Each Generation’s High School Movie

[Neonmoon 38,129]

Silent Generation: Rebel Without A Cause

Boomers: American Graffiti

Generation X: Breakfast Club

Millennials: Superbad

Generation Z: ?

Generation Alpha: ?

 

Edited January 16 by Neonmoon

[Sweetnsourpoke 166]

I'm thinking Fast Times at Ridgemont High over Breakfast Club, IMO 

[Celery Man 20,929]

Mean Girls might be better for millennials than American Pie. I was born in 85 (which makes me an old millennial) and I think I was in jr high when American Pie came out. Mean Girls is I suppose gender specific but it is classic.

Is there another micro generation that could argue about American Pie vs Can’t Hardly Wait?

[Aqua Buddha 14,581]

21 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Silent Generation: Rebel Without A Cause

Boomers: American Graffiti

Generation X: Breakfast Club

Millennials: American Pie

Generation Z: Superbad

Generation Alpha: ?

 

Gen X:  What's your damage, Heather?  

[Prepuce of Doom 21,052]

15 minutes ago, Sweetnsourpoke said:

I'm thinking Fast Times at Ridgemont High over Breakfast Club, IMO 

Also Dazed and Confused. 

[David Dennison 18,841]

Isn't Superbad millennial?

[hobbes2702 13,028]

1 minute ago, David Dennison said:

Isn't Superbad millennial?

Yup.

[David Dennison 18,841]

I nominate Bottoms for Gen Z.

 

[South Austin 52,435]

24 minutes ago, Sweetnsourpoke said:

I'm thinking Fast Times at Ridgemont High over Breakfast Club, IMO 

I’d give the nod to John Hughes, who made a few high school movies that marked that era for the Gen X’ers – Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Weird Science, and The Breakfast Club. The Breakfast Club was pretty fucking edgy for that time.

[Dutchrudder 11,133]

For 90s there were a lot of movies that could qualify:

Can't Hardly Wait

She's all That

10 Things I Hate About You

Cruel intentions

Varsity Blues

Mallrats

Clueless

Theres Something about Mary

Scream / I know What You Did Last Summer

 

[Pig Bellmont 8,712]

36 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Generation Z: Superbad

I’m sorry but Gen Z was not in HS in 2007

[South Austin 52,435]

3 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

Theres Something about Mary

Yeah, the movies starts with scenes from high school. But There’s Something About Mary is not a high school movie.

[Aqua Buddha 14,581]

Heathers it he most Gen X of movies.  The teenagers there are adulting the entire time with no supervision.  They're fucking, drinking, smoking, and killing.  The adults are just on the periphery, if anything.  The movie is also very morbid, which is also very Gen X.

Add on that all, if not most, of the key actors were actually teenagers themselves.  

[Helobious 9,456]

15 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Isn't Superbad millennial?

Millennial here, 2012 HS graduate. I’ve never seen American pie or know of anyone that ever referenced or talked about it. EVERYONE in high school knew Superbad and Mean Girls. 21 Jump Street movie & Project X honorable mentions. 

[Frank The Tank 1,496]

21 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

Mean Girls might be better for millennials than American Pie. I was born in 85 (which makes me an old millennial) and I think I was in jr high when American Pie came out. Mean Girls is I suppose gender specific but it is classic.

Is there another micro generation that could argue about American Pie vs Can’t Hardly Wait?

I was born in 1980 so I’m probably that microgeneration. I was 5 when Breakfast Club came out but out of high school when American Pie came out. 
We were probably more Varsity Blues, Can’t Hardly Wait or even the I Know What You Did Last Summer group. 

[texasdago 7,562]

9 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Heathers it he most Gen X of movies.  The teenagers there are adulting the entire time with no supervision.  They're fucking, drinking, smoking, and killing.  The adults are just on the periphery, if anything.  The movie is also very morbid, which is also very Gen X.

Add on that all, if not most, of the key actors were actually teenagers themselves.  

Using that standard, River's Edge aligns well... 

[Celery Man 20,929]

2 minutes ago, Frank The Tank said:

I was born in 1980 so I’m probably that microgeneration. I was 5 when Breakfast Club came out but out of high school when American Pie came out. 
We were probably more Varsity Blues, Can’t Hardly Wait or even the I Know What You Did Last Summer group. 

Yeah it’s my oldest sister’s group. Also 10 Things I Hate About You, Clueless, and She’s All That

[Parliament 14,229]

All you old Boomers forgot:

 

FWIW, Dazed and Confused is my Gen X fave.

[Pig Bellmont 8,712]

19 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

For 90s there were a lot of movies that could qualify:

Can't Hardly Wait

She's all That

10 Things I Hate About You

Cruel intentions

Varsity Blues

Mallrats

Clueless

Theres Something about Mary

Scream / I know What You Did Last Summer

 

This is a good list. I’d add a couple of the most Gen X movies were Reality Bites and Empire Records 

[Aqua Buddha 14,581]

3 minutes ago, Pig Bellmont said:

This is a good list. I’d add a couple of the most Gen X movies were Reality Bites and Empire Records 

Reality Bites is solid if you're looking at early adulthood rather than HS years.

