(no subject)
After watching Heathers, and my not being massively impressed by it*, J asked me what my top High School Movies would be. After poking google to find out what I've actually seen, because I've got a terrible memory, and coming up with a list of about twenty and realising I was only rearranging the bottom half, I came up with a pretty slid top ten.
1 Clueless - This is a film I will watch on tv even though we own it on DVD. It's basically flawless. Yay for Jane Austen.
2 Juno - Witty and smart and actually vaguely reflective of a real high school environment.
3 Easy A - I only saw this for the first time recently, and loved it. Self aware without being overwhelmingly meta.
4 Whip It - Yay roller derby. Yay a sports movie structure in a high school movie that's not about men Yay for cool women moving at high speeds.
5 Bring It On - I'm a total sucker for cheerleading movies. They're like musicals, but with less singing and more gymnastics.
6 Cruel Intentions - I love Dangerous Liaisons (movie - haven't read the book mea culpa) and this is a great evil high school movie. It's bitchy more than cynical, and revels in its cruelty.
7 Breakfast Club - Yay for bonding. Yay for musical numbers.
8 Romeo + Juliet - Everyone else in my class saw this at the cinema but I only became aware of it once they were talking about it in school, possible because it was a 12 and I wasn't. Di Caprio was the school crush of '97 (and I did see Titanic at the cinema despite being underage). Baz Luhrman knows how to pile it on.
9 10 Things I Hate About You - It's got a musical number and Heath Ledger. It makes Taming of the Shrew better.
10 Grease - It's so incredibly problematic, but the music is so incredibly catchy, and Rizzo is just awesome. "There are Worse Things I Could Do" is just brilliant.
I kind of love how Romeo and Juliet musical adaptations get progressively more cheerful, from West Side Story (they die), to Grease (they change for each other) to High School Musical (society changes to accept them).
Near misses, in no particular order, are: Mean Girls, Scream, Dirty Dancing, Save the Last Dance, American Graffiti, The Craft, Mona Lisa Smile, But I'm a Cheerleader, High School Musical, Ferris Bueller and the Buffy movie.
*Partly went in with too high expectations, partly went in with completely the wrong expectations. I was thinking a sort of 80s Cruel Intentions, not the deeply cynical film it actually is. Also partly because I started making dinner and missed the ending, where Veronica finally gains some agency.
1 Clueless - This is a film I will watch on tv even though we own it on DVD. It's basically flawless. Yay for Jane Austen.
2 Juno - Witty and smart and actually vaguely reflective of a real high school environment.
3 Easy A - I only saw this for the first time recently, and loved it. Self aware without being overwhelmingly meta.
4 Whip It - Yay roller derby. Yay a sports movie structure in a high school movie that's not about men Yay for cool women moving at high speeds.
5 Bring It On - I'm a total sucker for cheerleading movies. They're like musicals, but with less singing and more gymnastics.
6 Cruel Intentions - I love Dangerous Liaisons (movie - haven't read the book mea culpa) and this is a great evil high school movie. It's bitchy more than cynical, and revels in its cruelty.
7 Breakfast Club - Yay for bonding. Yay for musical numbers.
8 Romeo + Juliet - Everyone else in my class saw this at the cinema but I only became aware of it once they were talking about it in school, possible because it was a 12 and I wasn't. Di Caprio was the school crush of '97 (and I did see Titanic at the cinema despite being underage). Baz Luhrman knows how to pile it on.
9 10 Things I Hate About You - It's got a musical number and Heath Ledger. It makes Taming of the Shrew better.
10 Grease - It's so incredibly problematic, but the music is so incredibly catchy, and Rizzo is just awesome. "There are Worse Things I Could Do" is just brilliant.
I kind of love how Romeo and Juliet musical adaptations get progressively more cheerful, from West Side Story (they die), to Grease (they change for each other) to High School Musical (society changes to accept them).
Near misses, in no particular order, are: Mean Girls, Scream, Dirty Dancing, Save the Last Dance, American Graffiti, The Craft, Mona Lisa Smile, But I'm a Cheerleader, High School Musical, Ferris Bueller and the Buffy movie.
*Partly went in with too high expectations, partly went in with completely the wrong expectations. I was thinking a sort of 80s Cruel Intentions, not the deeply cynical film it actually is. Also partly because I started making dinner and missed the ending, where Veronica finally gains some agency.