15 Best High School Movies of All Time, Ranked (2025)

When it comes to the best high school movies of all time, the competition is fierce. The sheer amount of top-tier classics isn’t just whelming — ask 10 Things I Hate About You’s Chastity Church — but overwhelming. In the 1970s, films like Grease, which were merely set against the backdrop of high school, kicked off a trend that would reach new heights in the ‘80s: movies about teens that aimed to really capture their high school experiences — both good and bad.

From John Hughes’ genre-shaping classics to the explosion of late ‘90s and early aughts high school movies that centered young women, the coming-of-age films of yesteryear have endured, and, even now, dominate Hollywood. While viewers’ must-see high school movies syllabi may be as all over the place as Clueless character Cher Horowitz’ driving abilities, some films are undeniable hallmarks of the genre.

15 Carrie (1976)

Based on horror master Stephen King’s first novel, Brian De Palma’s Carrie is an acclaimed classic — not just for being a successful adaptation and inventive horror film, but for its depiction of high school’s rigors. Unpopular teen Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) might boast some qualities that are hard to relate to — telekinetic powers, for one — but her high school experience is so hyperbolic that it actually captures some truths.

At home, Carrie is abused by her zealot mother (a terrifying Piper Laurie). At school, she’s bullied incessantly by her peers. In the film’s opening, Carrie gets her first period and panics; her classmates respond by pelting her with tampons. Later, in the movie’s most infamous scene, the school elects Carrie prom queen as a joke, only to dump a bucket of pig’s blood on her, which pushes Carrie to violence. A horror classic, Carrie captures its own vision of high school cruelty and angst.

14 The Half of It

Writer-director Alice Wu is best known for her groundbreaking 2004 lesbian rom-com Saving Face — a queer film that actually boasts a happy ending. Over a decade later, Wu crafted a different kind of queer love story in the coming-of-age dramedy The Half of It. Leah Lewis stars as Ellie Chu, a Chinese American student who writes essays for cash to support her dad.

Through an interesting turn of events, Ellie ends up ghost-writing love letters for resident jock Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer), who’s intent on winning the affections of Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire). The love-letter writing comes easily for Ellie, who also develops a crush on Aster. Full of teenage longing and high school politics, The Half of It is also a refreshing take on the love story that is high school friendships.

13 The Edge of Seventeen

Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig might now be best known for her adaptation of Judy Blume's classic middle-grade novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. But, before her foray into middle school growing pains, the filmmaker tackled high school coming-of-age themes in her directorial debut, The Edge of Seventeen.

The film stars Dickinson’s Hailee Steinfeld as Nadine, a high schooler navigating a difficult family dynamic in the wake of her father’s death. With her dad gone, Nadine finds herself anchored by her friendship with Krista — until Krista’s romance with Nadine’s brother strains their dynamic. The Edge of Seventeen captures the most painful parts of adolescence, like the misdirected self-loathing that spawns distance and envy.

12 Do Revenge

One of 2022’s best films, Do Revenge is packed with references and homages to the best high school movies of the ‘90s and early aughts. Part-Clueless and part-Heathers, the black comedy stars Riverdale’s Camila Mendes as Drea, the queen bee at an elite private school. However, unlike the rest of her popular peers, Drea attends on a scholarship — a fact she hides to avoid classist ridicule.

Despite curating her life to a “T,” Drea finds herself the subject of ridicule after her once-boyfriend Max (Euphoria’s Austin Abrams) leaks an intimate video of Drea. Over the summer, Drea meets Maya Hawke’s Eleanor, a shy teen who’ll be attending Drea’s school in the fall. Much like Drea, Eleanor, the subject of a homophobic rumor, is dreading the start of the semester. The two team up to “do revenge” — but the movie’s twists and turns will surprise and delight even the genre’s biggest fans.

11 Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Directed by Amy Heckerling (Clueless) and penned by Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous), 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High is one of Hollywood’s original teen sex comedies. One of the key reasons for its enduring appeal is the film's remarkable ensemble. The Fast Times at Ridgemont High cast includes Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz, Forest Whitaker, and Anthony Edwards.

