a Nebraska high school. The process of building a campaign, courting voters with misleading promises, developing political alliances, and even vote tampering are all lampooned through a youthful perspective.

High-strung overachiever Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) has been preparing for this election for her entire life, and is desperate to impress her teachers. Civics teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) despises Tracy and is annoyed by her wealthy upbringing and plastic persona; Jim is also wary of Tracy's relationship with his best friend Dave (Matthew Novonty), which got Dave fired. Scheming to steal the election from Tracy, Jim inspires the unassuming doofus Paul Metzler (Chris Kein) to run as Tracy's rival. Despite having no ambition and being generally clueless, Paul amasses a big following.

"Election" examines the latent forces that influence politics, as Paul is only Jim's puppet, and the teen's minimal knowledge of policy is humorous. Witherspoon finds the right balance between irritating and hilarious, and Broderick's inherent awkwardness is well utilized as a devious character.

Some high school students may complain about reading William Shakespeare plays in English class, but the 1999 comedy "10 Things I Hate About You" shows there's nothing old-fashioned about the Bard. This film takes the essential story beats of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" and reimagines them as the basis for a modern romantic comedy.

Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) enters a new school and instantly falls in love with the young and popular Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik). Cameron learns from his new friend Michael Eckman (David Krumholtz), a Shakespeare expert with an encyclopedic knowledge of their school's social classes, that Bianca will only be allowed to date if her standoffish sister Catherine (Julia Stiles) does so first. Catherine is fiercely independent, but Cameron decides to recruit the school's rebellious hooligan Patrick (Heath Ledger) to capture her heart. The situation grows complicated as Patrick and Catherine grow to start to care for each other, while the scheming Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan) attempts to steal Bianca from Cameron.

"10 Things I Hate About You" launched all of these young performers into stardom. It's fascinating to see the oddball comedy turn from Ledger, who would be known for his more serious roles.

Teachers are often cast as the villains in high school movies; while Hughes' films certainly flesh out their adolescent heroes, they rarely depict educational figures as three-dimensional characters. "Dead Poets Society" is an exception to this trend that shows the power of a great teacher to inspire, educate, and create a connection with their students. The film shows how social limitations diminish students' willingness to learn, and how discouraging it can be for teachers when they're forced to abide by a set curriculum.

In one of his most endearing performances of all time, Robin Williams stars as John Keating, an English teacher who is hired by an elitist male-only prep school in Vermont. The academy is highly conservative and discourages freedom of expression, but Keating contradicts their rules and assigns his students authors who he thinks will expose them to different perspectives. Inspired by their newfound appreciation of literature, Keating's top students Todd (Ethan Hawke), Neil (Robert Sean Leonard), Knox (Josh Charles), Richard (Dylan Kussman), Steven (Allelon Ruggiero), Gerard (James Waterston), and Charlie (Gale Hansen) form a secret society with Keating as their model. However, the boys' breakthroughs are condemned by the school's authority figures, who demonize Keating and threaten to dismiss him.

Sofia Coppola is one of the best filmmakers working today. By this point, her name is synonymous with female-centric stories, a reputation that started with her adaptation of the seemingly unfilmable novel "The Virgin Suicides" by Jeffrey Eugendies. Eugendies' story about a series of shocking deaths that haunt an upper class Michigan high school doesn't unfold like a procedural mystery, but rather a dreamlike enigma as seen through the eyes of young men.

The five Lisbon sisters — Therese (Leslie Hayman), Mary (A.J. Cook), Bonnie (Chelse Swain), Lux (Kirsten Dunst), and Cecilia (Hannah R. Hall) — are almost completely confined to their suburban home by their conservative parents (James Woods and Kathleen Turner). Given their limited exposure to the outside world, the girls are fascinating to the town's teenage male population, who concoct elaborate fantasies about them. However, due to their antisocial home environment, the girls all end up taking their own lives, and their mystery infects the town's psyche.

Coppola doesn't focus on the violence in graphic detail, as the story unfolds in a dreamlike manner. It's a fascinating exploration of teenage male fantasies; the whole story is told from the perspective of the boys, who project their desires on the unknowable sisters.

A24 has released some of the most exciting independent films of the past decade, including a number of stunning coming-of-age stories. "The Spectacular Now" has a familiar premise, but its tender realism makes the story feel fresh again, and director James Ponsoldt doesn't shy away from showing the darker consequences of its characters' actions.

Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is an irresponsible hooligan who doesn't see a future for himself after he graduates. After a night of hard partying, Sutter wakes up in a daze in the front yard of his shy neighbor Aimee (Shailene Woodley). Sutter has never taken the time to get to know Aimee, and he's surprised when hearing about her passion to become an artist and her difficult home situation. Similarly, Aimee learns that Sutter is more sensitive and caring than his wild persona lets on. They inspire each other; Sutter encourages Aimee to not let her familial responsibilities prevent her from leaving their small town, and she convinces him to start applying to schools.

While the romance begins earnestly, the story becomes more serious when Sutter's addiction issues grow destructive and he searches for his father (Kyle Chandler), who abandoned the family when Sutter was young. Teller and Woodley flesh out these archetypal roles; Roger Ebert praised their performances in his last four star review.

