Home Entertainment 25 Best High School Movies of All Time, According to Critics !

25 Best High School Movies of All Time, According to Critics !

0
High School Movies

Love it or hate it, the years of high school assist us in becoming today’s humans. With all the hormones, troublemaking, the false sense of right, bewilderment, and sexual exploration – movies about high school make fantastic fun. Whether they bring back nightmares or the finest periods of our life, there’s nothing to dispute that we can all relate to a wonderful film about these amazing years. While the school will never be the same again, the high school experience is recorded in some best high school movies. Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or student, you’re probably thinking about how school used to be.

Remember when you had to pass notes in class, deal with cruel girls and bullies, skip class with your buddies, and get detention? Going back to school this year will be different, but thankfully, the genre of adolescent high school movies is available for your enjoyment after a hard day of study. The movies about high school love, movies about high school parties, and movies about high school reunions are all covered on our list, which will take you back to your precious high school time.

Which is the best movie about high school of all time streaming on Amazon Prime Video?

The 1973 movie, American Graffiti is the best movie about high school that streams on Amazon Prime with 96% Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

Is there any good movie about high school available on Disney Plus?

Dead Poets Society (1989) is the best movie about high school on Disney Plus with 8.1 IMDB score.

We have handpicked such Top 25 Best High School Movies of All Time, According to Critics! Have a look here!

25. Superbad 

Director:George Tillman Jr.
Released Year:2007
Cast:Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson (Black-ish)
Genre:Drama/Musical
IMDB Ratings:6.7
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:52%
Currently Steaming On:Hulu, Amazon Prime Videos

What about high school boys and vows to lose their virginity? This super-successful 2007 comedy about this subject is just the strange blend of sweetness and fun that Judd Apatow, co-author Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, and Michael Cera will come up with. Some of the top viewers and bawdy activities may be a little bit for some viewers, but the mere thinking about a super-geek called McLovin is still having a hard time laughing. Overall, this movie is all about high school love and romance.

24. House Party 

Director:Reginald Hudlin
Released Year:1990
Cast:Christopher Reid, Robin Harris, Christopher Martin
Genre:Comedy, Music, Romance
IMDB Ratings:6.4
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:93%
Currently Steaming On:Amazon Prime Videos

House party is one of the best movies about high school students as Most of the films in the high school generation tend to concern the white inhabitants of suburbia. Still, in this movie, black youth had similar high school experiences in this revolutionary 90’s comedy. The battle against the bulls in the school lunch, the sneakers at the party, and the charming starring combo Kids’n Play are attempting to prevent problems in the entire movie. You can binge this one of the best high school movies on Netflix too.

23. Dead Poets Society 

Director:Peter Weir
Released Year:1989
Cast:Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke
Genre:Comedy, Drama
IMDB Ratings:8.1
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:84%
Currently Steaming On:Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus

Dead Poets Society is a 1989 teen melodrama movie written by Tom Schulman and starring Robin Williams. Set in 1959 at the fictional elite conventional Vermont boarding school Welton Academy, it tells the saga of John Keating. This progressive English instructor tries to encourage his disciples to break free from the pattern, go against the standing quo, and live life unapologetically. The movie also deals with one student’s suicide, a terrible reminder of Williams’ genuine demise. It is one of the best high school drama movies.

22. American Pie 

Director:Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz
Released Year:1999
Cast:Jason Biggs, Chris Klein (Sweet Magnolia), Thomas Ian Nicholas
Genre:Comedy
IMDB Ratings:7
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:61%
Currently Steaming On:Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus

American Pie is one of the best movies for high school students to binge on. This adolescent sex comedy has a group of high school students who make a pact before they graduate to lose their virginity, with different consequences. While the female characters have gained empowerment in the 1980s, certain elements in this amusing 1999 film—like creating a webcam to watch a gorgeous girl undress—should remain in the 20th century. This movie is all about high school parties, love, and fun.

21. Election 

Director:Alexander Payne
Released Year:1999
Cast:Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon (From Scratch), Chris Klein
Genre:Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDB Ratings:7.2
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:92%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Election is a 1999 black comedy film directed by Alexander Payne, based on Tom Perrotta’s 1998 novel. The plot rotates around a student body election and ridicules politics and high school life. Reese Witherspoon was a motivated secondary school student, Tracy Flick, who had a simple ambition of winning the election for class president before he proceeded to law school in Legally Blonde. However, his teacher’s adversary winds up in this clever, sleek 1999 satire of electoral procedure and makes it a conspiracy high school drama.

