30 Best Teen Movies You Can Watch Right Now
Until the 1950s, filmmakers didn’t think of teenagers as anything other than adult characters—accessories to adult characters in films. That changed with the 1955 release of Nicholas Ray’s James Dean starrer Rebel Without a Cause , the success of which made studios realize that teenagers were driving around in their cars and occasionally spending their disposable income on movies.
After that, we started watching films depicting the (melodramatic) inner lives of teenagers, along with comedies specifically aimed at younger audiences. By the 1970s, the genre had even become so established that it spawned a wave of films nostalgic for those early teen films. By the 1980s, many of the biggest box office hits were aimed almost exclusively at teenagers.
The genre has seen a decline in recent years, mainly because studios are more interested in four-quadrant films that will sell to all segments of the population at once, but we will never return to a time when teenagers were not the main film market. Here are 30 classics to stream to prove why we shouldn’t.
Back to the Future (1985)
Despite all these epic sci-fi trappings (including a soundtrack that’s far more complex than your typical teen comedy), there’s a simple concept at work here: what if a modern teenager (well, circa 1985) could meet and communicate with his parents, when they were the same age. Will they be friends? Will his skilled mother make a move? These are the big existential questions in a film set in high schools in two different decades.
Where to stream: Peacock, Fubo
Carrie (1976)
It may not be the subtlest or most elegant metaphor for puberty, but Carrie’s famous ending, in which the girl’s moment of humiliation leads to bloody revenge on her tormentors, ranks as one of the most famous depictions of teenage emotional turmoil and high school trauma, and for good reason. Sissy Spacek plays the late, great Piper Laurie, and I can’t decide which one gives a more iconic performance.
Where to stream: Max
Love, Simon (2018)
Nick Robinson is a closeted high school student, Simon, who is inspired by an anonymous confession from a similarly closeted student at his school to come out openly. Unaware of “Blue’s” true identity, Simon begins an online friendship that develops into something more. Think The Shop Around the Corner or You’ve Got Mail, but with modern-day weird high school kids and a weird turn of events.
Where to watch: Hulu
Cooley High (1974)
Of all the 1970s films set in high schools from bygone eras (set in 1964), Cooley High is the best. Cochise (Lawrence-Hylton Jacobs), a basketball star, and Preach (Glynn Turman), an aspiring playwright, plan to play hooky during the final weeks of their senior year. Their plan leads to a series of adventures and misadventures that read very much like a typical teen comedy, before the comedy gradually gives way to more serious introspection. The film had a profound influence on directors from John Singleton to Spike Lee.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Roku channel.
Mean Girls (2004)
When Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) falls in with the tough crowd at her public school, she quickly realizes that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be and plots to destroy the Plastics from the inside. Tina Fey wrote an endlessly quotable script that you probably know by heart, whether you like it or not (thanks to the Internet).
Where to watch: Paramount+
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Jennifer’s Body came out with a bang in 2009, and it took a long time for it to become the cult classic it was always destined to be. Popular teen Jennifer (Megan Fox) is turned into a succubus by cruel men, gleefully killing boys at school, much to the horror of her friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried). Script by Oscar-winner Diablo Cody!
Where to stream: Max
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Some of the most iconic faces of the ’80s (aka “The Boy Pack”) spend an unsupervised Saturday detention together. Each one exists for a different reason and each represents a different clique. It’s all a bit naive, but John Hughes’ signature (if not his best) film does lean towards the kind of emotional honesty rarely found in teen films, and it’s hard not to get drawn into their insular world.
Where to watch: Roku Channel.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
There are several contenders for the title of best Gen X film, but perhaps none more deserving than Amy Heckerling’s debut—a teen sex comedy that’s smarter, funnier, and far raunchier than others that have come before or since. Above all, it is a coming-of-age story that introduced the world to many young actors who would go on to become stars, as well as writer Cameron Crowe, who went on to have an impressive career as a director. own.
Where to watch: Netflix
Pointless (1995)
Having already directed one of the best teen comedies of the 1980s, Fast Times at Ridgemont High director Amy Heckerling pulls a similar trick with this funny and biting coming-of-age comedy based on Jane Austen’s novel Emma , set among popular kids in Beverly. Hills.
Where to watch: Paramount+, Pluto TV.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
This modern classic, but very ’90s rom-com, retells The Taming of the Shrew in an American high school. (And without some of the ugly misogyny.) The final guitar swap for the title poem is delightfully catchy—and there’s a reason the film made stars of Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger.
Where to watch: Disney+.
The Hate U Give (2018)
Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) lives in her poor, predominantly black neighborhood and the prep school she attends is mostly white. After witnessing a deadly act of police brutality, she finds herself at odds with almost everyone as she becomes increasingly determined to say what needs to be said. Stenberg is phenomenal in this adaptation of Angie Thomas’ teen blockbuster.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Lady Bird (2017)
In Greta Gerwig ‘s Lady Bird, graduation is a moment of realization for Saoirse Ronan’s protagonist, who strives to become popular among the rich kids at her Catholic school despite her own family’s financial struggles. Big Night sees her on the crest of this wave and about to break, the moment on the cliff gives her a chance to reconsider everything she has abandoned, including her childhood best friend (Beanie Feldstein).
Where to watch: Netflix
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Everyone has their favorite John Hughes movie (well, everyone old enough to know who John Hughes is), but Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is mine. Like many people, I’m attracted to the main character even though I know he’s an asshole (and I’m Cameron). It’s a glorious tribute to the ability to do anything other than what you’re supposed to do.
Where to watch: Netflix, AMC+.
