High school never ends—at least it doesn't when you're watching great movies about high school. Known in some other countries as secondary schools or senior schools, high schools are almost a perfect setting for a movie. The emotions are big and the stakes feel really high when you're a teenager, there's a sense of structure to the school year that makes for a good narrative map, and there are all sorts of tropes and well-known social hierarchies that make high school a film setting like no other.
These are the 32 greatest high school movies. Many of them are comedies, as high school comedies could be their whole own subgenre. You'll also see some dramas, a few horror movies, action flicks, and more. A whole lot can happen between freshman and seniors years, and these films show it.
32. Grease
Year: 1978
Director: Randal Kleiser
Grease is a classic high school movie and a beloved musical; it is perhaps held back by how dated some of it feels and the fact that most of the cast was infamously at least a decade older than the teenagers they were supposed to be playing. This is frequently a problem in high school movies, but it's especially egregious in Grease. John Travolta was 23, which by the standards of most of these movies isn't too bad, but Olivia Newton-John had her 29th birthday during filming, and Stockard Channing was 33. It's still fun to watch the Grease gang sing about summer lovin' and have an opposites-attract romance, but the whole movie feels a little aged in more ways than one.
31. A Silent Voice
Year: 2016
Director: Naoko Yamada
Shōya Ishida (Miyu Irino) was a bully in elementary school, but now that he's in high school, he's found that he's become an outcast to the rest of his classmates. Depressed, he attempts to befriend Shōko Nishimiya (Saori Hayami), a deaf girl he harassed as a child who he encounters again as a teenager. Filled with complex and sympathetic characters, A Silent Voice is a powerful anime film about mental health, though at times it gets a little lost in its own melodrama.
30. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Year: 1989
Director: Stephen Herek
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is a fantastic sci-fi buddy comedy, and the reason it doesn't come up in conversations as much when talking about great high school movies is that William "Bill" S. Preston and Esq., and Ted "Theodore" Logan (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, respectively), don't spend a ton of time in high school. However, their entire time-traveling odyssey is all for the purpose of helping the slacker duo pass their history final. And, also, San Dimas High School Football rules!
29. Scream
Year: 1996
Director: Wes Craven
Many slasher movies—most of them, really—involve a bunch of teenagers getting cut up by a masked killer, but Scream feels like an especially good high school film all the same. Starring Neve Campbell as horror icon Sidney Prescott, Scream's meta approach to horror movie tropes extends to its handling of high school, too. It's a fun, exaggerated look at a certain kind of cool '90s teen, and the film gets some mileage out of how it contrasts the normal drama and stakes of high school social life with the decidedly not-normal killer hunting down the students.
28. Spider-Man: Homecoming
Year: 2017
Director: Jon Watts
Spider-Man's secret identity as a high school student is a part of most of the movie adaptations of the Web-Slinger's antics, though it wasn't until Spidey joined the MCU the big screen really nailed Peter Parker's education. Explicitly inspired by John Hughes films, Spider-Man: Homecoming gives Peter (Tom Holland, who was actually closer to high school age than most previous Spider-Men actors) a great supporting cast that goes beyond just Harry and M.J. In addition to Zendaya and Jacob Batalon's major roles, you've also got Peter's bully, Flash (Tony Revolori), his crush Liz (Laura Harrier), Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), and even some memorable teachers. For the first time on the big screen, Peter Parker actually feels like a kid, and it's essential to what makes this take on Spidey successful.
27. Napoleon Dynamite
Year: 2004
Director: Jared Hess
Anybody who wasn't alive in the "Vote for Pedro" era simply cannot comprehend how popular this quirky, low-key indie comedy was. Napoleon Dynamite stars Jon Heder as the title character, an awkward nerd making his way through high school. A smash sensation at the time, Napoleon Dynamite still holds up today as an offbeat look at coming-of-age, following Napoleon as he supports his immigrant friend's run for class president, his crush, and his odd (but ultimately loving) home life.
26. Juno
Year: 2007
Director: Jason Reitman
Elliot Page stars as Juno MacGuff, a Minnesota teenager who has accidentally gotten pregnant in this beloved Diablo Cody-penned coming-of-age comedy-drama. Teenage pregnancies are a rare-but-occasional part of high school, and Juno is a charming and eminently watchable story about one young woman and her family as they attempt to get through this early encroachment of grown-up responsibilities. Michael Cera stars as Paulie Bleeker, the fellow student who got Juno pregnant, while Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner play a rich couple who are planning on adopting Juno's child once it's born.