20. Stand and Deliver 

Director:Ramon Menendez
Released Year:1988
Cast:Edward James Olmos, Estelle Harris, Mark Phelan
Genre:Biography, Drama
IMDB Ratings:7.3
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:82%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Stand and Deliver is a 1988 high school drama movie based on a high school mathematics teacher, Jaime Escalante. The whole story revolves around Jaime Escalante, a mathematics teacher at James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. His school is full of Latino students from working-class families far below their grade level in terms of academic skills and have many social problems. Escalante endeavors to change the school culture to help the students excel in academics. You can enjoy this high school movie on Netflix too.

19. Easy A 

Director:Will Gluck
Released Year:2010
Cast:Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley
Genre:Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDB Ratings:7.0
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:85%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

This 2010 Easy, A high school drama movie, reveals that high school life is not different from puritanical time: whatever you could have (or may not) named is incredibly easy. When Olive (Emma Stone) is reputed for being “easy,” after a rumor that she was asleep with a college boy, she takes on her new reputation by letting nerdy fellows pretend she has sex with them in return for gift cards and favors. 

18. Love, Simon 

Director:Greg Berlanti
Released Year:2018
Cast:Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel (Transformers 7)
Genre:Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDB Ratings:7.6
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:91%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Love, Simon, as one of the good movies about high school love, is a refined comedy in 2018 won lounge not only for its friendly and hilarious way but also because it’s the first major teenage Rome to concentrate on a homosexual principal character. After a third kid finds out and threatens to expose Simon (A Teacher cast- Nick Robinson) to another homosexual adolescent in the school, who is closer together, while it is the regular basis of teen blackmail, unrelenting clumsiness, and a drama of friend/crash, it heralded a new period of teenage generation. It stimulated a spin-off of the Hulu series Love, Victor. 

17. The Breakfast Club 

Director:John Hughes
Released Year:1985
Cast:Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald
Genre:Comedy, Drama
IMDB Ratings:7.8
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:89%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

This 1985 picture easily feels like a play, as the high school gang spends a Saturday in everyday detention meditating about life, as it is one of John Hughes’ best high school movies. Their names might be no different, “a genius, an athlete, a basketball case, a princess and a criminal.” But when the assistant principal is going off, arguing, conspiring, and revealing a great deal about their life, they all come out of the house a little more for sure. The ensemble’s leading figures in the movie are Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, and Ally Sheedy, which you will enjoy.

16. Bring It On 

Director:Peyton Reed
Released Year:2000
Cast:Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford
Genre:Comedy, Romance, Sport
IMDB Ratings:6
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:63%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Bring It On is a 2000 teen cheerleading parody film directed by Peyton Reed and written by Jessica Bendinger. This brisk, cheering 2000 film has deeper than captivating joys: When Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) becomes captain of her elite secondary school, she finds that the routines were stolen from a high-school team from East Compton, the Clovers. She is struggling for nationals to develop her creative routine and to correct things with the Clovers. Overall, this movie gives you a ride back to your high school.

15. Grease 

Director:Randal Kleiser
Released Year:1978
Cast:John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing
Genre:Musical, Romance
IMDB Ratings:7.2
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:75%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Although there has lately been criticism about how the musical Grease is not suitable for high school theatre, the 1978 Grease movie release remains a classic for adults. This high school movie is all about hate, revenge, and lots of drama. In the 1950s movie, Sandy, a decent high school student (Olivia Newton-John), was hanged with the grazer T-Birds and the wild Girl Gang, the Pink Ladies, led by Danny’s love interest (John Travolta). Should she abandon her strait-laced manners for Danny (and, some detractors could call her own identity)? Even with its imperfections, fans “hopelessly” commit their time to this high school musical’s enjoyable stories and memories in this musical movie.

14. Carrie 

Director:Brian De Palma
Released Year:1976
Cast:Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving
Genre:Horror
IMDB Ratings:7.4
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:93%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Secondary schools can be hell, as Stephen King’s classical 1976 adaption depicts. In this high school drama movie, you can relate with Carrie (Sissy Spacek), who has telekinetic skills, and she sets her gory retribution on school when her mother and the children’s verbal and emotional mistreatment become too much. The misery peers may inflict on one other via bullying and the long-term damage that parents may inflict on their children was also disturbing in the movie.