Fast Times is split into the stories of several teen characters. While it centers on sex and features all the stoner humor and gags one might expect from the genre, it was also a fresh perspective. Instead of leaning too far into raunchiness or into sentimentality, the movie offers a more honest take. In fact, to inform his writing, Crowe famously went undercover at a San Diego high school, allowing him to capture those small, universal details of teen life.

10 Blockers

For audiences looking for an update to an American Pie-style film, Blockers is a must-watch high school movie. Best friends Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Sam (Gideon Adlon) form a pact: before college, they’ll all “lose” their virginity. Meanwhile, their overprotective parents — Lisa (Leslie Mann), Mitchell (an incredible John Cena), and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) — go to unhinged lengths to stop their respective prom-night hookups.

When it comes to high school movies, there’s no shortage of films with sex pact plot lines, but Blockers feels incredibly fresh. For starters, it gender-swaps the traditional premise, centering three teen girls and calling out the double standard that exists when it comes to who is allowed to explore sex. But the high-energy Blockers also, somehow, balances gross-out moments, sharp humor, and genuinely heartfelt exchanges.

9 10 Things I Hate About You

One of the most iconic teen rom-coms ever made, 10 Things I Hate About You is one of those high school movies that’s endlessly quotable. Writers Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith adapted the general plot from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and grafted it onto hotheaded high schoolers. In classic high school (and Shakespearean) fashion, it's a movie full of misunderstandings, messy motives, and biting humor.

Cameron, played by a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is new to Padua High School but finds himself crushing on Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik), the school’s popular girl. The problem, of course, is that Bianca’s dad doesn’t want her dating and decrees that Bianca can date only if her older sister, Kat (Julia Stiles), dates someone first. Ever anti-social, the strong-willed Kat can’t be bothered to date, but that doesn’t stop Cameron from orchestrating a romance between Kat and charming bad boy Patrick (Heath Ledger).

8 Lady Bird

Before Greta Gerwig adapted Little Women or directed Barbie, the acclaimed writer-director gave audiences the sure-to-be-timeless Lady Bird. With five Academy Award nominations, Lady Bird is the rare high school movie that won over both audiences and critics upon its debut. Starring Saorise Ronan, the film traces the highs and lows of Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson’s senior year in 2002 Sacramento.

The teen is eager to leave her hometown behind and attend college on the East Coast — a place, Lady Bird claims, has actual culture. This doesn’t sit well with her mother, Marion (a brilliant Laurie Metcalf), who feels her daughter is ungrateful, especially given her family’s strained financial situation. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Lady Bird confronts the things most folks rather look away from in parent-child relationships.

7 The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Directed and adapted by Stephen Chbosky, the author of its source material, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is not only one of the best high school movies of all time but one of the most truthful on-screen depictions of mental illness in film history. Framed by letters the main character Charlie (Logan Lerman) writes to an unnamed friend, Perks chronicles a young man’s difficulties navigating the high school social scene but also deftly portrays how he lives with major depressive disorder and (initially) undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.

Nervous about the first year of high school without his late best friend to support him, Charlie leans into reading books, making mixed tapes, and hanging out with his high school English teacher (Paul Rudd). Eventually, he meets step-siblings Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller), who help him find his footing in high school — as well as a new support system. There’s something so beautiful and delicate about the cliche-defying Perks of Being a Wallflower, which makes it a classic.

6 The Breakfast Club

Whether viewers have seen John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club or not, they can probably recall Judd Nelson’s raised fist as he triumphantly walks across a football field at the film's end, the song “Don't You (Forget About Me)” blaring over the scene. But Breakfast Club is more than just these flashes of cinematic iconography, and it endures for a reason.

