High School Movies

High School Movie Review

Five high school movies graded on whether or not they accurately depict high school

Rae Zimmerli editor-in-chief

“Mean Girls” follows Cady Heron as she struggles to navigate moving to a new school. She initially befriends two outcasts. Cady then uses her new girl status to infiltrate the circle of popular girls to take them down on the outcasts’ behalf. The events that follow are grandiose and blown way out of proportion, however, that creates a more realistic high school feeling. For example, Cady once envisions that high school resembles a zoo and all of the girls are animals who are fighting each other. This scene reflects the ru

mors and drama that are present in high school and illustrates this in a comical way. The teenage stereotypes hit at just the right level as to not be offensive to teenage viewers and still be funny for all audiences. When things go wrong, it does feel like the end of the world in high school and “Mean Girls” can poke fun at that perception while still accurately representing what high school life looks and feels like.

Grade:

A

“High School Musical” follows star basketball player, Troy Bolton, and genius new student, Gabriella Montez as they fall in love with each other. Both of them are interested in playing the leads in the next school musical, but between Troy’s basketball practices and Gabriella’s Scholastic Decathlon meetings, they struggle to do both activities. Obviously, breaking into song during school doesn’t create a realistic high school atmosphere but the struggle to do more than one activity in

high school will hit close to home for many students. “High School Musical” also features a theatre teacher with an obsessive phone hatred, which goes to show that nothing much has changed in regards to phones in the classroom since 2006. While this movie may not perfectly represent the school environment, as children, it was still nice to believe that high school would be filled with singing, dancing and Zac Efron.

B+ Grade:

“To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” begins with junior Lara Jean Covey who’s in love with her older sister’s boyfriend, Josh. She writes a letter addressed to him professing her love but instead of mailing it to him, she places the letter in a box with four other letters, all which are other love letters addressed to old crushes. Through a series of unfortunate events, the letters find a way out of Lara Jean’s closet and into the hands of her crushes. She ends

19 a&e up pretending to date one of the boys, Peter Kavinsky, to cover up her crush on Josh. Ultimately, Lara Jean and Peter become a real couple. While this Netflix favorite is a phenomenal movie with an interesting plot, it looks at the world through rose-colored glasses. Overall, however, if viewers overlook this fairytale storyline, the actual high school environment is seemingly normal.

Grade:

B

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” stars Ferris Bueller himself as he embarks on the world’s wildest day playing hooky from school. He enlists his sick best friend who was already home and breaks his girlfriend out of school to accompany him as they see the sights of Chicago. Meanwhile, the principal goes to every length possible to expose Ferris’ shenanigans, even making a visit to his house at the end of the movie. Ferris’ day represents what many students wish their high school ex

perience could be. The reality is, even if students could find a way to ditch school they would not have the means to go on an adventure quite like that, purely based on the amount of money it must have cost. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is a romantic dream of what a day off of high school could be like and it is a phenomenal movie, but it is not even close to an accurate representation of high school and playing hooky.

Grade:

C+

“Tall Girl” details the life of Jodi Kreyman, a 6-foot-1 high school girl who sports men’s size 13 Nike shoes. Jodi begins the movie by admitting how uncomfortable she feels with her body, almost bragging about her life and struggles as if competing with other teens. This sour attitude continues throughout the movie as the uncreative plot unravels. The resident mean girl, Liz, and other students bully Jodi until a foreign exchange student, Stig Mohlin, expresses his interest in her.

Their relationship continues until Stig betrays Jodi because her height is considered unattractive and makes her unpopular. In a typical setting, such as BV West, most people wouldn’t take a second glance at the girl with abnormally large feet. Overall, it does not represent the high school experience because, realistically, not many BV West teens are shunned due to their height or swept off their big feet by a Swedish exchange student. F Grade: