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Goofy, caricature-led, stoner comedies and rom-com reworkings of classic literature… We know what to expect from movies set in schools. There’ll be a prom, a herd of cheerleaders, scenes set in cafeterias, detention and in the gymnasium, as well as at least one and possibly several song-and-dance sequences.
These movies aren’t that. They’re not Grease or High School Musical or The Breakfast Club or even Clueless, Carrie, Easy A, Mean Girls, Dead Poets Society, or School of Rock. They’re not 10 Things I Hate About You or the Harry Potter franchise. Solid as all those films are, they’re the popular gang in the school movie genre. The picks below are the misfits, a weird crew of excellent school-set pictures that don’t quite fit in.
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
In many ways, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School is the ultimate time capsule movie. It not only heavily features the music of the Ramones; the members of the band appear in the film in surprisingly substantial roles. You could almost consider it a precursor to the movie-like music videos that would soon dominate MTV and change culture.
Yet, there is also a kind of timelessness to this film. Its over-the-top narrative about youths in revolt against comically conservative authority figures plays like a fable that will awaken something inside anyone who used phrases like “the system” and desired to destroy it. Unlike so many other jukebox musicals, it not only had its finger on the pulse of the culture of its time but based its narrative around its music and vice-versa. High School Musical could never. – Matthew Byrd
F (2010)
This “hoodie horror” from writer/director Johannes Roberts taps into the absolute terror of being a teacher in the 21st century. David Schofield plays Anderson, a paranoid, washed-up teacher whose marriage has broken down after an enforced suspension from work when parents threaten to sue him for giving a pupil an F. Stuck in the school after hours, Anderson, several other teachers, and kids in detention are terrorized by faceless youths in hoods. F is a film that perfectly captures the anxiety around violent youth at the time, without getting bogged down in complicated motivations of back stories for the attackers – it’s all the more scary for it. – Rosie Fletcher
Brick (2005)
Before he attempted to save Star Wars from itself, and then settled for just making the most delightful whodunit murder mysteries of the last decade, writer-director Rian Johnson made a name for himself with this out of nowhere Sundance darling. A hardboiled-to-the-core neo-noir, the dark humor of Johnson’s breakout film comes from the fact that it plays it completely straight.
A high school loner named Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is compelled to investigate the disappearance of a lost friend named Emily (Emelie de Ravin). What he uncovers is a vast conspiracy that goes straight to the top. Complete with every trope of noir—the tragic past, the cynical outlook, the femme fatale, and duplicitous informant– Brick is both classical and contemporary, and the intensity of its rushes of violence and style definitely made Johnson one to watch. – David Crow
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019)
There are no locker-lined corridors or cheerleaders in this school, just a bare classroom containing, as the title promises, a large yak. ‘Norbu’ is the beast inherited by young teacher Ugyen (Sherab Dorji), a reluctant recruit to this Bhutanese mountain village. Lunana is the last place that Ugyen wants to be; he’s a city mouse who dreams of pop stardom but who’s been forced into spending a year teaching the children of this remote community.
A simple premise told well, the story of Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom goes just as you’d expect. Gradually, Ugyen learns to shed his selfish city ways, and to appreciate the bonds of community, nature and service. If that sounds trite or dull, it isn’t. Instead, it’s gentle, meaningful, charming, and surprisingly easy to relate to despite the geographical and cultural distances traveled. Nominated for Best International Feature at the 2022 Academy Awards, writer-director Pawo Choyning Dorji has crafted a gentle but powerful film about purpose and the consolations of art, set in an extraordinary location. – Louisa Mellor
The Fallout (2021)
School movies dramatize things that every student experiences: disinterested teachers, unsympathetic peers, and out-of-control hormones. As much as some people would prefer to ignore it, Americans must add school shooters to that list. And few films grapple with that reality better than The Fallout.
