As many pedants will be willing to tell you, the concept of ‘teenager’ is a recent invention, culturally speaking, but one which has had a great impact on our pop culture. Indeed, the classic teen movie has its roots as far back as 1917’s ‘Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm‘, and many movies dismissed as silly teenage fare have become classics. (‘Rebel Without A Cause’, anyone?) Even now, in my 40s, where it takes a week to recover from my vacation and my glasses have become bifocals, I enjoy the angsty world of Olive Penderghast, the mostly-murderous life of Veronica Sawyer and even those doomed punks from ‘Final Destination’ (though that may be a different genre, technically?), which leads us to today’s adolescent query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is pretty much a sucker for any of them, but has a special place in his heart for ‘The Breakfast Club’, asking: What’s the greatest teen movie and/or coming-of-age flick of all time?
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Back to the Future. Terminator 2 and Halloween didn’t quite qualify.
Halloween is pretty full of teens, I think I’ll allow it…
I’ll always love 10 things I hate about you
A really cheesy and dated movie I really enjoyed (at the time) was ‘My Science Project.’ Dennis Hopper is probably the most well known actor in it.
I rarely run into anyone who remembers this movie. It was so darn good (at the time). I could actually see this one updated for today and doing very well in the “theater.”
Red Dawn really captured the spirit of the era in an over-the-top, ham-fisted fun fashion that nevertheless speaks to what it feels like to live in modern America.
WOLVERINES!!!
I’m awfully fond of Goonies, Stand By Me, and Breakfast Club.