13. The Edge of Seventeen 

Director:Kelly Fremon Craig
Released Year:2016
Cast:Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner
Genre:Comedy, Drama
IMDB Ratings:7.3
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:94%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

This 2016 high school movie about love has a prospective interest in an Asian child (The Canadian Hayden Szeto). Your better buddy and bigger brother should not do so to date—but that’s precisely what the junior Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) from high school has done. She’s turning instead to her friendship with a gay student (Szeto) and a kind instructor (Woody Harrelson). This film addresses several difficult issues with elegance, including the death of Nadine’s father, her insecurity, her ideas for suicide, her boys’ abuse, and her experience of being excluded. The noble teen drama is especially noteworthy since a woman (Kelly Fremon Craig) writes and directs it so well. 

12. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before 

Director:Susan Johnson
Released Year:2018
Cast:Lana Condor, Noah Centineo (Black Adam), Janel Parrish
Genre:Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDB Ratings:7.1
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:96%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Justwatch

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is a teen romantic comedy film directed by Susan Johnson and written by Sofia Alvarez. The story revolves around Shy high school junior Lara Jean Covey who writes letters to boys she feels an extraordinary passion for before locking them incessantly in her closet. Her most modern is to her childhood friend Josh, who was dating her older sister Margot until she moves to college and tears up with him, and the whole high school drama starts, which ruins and rebuilds the life of the characters. 

11. Rebel Without a Cause 

Director:Nicholas Ray
Released Year:1955
Cast:James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo
Genre:Drama
IMDB Ratings:7.7
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:92%
Currently Steaming On:HBO Max, Justwatch

Rebel Without a Cause is another high school drama movie about emotionally complicated suburban, middle-class youngsters. The movie offered both social critique and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments. The film was a groundbreaking endeavor to portray the moral decline of American youth, critique traditional style, and explore the contrasts and conflicts among generations. 

10. She’s All That 

Director:Robert Iscove
Released Year:1999
Cast:Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard
Genre:Comedy, Romance
IMDB Ratings:5.9
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:40%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

She’s All That is an American teen romantic comedy movie directed by Robert Iscove. This 1999 tale contains the folk guy Zack (Freddie Prinze Jr.), who boasts he could make any girl in school popular after being dumped by his girlfriend. It was an evolution of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion and George Cukor’s 1964 film My Fair Lady. This high school drama movie is all about love, reunions, and romance.

9. High School Musical 

Director:Kenny Ortega (Hocus Pocus 2)
Released Year:2006
Cast:Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale
Genre:Comedy, Drama, Family
IMDB Ratings:5.5
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:63%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

High School Musical is a Disney film featuring a 2006 movie and was one of the best high school movies of its time. The movie featured Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens as a starred pair from several high school clubs if you’re looking for a fun click to see with your children. Vanessa is the new girl to challenge the drama of the reigning queen, queen of drama, and the school basketball star of Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale). The movie reminds us, like its show stop number indicates, that “We’re All in This Together.” With catchy tunes and Disney-esque feel-good messages.

8. 10 Things I Hate About You 

Director:Gil Junger
Released Year:1999
Cast:Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Genre:Comedy, Drama, Romance
IMDB Ratings:7.3
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:69%
Currently Steaming On:Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video

“10 Things I Hate About You” is a  romantic high school comedy movie directed by Gil Junger and starring Joesph Gordon-Levitt, Julia Stiles, and Larisa Oleynik. This high school movie will meet a high-school boy, Cameron, who cannot date Bianca until her antisocial older sister, Kat, has a boyfriend. So, Cameron pays a mysterious boy, Patrick, to charm Kat. Ten years later, this movie was adapted into a television series of the identical title, which ran for twenty episodes and highlighted Larry Miller reprising his role as Walter Stratford.

7. Sixteen Candles 

Director:John Hughes
Released Year:1984
Cast:Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Justin Henry
Genre:Comedy, Romance
IMDB Ratings:7.0
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:84%
Currently Steaming On:Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Sixteen Candles was one of the best high school movies of the ’80s for several traditional teens. This 1984 film featured Molly Ringwald as a teenager who feels invisible, especially her crush, Jake, even on her 16th birthday. Given #MeToo and the subsequent revival of the rape and several moments in this film are completely outmoded according to current consent standards, about which Ringwald spoke. The high school drama still has a certain nostalgia for many children in the 1980s.