The setup is simple: five high schoolers from different cliques all end up in detention one Saturday. As the film says, these five characters are “a brain (Anthony Michael Hall), an athlete (Emilio Estevez), a basket case (Ally Sheedy), a princess (Molly Ringwald), and a criminal (Nelson).” In true coming-of-age fashion, the so-called "Brat Pack" discover they have more in common than one would think.

5 Superbad

The Judd Apatow-produced and Seth Rogen-co-written Superbad might just be one of the best teen buddy comedies of all time. Starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as Seth and Evan respectively, the film sees two teens making a sex pact: they want to lose their virginity before graduation. But the path to doing so isn’t so straightforward.

Most memorably, Seth and Evan’s buddy, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), obtains an extremely suspect, one-name fake ID that simply reads “McLovin.” A trip to buy alcohol goes awry, kicking off a series of hilarious misunderstandings and circumstances. Taking inspiration from Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Dazed and Confused, Superbad is the teen sex comedy that defined the mid-aughts.

4 Clueless

Over 10 years after Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Amy Heckerling helmed Clueless, a teen comedy that takes the plot of Jane Austen’s Emma and grafts it onto a high school setting. Specifically, a ritzy Beverly Hills high school, whose queen bee is Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), a well-intentioned but wildly out-of-touch teen.

Cher’s father, Mel (Dan Hedaya), is a wealthy litigator who remarried (and then divorced) after Cher’s mother died during a routine liposuction procedure. Paul Rudd plays college student Josh, Mel’s stepson of just a few weeks, who “interns” for Mel over break. Despite being momentary step-siblings, the vain Cher and idealistic Josh develop feelings for each other, but Cher, ever the matchmaker for others, can’t see what’s right in front of her.

3 Booksmart

Teen comedy Booksmart marks Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut and launched stars Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever to new heights. Upon its release, Booksmart was hailed as an instant classic — and for good reason. In it, unpopular academic prodigies Molly (Feldstein) and Amy (Dever) decide to finally break the rules and get into some trouble the day before graduation. A reluctant Amy agrees to accompany Molly to a classmate’s chaperone-less graduation party.

Molly, frustrated that they didn’t enjoy high school, really thinks they can get their kicks off in one out-in-a-blaze-of-glory night. Booksmart is ever-surprising, subverting the tropes associated with certain high school characters and even portraying a nuanced queer crush plot line. A heartfelt look at teen friendship, Booksmart proves that high school buds can grow in different directions but remain important to each other.

2 Dazed and Confused

Director ​​Richard Linklater's (Before trilogy) 1993 cult classic, Dazed and Confused, is another movie that features an impressive ensemble of then-unknowns, including Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey, Matthew McConaughey, and Joey Lauren Adams. The premise is simple enough: set in the mid-70s, Dazed and Confused sees high school seniors preparing to haze incoming first-year students before the start of summer.

For Linklater, the impetus for Dazed and Confused was to create the opposite of John Hughes’ movies. With films like Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, Hughes had come to define the high school movie genre during the ‘80s, but the films tended toward high-stakes dramatic turns and sentimentality. Linklater’s take is much less dramatic — there are keggers, drugs, and music. There’s a lot of aimless wandering, too. Both versions feel true to the teenage experience in different ways, and that’s the beauty of the genre.

1 Mean Girls

When it comes to quotable films, Tina Fey and Mark Waters’ Mean Girls might be the queen bee — not just of high school movies, but of comedies in general. Released in 2004, Mean Girls centers young women high schoolers in a way that simply hadn’t been done before — and it manages to be both incredibly funny and insightful while doing so. In Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan’s homeschooled Cady must navigate the hierarchy of American high school, without letting it consume her.

The school is lorded over by Regina George (Rachel McAdams) and her cronies, Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried). Together, the trio form the Plastics — a clique whose influence is based in bullying and manipulation. After befriending loners Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), Cady infiltrates the Plastics to take them down — but winds up becoming just like them, if not worse. A pop culture phenomenon that’s spawned its own day (October 3rd), Mean Girls is not only "so fetch," but the best high school movie of all time.