For that time of life, might I also suggest....Office Space?  At first glance, it's a comedy but on a deeper level, it's a coming of age movie for white collar/junior tech types.  If you were in Texas and worked in tech in the 90's, the show is a cultural documentary.  

[Frank The Tank 1,496]

7 minutes ago, Pig Bellmont said:

This is a good list. I’d add a couple of the most Gen X movies were Reality Bites and Empire Records 

Empire records hits hard for me too. 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

the 'reality' of reality bites is post-college graduate world, right?  david spade is working at the whammyburger teaching the lead she doesn't know enough to work there.

[Da Fino 2,772]

18 minutes ago, Frank The Tank said:

I was born in 1980 so I’m probably that microgeneration. I was 5 when Breakfast Club came out but out of high school when American Pie came out. 
We were probably more Varsity Blues, Can’t Hardly Wait or even the I Know What You Did Last Summer group. 

Yeah I think ours are Can’t Hardly Wait and Varsity Blues. 

[Classic Rock 274]

 The Last American Virgin is an underrated coming of age movie for Gen Xers. Pretty good sound track too.

[ztejas 43,411]

33 minutes ago, Helobious said:

Millennial here, 2012 HS graduate. I’ve never seen American pie or know of anyone that ever referenced or talked about it. EVERYONE in high school knew Superbad and Mean Girls. 21 Jump Street movie & Project X honorable mentions. 

Correct. 

 

The 80s have a lot of good classics to choose from. Ferris Bueller, Breakfast Club, Fast Times, Back to The Future - even Dead Poets Society although it's dark and not as archetypal "high-school".

Some good ones not mentioned yet:

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Clueless (1995)

Election (1999)

Juno (2007)

Dope (2015)

 

Then you have high-school sports movies that are also very high-school-culturey like Friday Night Lights and Coach Carter. And you have high-school sports movies that are less high-schooly like Hoosiers and Remember The Titans.

Another honorable mention are the Twilight movies that were decently popular. Not great movies necessarily but definitely very defining of an era/certain female demographic. I don't know if they're all set in high school though - it might just be the first one. 

Edited January 15 by ztejas

[RPM 26,315]

2 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Some good ones not mentioned yet:

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Beat me to it.

Animal House was high on our list.

Edited January 15 by RPM

[lateshow 1,304]

2 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

I'm an ancient millennial in that I hung out with Gen X'ers and so we watched Dazed and Confused on a loop and Can't Hardly Wait with a young douchey Seth Green was played on a loop on one of the stations (HBO, SHO, MTV) every summer.

Mainly though my generation's Summer viewing was MTV Beach house (and Spring Break) with Live episodes of Singled Out and Room Raiders between Eminem and Radiohead sets.

I was born in '81 and this is correct. 

[locodos 5,387]

[ztejas 43,411]

Just now, locodos said:

I adore Bill and Ted and almost listed it but it doesn't quite feel like a "high school" movie for me. Sure, they're in high school, but outside of Bill and Ted the other main characters aren't high school kids and it doesn't take place at their high school at all except like the very last scene. 

[ztejas 43,411]

Oh and holy fucking shit how could I forget...

Instant cult-classic for millenials.

[Rimbo 25,908]

1 hour ago, Sweetnsourpoke said:

I'm thinking Fast Times at Ridgemont High over Breakfast Club, IMO 

I think you're right for the older half of Generation X, but for mid-X and younger (my age) it's 100% Breakfast Club.

Just Say No was a thing by the time we hit high school, and AIDS was a huge thing by then. So things like pregnancy were the least of our concerns re: sex.

[Rimbo 25,908]

4 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I adore Bill and Ted and almost listed it but it doesn't quite feel like a "high school" movie for me. Sure, they're in high school, but outside of Bill and Ted the other main characters aren't high school kids and it doesn't take place at their high school at all except like the very last scene. 

As much as I love this movie, nothing about it has any relation to reality. Even the movie's creator basically said that Bill & Ted likely would get beaten up by the two classmates who inspired them.

[Rimbo 25,908]

44 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Heathers it he most Gen X of movies.  The teenagers there are adulting the entire time with no supervision.  They're fucking, drinking, smoking, and killing.  The adults are just on the periphery, if anything.  The movie is also very morbid, which is also very Gen X.

Add on that all, if not most, of the key actors were actually teenagers themselves.  

That's... a really good answer.

Also, Gen Z, it isn't a movie. It's something on YouTube.

[locodos 5,387]

15 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I adore Bill and Ted and almost listed it but it doesn't quite feel like a "high school" movie for me. Sure, they're in high school, but outside of Bill and Ted the other main characters aren't high school kids and it doesn't take place at their high school at all except like the very last scene. 

Those are valid points. 

CSB:   It just so happens that in high school a friend and I both decided to go see a movie Bill & Ted's on a random Thursday night.  We mentioned it to a few folks and told them to meet us there.  Everyone we talked to was like "sure I think I can make it, mind if I invite so and so?"   yeah, no problem, the more the merrier.  Meet in the parking lot at 8. 