6. Dazed and Confused 

Director:Richard Linklater
Released Year:1993
Cast:Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, Matthew McConaughey
Genre:Comedy
IMDB Ratings:7.6
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:92%
Currently Steaming On:Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus

This coming-of-age high school movie about football follows the mayhem of a group of rowdy youngsters in Austin, Texas, praising the last day of high school in 1976. The graduating class sources for a successful pool hall and joins an offhand keg party; however, star football team member Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London) has pledged to focus on the championship sport and abstain from partying. Meanwhile, the incoming recruits try to avoid being hazed by the seniors, most notably the sadistic bully Fred O’Bannion (Ben Affleck).

5. American Graffiti 

Director:George Lucas (Willow)
Released Year:1973
Cast:Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat
Genre:Comedy, Drama
IMDB Ratings:7.4
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:96%
Currently Steaming On:Amazon Prime Video, Netflix

American Graffiti is an American coming-of-age film directed by George Lucas. This high school drama movie reflects the cruising and early music ‘n’ roll cultures celebrated among Lucas’s age crowd. Through a group of vignettes, the film tells the saga of a group of youngsters and their adventures throughout the night. This high school movie will remind you of every sort of thing of your high school love, high school reunion, high school parties, and much more.

4. Fast Times at Ridgemont High 

Director:Amy Heckerling
Released Year:1982
Cast:Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold
Genre:Comedy, Drama
IMDB Ratings:7.2
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:77%
Currently Steaming On:Amazon Prime Video

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a comedy-drama movie directed by Amy Heckerling in 1982. It was one of the 1982 youth’s favorite movies. Although it surely has hilarious parts, it also deals with serious issues like losing your virginity, abortion and being caught with your crush in a compromise position. The film also showcases the classic Sean Penn performance of Jeff Spicoli as a stoner surfer. While Penn is not portraying Spicoli, he reads the screenplay alongside stars like Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, and Brad Pitt.

3. Mean Girls 

Director:Mark Waters
Released Year:2004
Cast:Lindsay Lohan, Jonathan Bennett, Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes 3)
Genre:Comedy
IMDB Ratings:7.0
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:84%
Currently Steaming On:Amazon Prime Video, Netflix

Mean Girls is one of the most inspirational high school movies as directed by Mark Waters in 2004. This movie shows you the story of a new girl Cady (Lindsay Lohan), who has been trained with her African parents as a naturalist and cannot stop spotting parallels between her classmates and primates in the wilderness when she begins at all-American high school. In the social behavior of ordinary teens, it must decide whether to join the “plastic” girls headed by Regina George with her new down-to-earth buddies or Rachel McAdams. Screenwriter Tina Fey searches the high school cliques and the middle girls who live in them hilariously and eagerly very well.

2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 

Director:John Hughes
Released Year:1986
Cast:Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara
Genre:Comedy
IMDB Ratings:7.8
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:79%
Currently Steaming On:Amazon Prime Video, Netflix

This high school drama is a 1986 teen comedy film directed by John Hughes. The story revolves around Charming Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), who is in a state of affliction and has a clever scheme for a fake sick day from school. His closest buddy and girlfriend will be in Chicago on the great ditch day, but his snoring director and his envious sister (Jennifer Gray’s Dirty Dancing) are hot. This amazing high school movie is well developed and meditated on life. All of us should live with the slogan of Ferris: “Life goes very quickly. You may miss it if you don’t stop looking around once in a while.”

1. Clueless 

Director:Amy Heckerling
Released Year:1995
Cast:Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara
Genre:Comedy
IMDB Ratings:6.8
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings:79%
Currently Steaming On:Amazon Prime Video, Netflix

Writer/director Amy Heckerling made Alicia Silverstone into a celebrity in Jane Austen’s novel Emma in the mid-1990s Clueless—and introduced audiences to the entirely new adolescent version. This chick flicks movie makes you meet Cher, a rich high-school student learning to cope with adolescence and her problems. She also helps a new student gain popularity and, in the process, discovers her feelings for someone. This movie is one of the best movies about high school love. You can also watch this great high school drama on Netflix.

Conclusion

Wherever you were, we’d take some time to recall the analog feel of the first kisses, pep rallies, and minor difficulties that were so great at the time of your high school. We hope that this list has been very useful to you and would be great if you are looking for something similar about high school movies.

Exit mobile version