After yesterday’s discussion of the oeuvre of John Cusack, I started thinking about his earliest work in teen flicks. Though I am always partial to ‘say anything…’, I loved ‘One Crazy Summer’ and ‘The Sure Thing’ is pretty okay. There’s actually a “Who is your favorite Beatle?” kind of self-evaluation to be had in choosing between those films, but if you expand beyond Cusack, there’s a huge variety of amazing films to choose from. ‘Ten Things I Hate About You’ is wonderful, if only to see The Joker and Robin when they went to high school together, ‘Easy A’ is the movie that made me love Emma Stone and ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ is… Um… Okay, maybe that’s not a fair example, since it’s a distillation/parody. But what is the Best Teen Movie? That’s where you, the Faithful Spoilerites come in for today’s adolescent query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is actually a seventeen-year-old woman in spirit, so I couldn’t even begin to narrow this one down, asking: What film is the best teen movie in your mind?
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The Breakfast Club followed by 10 Things I Hate About You with Mean Girls coming in third
I’m not a huge fan of the genre (The 80’s teen genre was right out because it was still a bit early for me; I turned 11 in 1990) but I did find the first two American Pie movies to be hilarious as I saw them in my late teens.
Perks of Being a Wallflower. For me it captured what it felt like to be a teen in the late ’80s. (If I was older, I might say Dazed and Confused, but I’m not, so this one hit closer to home.)
Plus, Emma Watson. I wonder, would you count the Harry Potter franchise as teen movies?
I might, if someone wants to make the argument. They’re certain Coming-Of-Age flicks.
Dazed and Confused. Despite being set in the 70’s, it felt like a typical end-of-school weekend where I grew up in the 90’s (minus the paddling). It struck a chord with me because it felt so familiar, like it was happening just outside the walls of my house rather than far away like most films do.
The Breakfast Club. I was way too young to get it when it came out, but by the time I was in high school in the 90s, it clicked. Most teen movies I actually avoided, I don’t think I’ve seen any of the others even mentioned except for the 1st American Pie.
Best or Favorite?
Cause Empire Records is probably my favorite, but best would be a toss up of Ferris Bueler or the Breakfast Club