When we pulled up it seemed like the whole school was hanging out in the theatre parking lot like some sort of shitty tailgate. 

The theatre was PACKED and that weird random movie turned out to be funny as shit.   Just some lightning in a bottle thing.   So it's absolutely a high school movie to me.

Edited January 15 by locodos

[83Horn 1,640]

I would add both Carrie and Saturday Night Fever for the latter half of the boomer generation; those of us born between 1957-61.

[Prepuce of Doom 21,052]

I had an exceedingly disinterested teacher for my high school German classes. He would allow us to watch whatever movies we wanted as long as we could make an argument about how it was related to the German language, culture, etc. 

We watched Bill & Ted's numerous times because Freud mumbles something in German once or twice. Same goes for Die Hard based on “Schieße den Fenster!”, and several other movies (Amadeus, The Heroes of Telemark, etc.) were also in heavy rotation. 

[Elvis 3,370]

Born 78 and Not Another Teen Movie is perfect.  Dazed and Confused was the most influential.

[DixonHur 11,292]

1 hour ago, David Dennison said:

I nominate Bottoms for Gen Z.

 

I'd add Lady Bird and Booksmart to the list for Gen Z.

How does the era portrayed factor in?  For example, is Porky's Gen X (released in 1981) or Silent Generation (set in 1954)?

Edited January 15 by DixonHur

[Guest]

Gen X

Risky Business

16 Candles

Fast Times at Ridgemont High- might not be ours, but it influenced us.

Weird Science

Back To The Future

Red Dawn- cultural and it starts in a school.

Less Than Zero

Vision Quest

Stand and Deliver

Edited January 15 by slorch

[Biff Tannen 45,661]

2 hours ago, Celery Man said:

Mean Girls might be better for millennials than American Pie. I was born in 85 (which makes me an old millennial) and I think I was in jr high when American Pie came out. Mean Girls is I suppose gender specific but it is classic.

Is there another micro generation that could argue about American Pie vs Can’t Hardly Wait?

Yes.  Born in 82 and American Pie vs Can't Hardly Wait is perfect for the Oregon Trail Generation. 

I wish I could argue for Dazed and Confused, but that's really Gen X territory.

[McCroskey 1,504]

Don't know how you all forgot about Wild Things.  Denise Richards in her prime.

For me it's that, Varsity Blues, and American Pie as the top 3.  Pretty solid for any generation.

 

[South Austin 52,435]

1 hour ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Reality Bites is solid if you're looking at early adulthood rather than HS years.

For that time of life, might I also suggest....Office Space?  At first glance, it's a comedy but on a deeper level, it's a coming of age movie for white collar/junior tech types.  If you were in Texas and worked in tech in the 90's, the show is a cultural documentary.  

[Celery Man 20,929]

22 minutes ago, DixonHur said:

I'd add Lady Bird and Booksmart to the list for Gen Z.

How does the era portrayed factor in?  For example, is Porky's Gen X (released in 1981) or Silent Generation (set in 1954)?

no idea if it is that kind of relevant, but booksmart is awesome and i hope it is that movie for that generation

Edited January 15 by Celery Man

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

2 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Silent Generation: Rebel Without A Cause

Boomers: American Graffiti

Generation X: Breakfast Club

Millennials: American Pie

Generation Z: Superbad

Generation Alpha: ?

 

So short-sighted of you to leave off @Armybrat's generation with this Buster Keaton classic:

[Jerry Callo 8,695]

5 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Too late.  Two hours into a thread like this and it becomes mention any movie not already mentioned.

[BurdineBandit 815]

Gen Z getting Superbad is like Barry Switzer celebrating a super bowl.  

Graduated 2006, and Superbad came out the next year. That shit was in non-stop rotation in our UT apartment for months. I'll also allow Napoleon Dynamite. 

Also appreciate the "younger" Gen X classics like Can't Harly Wait or She's All That, etc. 

Dazed & Confused is on another level though. Easily tops the list for me. 

 

 

[Guest]

Who gets The Outsiders and All the Right Moves?

[South Austin 52,435]

I love Dazed and Confused, but it’s an odd fit to be considered a Generation X film.

Gen X’ers (the real Greatest Generation) are largely considered to have been born in the 1965-1980 range. The film came out in 1993, when most of Generation X was out of high school (I was a sophomore in college). It was set in 1976, when the oldest of Generation X was 12-13, not quite in high school. So for the most part the viewing audience and the characters in the time setting of the film aren’t really Generation X.

My nerdy analysis, for what it’s worth.

[South Austin 52,435]

5 minutes ago, slorch said:

Who gets The Outsiders

See above analysis for why The Outsiders doesn’t fit.  A movie about 1960’s high-schoolers isn’t really Generation X in my humble yet correct opinion, even though it came out when a chunk of Gen X-ears were in high school.

[South Austin 52,435]

13 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

Too late.  Two hours into a thread like this and it becomes mention any movie not already mentioned.

Well then I love The English Patient!