The Fallout stars Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler as Vada and Mia, two teens who survive a school shooting. The two formerly traveled in different peer circles, but after the shooting, Vada finds comfort in Mia’s rich house, often left unattended because of her absent parents, rather than engage with her well-meaning mother and father (Julie Bowen and John Ortiz). The feature debut of writer/director Megan Park, The Fallout went straight to streaming on Max, which means that too many people missed this powerful and urgent high school film. – Joe George
Do Revenge (2022)
The fact that Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s Do Revenge has yet to hit the cult status of Clueless and Mean Girls is honestly a travesty. The film’s hyper-stylized pastel uniforms of the elite Rosehill Country Day School would make Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) proud, and its dialogue is as quotable and meme-worthy as the Plastics’. Not only does Sophie Turner give one of the best line readings in recent film history swearing up and down that she has never done cocaine, but Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke play off each other so well that the movie’s big twist ending comes as a true surprise. Do Revenge is unsurprisingly a great revenge story, but more than that, it doesn’t care about making its protagonists likable. Drea (Mendes) and Eleanor (Hawke) are unapologetically themselves and that’s what makes it so easy to root for them. – Brynna Arens
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Zoë Heller’s 2003 psychological thriller novel is a twisted little beauty, and this 2006 film adaptation does it total justice. Much of that is achieved by the casting: Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett play Barbara and Sheba, teachers at the same London comprehensive school. When bohemian Sheba abuses her power by having an illegal sexual relationship with an underage pupil, obsessive Barbara finds the power she has over Sheba intoxicating. Nasty, layered and brutal, Richard Eyre’s film is driven by two excellent lead performances, both of which were rewarded by Academy Award nominations. Add to that a screenplay from playwright Patrick Mawber (Closer) and an original score by Philip Glass, and this is a classy, sophisticated nightmare. LM
Eighth Grade (2018)
Not an actual horror, but if you’re the parent of a 13-year-old girl it no doubt plays like one. Directed by comedian Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade is an incredibly poignant and sensitive story of shy eighth grader Kayla (Elsie Fisher) who is about to graduate and go to high school. She’s a good kid, with an unsuccessful YouTube account, who is befriended by a high schooler introducing her to the glamor but also perils of growing up. Nothing truly terrible happens to Kayla, instead the film showcases beautifully the intense anxiety and pain of being on the cusp of adolescence. – RF
The Faculty (1998)
High school and horror go together like teens and acne. Movies like The Blob and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein love to pit know-it-all adolescents against grown-ups who don’t realize the level of the threat. So as much as The Faculty oozes late-’90s cool, it has a classic pedigree.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Kevin Williamson, The Faculty has an irresistible premise, in which high schoolers discover that their teachers are aliens who came to conquer the Earth. To save the world, the teens must destroy their teachers, fulfilling every student’s dream. With a cast that includes Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett (with his doofy ‘90s hair, far from the handsome guy we just saw in Trap) as the teens and Jon Stewart, Robert Patrick, and Famke Janssen as the teachers, The Faculty is a delightful anti-school romp. Joe George
The Teacher’s Lounge (2023)
Ilker Çatak’s ultra-tense drama makes excellent use of the school-as-society premise to deliver an uncomfortable but captivating look at suspicion, group-think and prejudice. When new math teacher Carla objects to her students’ bags being searched for stolen money, division lines are drawn. Then when Carla makes a secret video recording that appears to capture the real thief, accusations fly, and the scheiße really hits the fan. This German-language film is an unsettling reminder of how quickly communities close ranks against outsiders, and how rumors can destroy lives. The Crown and Babylon Berlin’s Leonie Benesch makes a brilliant lead, with some stand-out performances from her young co-stars. – LM
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
1980’s Prom Night is a serviceable but largely forgettable relic of an era when the slasher genre was still being figured out. Prom Night 2 is not just a vastly superior sequel; it’s one of the most underrated horror movies of the 1980s. There are visual sequences in this film that give Nightmare on Elm Street and Poltergeist a run for their money, and its Carrie-like female-focused narrative is a refreshing change of pace compared to other late ‘80s slashers.
But it’s the high school elements of the movie that elevate it. High school isn’t just a setting here as it is in some lesser horror movies. There is a genuineness to the film’s observations about the terrors of that social environment for the average teenage girl that pairs shockingly well with the movie’s more delightfully trashy elements. There is even a surprising conversation about abortion that feels remarkably ahead of its time. – MB
The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
A bit overlooked when it came out during a surplus of coming of age movies in the mid-2010s, Kelly Fremon Craig’s The Edge of Seventeen remains one of the most funny and poignant teen movies to be released in the last decade. Like many high school-set films, Seventeen is an awkward adolescent tale told from the POV of a kid having a particularly awkward time. Suffering real-world tragedy too early in life which seriously exacerbated the universal anxieties and hangups every American kid goes through, Hailee Steinfeld’s Nadine has depth. What might be another film’s cliché becomes a poignant lived experience here.
She is also wryly hilarious to watch. With an acerbic, yet authentically youthful, script by Craig, Seventeen finds a fresh way to detail growing up and feeling isolated—particularly when your BFF (Haley Lu Richardson) starts dating your way cooler and more popular older brother (Blake Jenner). There’s a candidness to Nadine’s frustration as well as her wit, especially when Steinfeld spars with “the cool teacher” played by Woody Harrelson. – DC
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
Maggie Smith won an Oscar for her role in this wonderful adaptation of Muriel Spark’s book, which sees wayward teacher Jean Brodie influence and manipulate young girls at a Scottish school. The so-called “Brodie set” are four teenage girls that Brodie favors, taking them to galleries and museums, and teaching them about art, culture and politics in a way that infuriates the school’s headmistress. Engaging in affairs with some of the other teachers, Brodie encourages her girls to do the same, but when her political leanings result in a death, things fall apart. Delicate, sinister and quotable with a powerhouse central performance. – RF
Gregory’s Girl (1980)
Hardly underrated, Gregory’s Girl is rightly considered a modern British classic but we’re including it here on the off-chance that it hasn’t been recommended enough lately. In short: it’s lovely. A low-stakes, fresh-faced, totally endearing 90-minute snapshot of teenage innocence, filled with awkwardness that’s charming instead of soul-destroying (unlike some on this list. Eighth Grade, see me after class). Written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring a young John Gordon Sinclair and a young Claire Grogan (just as her post-punk group Altered Images were taking off), it’s a simple, Glasgow-set story about a football team, a boy, and a multi-level date masterminded by teenage girls: “It’s just the way girls work. They help each other.” Preach. – LM
Three O’Clock High (1987)
Three O’Clock High is a high school-themed reimaging of High Noon with cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld and a Tangerine Dream soundtrack. While it is generally as fantastic as that description hopefully makes it sound, there’s so much more to this story of a kid facing the fear of an after-school fight than a mere tribute to one of the greatest Westerns ever made.