25. Remember the Titans
Year: 2000
Director: Boaz Yakin
One of the great high school sports movies, Remember the Titans is loosely based on the true story of a Virginia school's football team as it overcame the hurdles of racial integration to make the championship. Denzel Washington stars as coach Herman Boone, and his roster of student-athletes includes Ryan Hurst, Wood Harris, Ryan Gosling, Donald Faison. Remember the Titans can be a little hacknied at times, but it's an undeniably stirring feel-good movie that gets at why high school sports can be really important.
24. Brick
Year: 2004
Director: Rian Johnson
Joseph Gordon-Levitt leads Knives Out director Rian Johnson's directorial debut, a hard-boiled noir that happens to be set in a suburban California high school rather than smoky back allies. Setting aside, it's a remarkably straightforward and complex mystery rather than a genre spoof, though it's interesting to see how naturally certain high school archetypes—like the popular kids or the well-connected nerd, fit into classic noir or detective tropes.
23. The Holdovers
Year: 2023
Director: Alexander Payne
Paul Giamatti stars as Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly classics teacher at a prestigious all-male boarding school just ahead of Christmas break in 1970. He's given the undeniable task of being responsible for watching the small handful of students that don't go home for the break. (The "holdovers.") Over the course of the break, he clashes heads with one of the students in his charge, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), though they eventually come to learn a lot about each other. The Holdovers is a heartfelt Christmas classic that explores the humanity that can be found on both sides of the teacher-student relationship when given a chance.
22. Cruel Intentions
Year: 1999
Director: Roger Kumble
There's high school and then there's rich kid high school, which is a whole other world with a whole other elaborate high-stakes and high-status norms. Cruel Intentions, which stars Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Reese Witherspoon, is one of the juiciest films in this subgenre. A reimagining of the classic French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, the movie follows Phillippe and Gellar's step-sibling duo as they make a callous bet that Sebastian (Phillippe) can seduce the innocent new kid, Annette Hargrove (Witherspoon). At first, this is just for the bored duo's amusement, but soon real feelings complicate things.
21. Dead Poets Society
Year: 1989
Director: Peter Weir
"O Captain! My Captain!" Robin Williams leads this celebrated coming-of-age drama as John Keating, a new English teacher at a very esteemed and very conservative all-boys boarding school in 1959. Keating's teaching, like reading of poetry, inspires his students to seize the day ("carpe diem") and follow their true passions—something the otherwise rigid school tried to avoid and that a few of the parents explicitly forbade. Tragic and inspiring in equal measure, Dead Poets Society is an ode to the impact a good teacher can have.
20. Blockers
Year: 2018
Director: Kay Cannon
Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Gideon Adlon play three high school seniors, best friends who have made a pact to all lose their virginity on prom night. John Cena, Leslie Mann, and Ike Barinholtz play their parents, and this trio is determined to stop their daughters from doing the deed. Blockers is a hilarious and ultimately heartfelt comedy, one that offers a refreshingly modern look at teenage girl friendships and at how coming-of-age affects the parents, too. Sometimes it makes them go a little crazy, even if it's coming from a loving place.
19. Jennifer's Body
Year: 2009
Director: Karyn Kusama
Criminally unappreciated when it came out, Jennifer's Body has since been reclaimed as a cult classic and feminist horror masterpiece—and it's a good high school movie to boot. Megan Fox stars as Jennifer Check, a popular high school girl who is mostly praised for her looks. Amanda Seyfried plays Anita "Needy" Lesnicki, her bookish, less-secure best friend. When Jennifer is killed and a demonic succubus inhabits her body, Needy must figure out what to do. Funny and scary in the right amounts, Jennifer's Body is an astute look at how the male gaze and sex appeal are toxic even in high school settings (perhaps especially so).
18. To All the Boys I've Loved Before
Year: 2018
Director: Susan Johnson
Netflix's adaptation of Jenny Han's hit YA novel of the same name stars Lana Condor as Lara Jean Covey, a high school junior who writes letters she never plans on sending to her crushes rather than actually approaching them. When her younger sister (Anna Cathcart) finds the letters, she sends them, resulting in a nightmare situation for Lara Jean. However, the situation prompts her to start a fake relationship with one of her past crushes, Peter (Noah Centineo) in an attempt to make his girlfriend jealous, but of course real feelings soon rear their head. To All the Boys I've Loved Before is an extremely sweet little comedy that does an incredible job of capturing the high-stakes nerves and excitement of young love.