Let's be honest: To go through puberty is to witness yourself be subjected to grotesque body horror. Brian De Palma's adaptation of Stephen King's "Carrie" is the ultimate high school horror movie, and it begins with the title character getting her period for the first time. It happens in a gym class shower, no less, where her bewilderment draws mockery from her cruel peers. Carrie is becoming something new, and it terrifies her. The arrival of womanhood coincides not just with new feelings and urges — and bodily emissions — but with the development of new telekinetic powers. Will they be a blessing or a curse? Well ... we direct your attention to the part where this is all based on a Stephen King novel.

Sissy Spacek is utterly electrifying as Carrie, a sheltered religious girl who begins to demand space to explore her desires. She's endearing and pitiable, and she's also spine-chilling. "Carrie" contains some indelible horror images, especially in its riveting, prom-set climax, but it's also just a great movie about what it's like to be in high school. Crushes, bullies, teachers who can see how much you're struggling ... it's all there. "They're all gonna laugh at you!" moans Carrie's mother (a chilling Piper Laurie), and it sounds like the worst thing that can happen to a teenage girl. In the end, though, Carrie gets the last laugh. "Carrie" still stands as an absolute horror masterpiece, finding a twisted sort of empowerment amid the darkness.

One fun subgenre of teen movies is the high-school-set adaptation of a work of classic literature. "Clueless" is a '90s version of "Emma," "10 Things I Hate About You" is Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," etc. In "Easy A," when a girl named Olive (Emma Stone) finds herself at the center of a gossip firestorm about her rumored promiscuity, she is inspired by her class' study of "The Scarlett Letter" to lean into the drama by wearing a red "A" on her clothes. As her risqué reputation spirals out of control, Olive must figure out how to pick up the pieces of her social life.

In addition to its whip-smart, ultra-quotable script, the main strength of "Easy A" is its fantastic ensemble cast. Amanda Bynes does perhaps the best comedic work of her career as a snooty Christian girl, Lisa Kudrow is maddeningly good as Olive's terrible principal, and Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, who play Olive's father and mother, make for some of the most enviable parents in teen-movie history. Even "You" and "Gossip Girl" star Penn Badgley puts in a delightful appearance, playing a boy at school named Woodchuck Todd, who turns out to be a sympathetic ally for Olive.

The real star, though, is Stone. By this point, she had already starred in an instant high school classic — "Superbad" — but her performance in "Easy A" cemented her reputation as a rising star. She's capitalized on that promise since, but "Easy A" remains a testament to her talent.

Writer-slash-director Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," based on his own novel of the same name, is one for the kids who never fit in. It's a love letter to experiencing high school from the outside looking in, and it's about the makeshift family that can be formed among fellow outcasts. It's also a movie that feels too much, that refuses to be cynical about its emotions. In other words, it'd be easy to dismiss the movie as twee, to turn up your nose at just how much those kids on Tumblr loved this movie, but the film is just plain lovely.

Logan Lerman is incredible as Charlie, an endearing, quiet kid who is struggling with PTSD from an incident in his past. He's content to watch high school life pass him by until he's taken under the wing of a group of fellow outsiders. Emma Watson plays Sam, an entrancing girl that Charlie is fascinated by, and Ezra Miller stars as Patrick, a queer kid who encourages Charlie to open up. As he begins to confront the abuse he suffered as a child, Charlie learns to rely on his new friends for support. Late-night shadow casts of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and breathtaking trips through the Fort Pitt Tunnel ensue. "I feel infinite," Charlie breathes to his chosen family. For just a moment, we believe him.

At this point, it's nothing new to say that "Jennifer's Body" was done dirty on its initial release. Director Karyn Kusama, screenwriter Diablo Cody, and star Megan Fox have all spoken at length about the way the film's marketing failed it, making it look like a gratuitous film that capitalized on Fox's sex appeal — then turbocharged by the "Transformers" franchise — rather than a movie specifically about how the objectification of its star gave her a certain power over men. Looking back, it's easier to see what the movie was going for. It's also easy to see that the movie succeeded way more than it originally got credit for.

In the film, Fox plays the titular Jennifer. She's the most popular cheerleader at school, but after a tragic accident one night, she develops a bloodthirsty taste for flesh. With the help of her hapless sidekick Needy (Amanda Seyfried), Jennifer goes on a rampage, picking off the sexist, misogynistic boys at school. It's a perfect blend of horror with snappy, witty "Mean Girls"-esque high school comedy. Put simply, "Jennifer's Body" deserves its cult-classic status and then some.

Olivia Wilde's directorial debut finds two best friends, Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), staring down the last few days before high school graduation. It's a specific subgenre of high school movies that's no less crucial to the topic: What happens when school is over, and you have to figure out what comes next? What happens if the people you've spent the last few years of your life with aren't going to be coming along on the next phase of your journey?

In addition to being a movie about high school and a great movie about female friendship, "Booksmart" is also a hell of a party movie. Most of the film takes place over the course of one wild night as Molly and Amy try to make it to a graduation party thrown by one of the popular guys at school. Their journey across town brings them to several different get-togethers, meaning the film gets to do the high school movie thing of checking in with various subcultures and cliques. Each stop along their madcap odyssey contains a standout moment thanks to fun performances from stars like Noah Galvin, Billie Lourd, and Skyler Gisondo, but it's Feldstein and Dever who really carry the movie. Their banter is quick-witted and lived-in — you can tell these girls have years of history together — but the movie also has a real, beating heart at its core.