Three O’Clock High examines the fragile social structure of the high school experience that is often the cause of many fights. It recognizes the terror of genuinely believing that violence could erupt at any moment because…well, you’re surrounded by hormonal and emotionally underdeveloped teens, and it probably could. Rather than simply give us another Gary Cooper, though, it focuses on all the things you would probably do to get out of a fight you never wanted to be a part of in the first place. In its ending, we even find a touch of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance which leaves us to both romanticize and critique the creation of the high school hero. – MB
Être et Avoir/To Be and To Have (2002)
Few expected this simple documentary about a French village school to find as wide an audience or as much acclaim as it did – not least its ‘star’, teacher Monsieur Lopez, who unsuccessfully attempted to sue the production for a profit share following its success. Push that dirty laundry out of your mind, and it remains among the most charming school-set films ever made. Documentarian Nicholas Philibert and his team filmed a year in the life of the one-teacher school in the tiny French commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson. The children, of various ages all taught in the same class, are absolute scene-stealers and Mr. Lopez gently guides them with patience, wisdom and humor. This is the film to show anybody going into the teaching profession (if you want to encourage them, that is. If you want to put them off, there’s plenty on this list to choose from). LM
Bottoms (2023)
Going to great lengths to impress a crush isn’t necessarily a new premise for a school-set movie, but Bottoms might be the only one that sees its queer lead characters set up an entire fight club at their school disguised as a self-defense class to get closer to their crushes. Not only is Bottoms a unique take on a coming-of-age female empowerment story, it is also hilarious. The entire cast is phenomenal, but Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz, Rachel Sennott, and Nicholas Galitzine especially have impeccable comedic timing. Bottoms is one of those movies where it feels impossible to convey the true depths of its vibes and tone to someone who hasn’t seen it. I mean how else do you describe watching a group of girls attach a bomb to one of their ex’s cars while “Total Eclipse of the Heart” plays in the background, or watching them brutally murder a rival football team that’s trying to poison their school’s star jock other than a playfully unhinged must-watch? – BA
The Hunt (2012)
Like the rest of director Thomas Vinterberg’s films, The Hunt (Danish title: Jagten) is an extremely uncomfortable but extremely worthwhile watch. It’s the story of Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a primary school teacher accused of an act of child sexual abuse by a young pupil. As the accusation bleeds through his small Danish community, Lucas is ostracized and attacked before the truth can be established. Mikkelsen gives an exposing and powerful performance as the man at the center of the storm, and was rewarded for it with multiple awards nominations. The film, too, received a nod for best foreign-language film of the year. Difficult but truthful. – LM
Booksmart (2019)
The night before their high school graduation, lifelong best friends and chronic overachievers Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) decide to finally let loose for the first time in their high school careers and set off to attend a party hosted by Molly’s crush, Nick (Mason Gooding). The thing is, they weren’t exactly formally invited to the party, nor were they given the address. Thus a hilarious night-long journey ensues of the pair using social media and their classmates to try and find the party, hopping from party to party and learning a lot about themselves and who they want to be in the process. Say what you want to about Olivia Wilde as a director, but there’s no doubt in my mind that she knew what she was doing with Booksmart. BA
Rushmore (1998)
While a definite touchstone for anyone who was young (or young at heart) in 1998, Wes Anderson’s second feature film has seemingly fallen a bit under the radar due to the filmmaker’s subsequent triumphs, including The Royal Tenenbaums which released three years later. Still, there are those of us who consider Rushmore among Anderson’s finest films, particularly because it’s so scathingly satirical while nonetheless being semi-autobiographical.
Rushmore might appear to be a heightened fantasy version of Anderson’s youth, with Jason Schwartzman’s Max Fischer as an aggressively precocious teen who is mounting full-fledged Vietnam War spectacles in his high school auditorium. But the devil, and Anderson’s talents, are in the details. And within his worlds within worlds of symmetrical lines, Max might very well be Lucifer incarnate to the industrialist neighbor (Bill Murray) who made the mistake of befriending the high school prodigy… and then starting to date the teacher (Olivia Williams) Max is crushing on. The war between youth and age, talent and wisdom, might just burn the whole place down. – DC
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