17. Bring It On
Year: 2000
Director: Peyton Reed
Take any criticism of cheerleading's athleticism elsewhere; Bring It On is one of the great sports movies, but even more than that it's an incredible and surprisingly subversive film about class and how it impacts high school life. Kirsten Dunst stars as the head cheerleader at a well-off San Diego high school, but a new student (Eliza Dushku) reveals that all of Rancho Carne's cheers and routines were actually just stolen from a high school in Compton, where Gabrielle Union plays the captain. When the two schools meet at the national championships, much more than just school pride is on the line.
16. Carrie
Year: 1976
Director: Brian De Palma
High school kids can be so cruel, and few films depict that more effectively than Brian De Palma's lurid adaptation of Stephen King's classic horror novel. Sissy Spacek plays Carrie White, a girl who is relentlessly bullied at school and abused by her fanatical mother at home. When she develops psychic powers, it sets the stage for an iconic, blood-soaked moment of revenge when she's betrayed for the final time on prom night. Carrie's a thrilling, scary exploration of the dark and ugly side of adolescence.
15. Sixteen Candles
Year: 1984
Director: John Hughes
Molly Ringwald leads the first of John Hughes' many classic '80s high school comedies as Sam Baker, a high schooler whose upcoming 16th birthday—and pretty much everything else she cares about in her life—is getting overshadowed by her older sister's wedding. While this is happening she's also dealing with her crush on the popular senior Jake (Michael Schoeffling) and rebuffing unwanted attention from a freshman admirer (Anthony Michael Hall). Screwball and raunchy at times and earnest at others, Sixteen Candles is an undeniable classic of high school cinema, even if certain aspects, like the offensive Asian stereotype Long Duk Dong, have aged terribly.
14. The Faculty
Year: 1998
Director: Robert Rodriguez
When you're in high school, it can feel like your teachers might as well be from another planet. The premise of The Faculty, Robert Rodriguez's cult classic sci-fi horror, is that… they are. Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Josh Hartnett, and Elijah Wood play students at an Ohio high school who realize that their teachers' bodies have been taken over by parasitic aliens. It's schlocky and pulpy, but then again, so is a lot of high school if we're being honest.
13. Election
Year: 1999
Director: Alexander Payne
Politics might be one of the areas of adult life that most closely matches the status-obsessed landscape of high school. Alexander Payne's great late-'90s comedy takes advantage of this similarity to spoof both. Reese Witherspoon stars as Tracy Flick, an overachieving junior running for student president. Matthew Broderick plays a social studies teacher who wants to sabotage her candidacy. Darkly funny, Election is a killer indictment of high school politics, but also American society at large.
12. Easy A
Year: 2010
Director: Will Gluck
Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter gets reimagined as a 21st century high school comedy in Easy A. Emma Stone leads as Olive Penderghast, a 17-year-old who tells a lie to get out of a camping trip that results in the entire school thinking she's promiscuous. Olive eventually decides to counter this by embracing the reputation, putting a big red "A" on her clothes just like Hester Prynne. This makes Olive more popular (with some of the student body, at least), but it comes with its own headaches. It's a very clever, quite enjoyable spin on an old story.
11. Back to the Future
Year: 1985
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is a confident high school student whose best friend is a kooky old inventor played by Christopher Lloyd in this seminal '80s sci-fi comedy. When he gets sent back from 1985 to 1955 by riding in Doc Brown's time-traveling DeLorean, Marty finds himself going through high school three decades earlier, where he needs to make sure his parents still fall in love and get together, otherwise he'll be erased from existence. An undeniably fun time at the movies, Back to the Future gets even more interesting to watch the further out from its release, since its look at '80s school life feels like as much of a trip through time as the '50s.
10. Booksmart
Year: 2019
Director: Olivia Wilde
Although there are plenty of high school comedies with teenage girls at the forefront, most of the raunchy high school comedies tend to be about boys. Booksmart, Olivia Wilde's directorial debut, is a welcome corrective, starring Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever as two Ivy League-bound best friends who are determined to try to actually have a little fun and be popular before they graduate. As tends to be the case in comedies like this, their night quickly goes off the rails. Sharp and sweet, Booksmart was rightfully hailed as an instant entry to the high school movie hall of fame.
9. Superbad
Year: 2007
Director: Greg Mottola
Perhaps the best raunchy high school comedy, Superbad follows best friends Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) as two soon-to-graduate seniors who are determined to lose their virginity before heading off to college. Their night ends up involving a dweebish friend with the world's worst fake ID (Christopher Mintz-Plasse as McLovin), stolen booze, and two irresponsible cops—one of whom is played by Seth Rogen, who co-wrote the film. Foul-mouthed but with a heart, it's a side-splitting look at high school and teenage friendship.