Drug (2015)
Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is one of his high school’s geeks, hoping to escape his crime-ridden neighborhood and attend Harvard. It’s a steep climb, but not an impossible one… at least until a drug dealer hides a bunch of ecstasy in his bag and he has to spend the night dodging the people who want him back. A smart, compelling thriller with a superb performance from Moore.
Where to watch: Cinemax
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Another great high school movie starring Shameik Moore as the voice of the one and only Spider-Man. It’s a stunning visual achievement with a huge heart, introducing Miles Morales, a nerdy and awkward student attending a private preschool to science, whose home life and schoolwork become much more complicated when he is bitten by a strange spider.
Where to stream: FXNow, Fubo
Grease (1978)
A look back at school life in the 1950s, through the rose-colored glasses of 1970s filmmakers. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are the all-singing, all-dancing power couple at horny, hot rod-obsessed Rydell High.
Where to stream: Max
The Last Picture Show (1971)
A classic film about bored kids in a dying Texas town that no longer has a reason to exist, this film from Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt is full of sentiment. The stunning cast includes Jeff Bridges, Cloris Leachman, Cybill Shepard and Ellen Burstyn before they won an Academy Award.
Where to watch: Mubi
American Graffiti (1973)
Another 1970s film looking back to the past, and another classic. George Lucas’s American Graffiti takes us back to the last day of high school for a group of 1960s teenagers, as the director makes it clear that some aspects of growing up are quite universal (and that he has something to say about something other than galactic space battles).
Where to watch: Paramount+, Showtime.
Halloween (1978)
Many slasher films have a cast led by teenagers (or at least actors acting like teenagers), but Halloween stands out not only for being one of the first to do so, but for the pervasive humanity and reality of the girl characters. teenagers This was largely thanks to co-writer and producer Debra Hill, who gave her characters bags of weed and a sex life not out of a need to punish sin, but because that’s what teenagers do.
Where to stream: Shudder, Crackle, Redbox, AMC+
Heathers (1988)
A black-as-night teen comedy-satire about a pair of murderous high school students (Christian Slater and Winona Ryder) seeking revenge on the eponymous clique of terribly rich girls? This devilish romp from Daniel Waters (whose brother Mark found success in the equally edgy but more engaging Mean Girls ) remains a cult classic.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Shudder, The Roku Channel, Hoopla, Starz.
House Party (1990)
The great Reginald Hudlin wrote and directed this classic from a surprisingly simple premise: Play’s parents are out of town and he’s planning the party of the year… but his best friend Kid has been arrested and is therefore forced to go on the run. Houses. The sequels and remake are mostly boring, but the original is smart in its silliness, with a joyful energy and a stellar soundtrack.
Where to watch: Tubi
American Pie (1999)
Like many teen sex comedies of yesteryear, there are things here that don’t hold up very well, but there’s so much goofy charm, along with a surprising sweetness, that it’s easy to see how the film kicked off an overall not terrible franchise. Jennifer Coolidge also has a standout role in this film and she deserves some love for that alone.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
Vince Lombardi High School can’t keep its vice principals because the kids are too into rock ‘n’ roll. P.J. Soules leads the way here as Riff Randell, the leader of the school punks; she is determined to see the Ramones, her favorite band, and will literally burn the school down to do so. The film, directed by Roger Corman, is cheap and completely anarchic, with nothing more than “don’t get between the punks and their music.”
Where to watch: Peacock, Tubi, Crackle, The Roku Channel, Freevee, Shout Factory TV.
To Sir, With Love (1967)
Sidney Poitier was riding a wave that would land him the lead in three of the biggest films of 1967: In the Heat of the Night , Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner ? and this one, in which he plays Mark Thackeray, an engineer and immigrant to Britain forced to take a job teaching unruly teenagers at a school in London’s tough East End. It’s a defining classic of the new teacher/cool kids genre and has the best title track.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Glory (1980)
I didn’t go to a performing arts high school in Manhattan in the 80s, so I don’t know, but director Alan Parker captures an atmosphere that feels authentic through location filming involving a real school and using a lot of real footage. students as background performers. The children’s stories, which deal with surprisingly heavy themes for a musical, sometimes border on the melodramatic, but it works beautifully.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Outsiders (1983)
Francis Ford Coppola directed the film adaptation of S. E. Hinton’s immortal novel about Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), his scandalous gang of Greasers, and the deadly consequences of fighting their rivals. Starring Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio and Diane Lane, the film’s casting spawned the “Bro Pack of the ’80s.” It’s still gold.
Where to stream: Max
Wedding Dreams (1994)
A documentary that explores both the promise and perils of the American dream for young black men and basketball, Steve James’ heartbreaking film follows two promising students recruited to play basketball at a predominantly white Chicago high school. and what happens to them as they chase their NBA dreams.
Where to watch: Max, Peacock, Tubi, The Criterion Channel, The Roku Channel, Crackle, Shout Factory TV, Freevee
Gidget (1959)
The best beach party movie of the era, starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson and James Darren, Gidget launched both a genre and a franchise (including a number of films and a couple of TV shows).
Where to watch: Tubi
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Before Rebel , films mostly treated teenagers as nonentities, comic relief, or threats. Nicholas Ray and James Dean changed everything. Juvenile delinquent Jim Stark (Dean) is fully fleshed out, and if he’s a little overdramatic at times, he’s just a teenager.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Dazed and Confused , perhaps the best teen summer hangout movie , follows Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London) and his friends on the last day of school. The idea is simple: they get drunk, discuss conspiracy theories and drive around the city looking for trouble. It’s a look at suburban Texas life where there’s not much else to do but party in the middle of nowhere. Look at the young Matthew McConaughey and Milla Jovovich, tall and cheerful. If you miss summer days partying with friends, this is the perfect nostalgia trip.
Where to watch: Hulu