8. Lady Bird
Year: 2017
Director: Greta Gerwig
An exceptional Saoirse Ronan stars as Christine McPherson, a confident and driven high schooler in 2002 Sacramento who calls herself Lady Bird in Greta Gerwig's truly masterful coming-of-age tale. As Lady Bird prepares to get out of Sacramento (something she can't wait to do), she also must deal with her complex relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf), boy trouble, embarrassment about her family's economic background, and friendship drama. It's a funny, beautiful, and deeply relatable film that closes with an incredible Dave Matthews Band needledrop.
7. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Year: 2023
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Few authors ever captured the tumultuous feelings of coming-of-age stories better than Judy Blume, and the 2023 film adaptation of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret does an exceptional job of bringing it to the big screen. Abby Ryder Fortson stars as the titular Margaret, an 11-year-old whose Jewish father and Christian mother announce they're moving from New York City to a New Jersey suburb. Upon moving, Margaret must deal with a new school, the agonizing wait for puberty, and her complex feelings about religion. It's a profound and profoundly sweet movie, and it's a crime that Rachel McAdams, who plays Margaret's mom, didn't get nominated for an Oscar for this.
6. 21 Jump Street
Year: 2012
Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
One of the best comedies of the decade, 21 Jump Street is an adaptation of the old '80s TV show of the same name that takes the same basic concept and gets extremely meta and hilarious with it. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star as a pair of cops who knew each other in high school back when Schmidt (Hill) was an unpopular nerd and Jenko (Tatum) was a dumb jock. Now partners, they've been assigned to go back to high school, undercover, to try to get to the bottom of a case. However, high school has changed since they graduated, and 21 Jump Street has a blast poking fun at high school and action movie tropes.
5. She's All That
Year: 1999
Director: Robert Iscove
She's All That gave George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, which had already been famously adapted to the screen as the 1964 film My Fair Lady, got a high school makeover (not unlike one of its main characters). Freddie Prinze Jr. stars as Zachary "Zack" Siler, the most popular kid at his Southern California high school, and he makes a bet with his buddies that he can use his popularity and influence to get anybody elected prom queen—even awkward, outsider art student Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook). Naturally, this dare soon turns into something real. Though not the most original high school movie out there, She's All That executes every emotional beat and trope with a perfect kind of '90s way.
4. Clueless
Year: 1995
Director: Amy Heckerling
What's the closest comparison to Regency England with all of its emphasis on class and social status? Why, that would be a posh Beverly Hills high school, of course. Amy Heckerling's iconic '90s comedy (and one of the great Los Angeles movies) stars Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz, a popular, shallow, but ultimately very well-meaning student who decides she wants to be a better persona and do good deeds, like taking the new kid (Brittany Murphy's Tai Frasier) under her wing. It's hilarious and endlessly quotable.
3. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Year: 1986
Director: John Hughes
Matthew Broderick stars as the titular Ferris Bueller in what's perhaps John Hughes' most purely enjoyable high school comedy. A senior at his school in a Chicago suburb, Ferris decides he doesn't want to come to class today, instead playing hooky in the city with his girlfriend (Mia Sara) and his best friend (Alan Ruck), whose neuroticism contrasts with Ferris' effortless confidence. Although very little of this high school comedy takes place in a high school, due to the nature of the plot, it still does an amazing job of encapsulating and affirming the importance of this time in young adulthood.
2. The Breakfast Club
Year: 1985
Director: John Hughes
A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal all get sentenced to an all-day suspension at their high school. Although they all come from very different cliques and social status amongst the students, and have all been suspended for different reasons, they eventually learn they have a lot in common—and that they are much more than just their label. Starring Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy, is an endearing, authentic, and rawly funny high school masterpiece.
1. Mean Girls
Year: 2004
Director: Mark Waters
With Mean Girls, Tina Fey ventured into the wilderness that is high school and teenage girl friends and frenemies and penned a masterpiece. Lindsay Lohan stars as Cady Heron, a 16-year-old new student at a high school who ends up trying to take down the popular girls (led by an incredible Rachel McAdams as Regina George) but finds herself seduced by life at the top of the social totem pole. Inspired by the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes, Mean Girls tackles high school cliques more directly and accurately than most movies, resulting in an insightful, hilarious, and extremely quotable comedy classic.
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