GaryMrMets
08-08-2002, 03:33 PM
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool
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Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Paper: Our Coolest High School Flicks of All Time
by Kimberly Potts
Okay, so a lot has changed over the years. But for high schoolers, one thing remains constant: Those rascally kids are always struggling against something or other.
In the '50s, it was a fight against the grown-ups who hated that jungle music known as rock 'n' roll. In the '60s, it was against all that adult stuff like wars and bombs. And in the decades since, teens have largely been pitted against one another in the pursuit of high ranking on the social-status pole.
Happily, moviedom has faithfully reflected this slice of adolescent life, with classic tales of geek versus chic, brains versus brawn and the evergreen students versus faculty. Indeed, all you ever really needed to know in high school, you learned at the movies.
So, take a look at our cheat sheets on the 10 coolest clique flicks ever made. Maybe your favorite made the grade.
#10 Valley Girl (1983)
"She's cool. He's hot. She's from the Valley. He's not."
But are the Romeo and Juliet of Southern California destined to couple anyway? Fer sure, like, totally!
In Nicolas Cage's first leading role, he's Randy the Hollywood rocker, who crashes a preppy party and meets the total Val chick Julie (Deborah Foreman). Julie's just dumped Val dude Tommy, and she's lookin' for love. So, despite her friends' objections, she finds herself, like, smitten to the max with this punk hunk.
Part peer-pressure parable, part love story, this is basically a pretty cheesy flick with one overwhelmingly endearing quality: It's the film of record for documenting the brief yet storied history of the legendary pop-culture blip known as the "Valley Girl" (all due respect, of course, to Moon Unit Zappa and her anthem)--and a, like, totally tubular one at that.
I'm soooo sure.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/10hspics.gif
#9 Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
Gabba gabba...Hey! They're burning all the Ramones records!
Evil ***** Principal Togar (played by former Velvet Underground pal Mary Waronov) is adamant in her proclamation that there be "no more rock 'n' roll!" at Vince Lombardi High.
But that stomps the buzz of cool grrl Riff Randell (Carrie costar and ex-Mrs. Dennis Quaid, P.J. Soles), who likes nothing more than cranking up records over the loudspeaker and skipping school to camp out for Ramones concert tickets.
The cult classic, which started out as Disco High until director-writer Allan Arkush cast the punk-rockin' Ramones, features one of the quintessential teenybopper fantasies--a panty-clad Riff getting serenaded by her celebrity heartthrob, none other than Mr. Joey Ramone.
There's also a great concert sequence (which translates into a great soundtrack), but the film's apogee has to be the final scene, in which the Lombardi radicals stage a raucous revolution against Miss Togar and her Hitler-esque tactics to get them to pipe down. Hell hath no fury (or fire, in this instance) like a rock 'n' roll fanatic scorned!
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/9hspics.gif
#8 Dazed and Confused (1993)
When a weary teen has had enough of the big, bad world, he should hark back the following pithy words of encouragement:
"The older you get, the more rules they are going to try and get you to follow. You just gotta keep on livin', man, L-I-V-I-N!"
Okay, so spelling's not his forte, but Wooderson's (Matthew McConaughey) perpetually toked philosophy makes total sense to the gaggle of equally laced high schoolers who follow him around.
Director Richard Linklater's stoner Pied Piper is but one of the colorful, doobie-sparkin' savants cruising aimlessly in search of the next beer party while riffing nostalgic about random topics ranging from the intricacies behind Gilligan's Island to the hipness of Martha Washington.
Dazed succeeds as a harbinger of future stars (McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Renée Zellweger, Adam Goldberg, Jason London and Parker Posey all made appearances), and also paints a perfect portrait of high schoolers in 1976, who, in all their infinite (if stoned) wisdom, manage to convey the wise anti-stress message: Don't worry. Be hippie.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/8hspics.gif
#7 American Graffiti (1973)
Long before he was conjuring galaxies far, far away and creating irksome characters like Jar Jar, George Lucas was examining the middle-American teenage condition. It wasn't a pretty sight.
Bored small-town nights with nothing to do but cruise the same strip of road over and over again are hallmarks not only of Lucas' own adolescence but of his teen-angst opus known as American Graffiti.
The night before they're set to scoot off to college, buddies Kurt (Richard Dreyfus) and Steve (Ron Howard), and Steve's girlfriend/Kurt's sister Laurie (Cindy Williams), take one last nostalgic spin around their hometown.
Steve is anxious to leave both home and, at first, his girlfriend behind, while a frightened Kurt is toying with staying put instead of facing the unknown. Laurie is upset about losing both her beau and her bro.
Also out for a ride are Terry "The Toad" Fields, a dateless wonder suddenly in possession of hot wheels; Milner, an older hanger-on who drives around in a souped-up racer (think Fonzie sans the leather jacket); and cocky Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford), who's about to get knocked down a notch or two.
Lucas' much-heralded flick, which spawned a 1979 sequel with most of the original cast (including Ford), is a cohesive melding of coming-of-age tale, rebellion against small-town life and nostalgic, '60s period piece that proves not only is breaking up hard to do, growing up is hard to do, too.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/7hspics.gif
#6 My Bodyguard (1980)
Chris Makepeace (a prime "where is he now" candidate, if ever there was one) plays Cliff Peache, a physically underdeveloped kid who transfers from his upscale Chicago prep academy to a rough-and-tumble public high school.
A quick study, Cliff notes that his new school is ruled by a gang of low-rent ruffians--led by Moody (a young Matt Dillon)--who exhalt in extorting lunch money from their intimidated classmates. After suffering mega humilitation for refusing to capitulate, our hero does the only logical thing and employs a bodyguard to keep him not only safe but fed.
Thing is, there's more to silent giant Ricky Linderman (a wonderful Adam Baldwin) than bodyguarding and all those rampant rumors that he's shot a student, broken a teacher's leg and popped out a classmate's eyeball. A tragedy had befallen Linderman's little brother, so it's up to Cliff, Cliff's eccentric grandma (Ruth Gordon) and the morale boost of building his own motorcycle to drag Linderman back among the living.
The film, which notably marks the big-screen debuts of Joan Cusack and Jennifer Beals, is simple, sweet and more than a little mawkish (open the floodgates, baby), but even the improbable Rocky-like ending takes a backseat to how great it feels to see the good guys win.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/6hspics.gif
#5 Clueless (1995)
Cher Horowitz is rich, popular and, according to her litigator daddy, "the most beautiful girl in all of Beverly Hills." So, what's the problem?
Boredom. Cher's biggest woes (and, admittedly, the romp's only real plot) stem from entanglements that ensue when she tries to busy herself with rearranging the lives of everyone around her--like when she makes over her frumpy friend Tai, organizes a Pismo Beach Disaster Relief Team and plays matchmaker to a pair of lonely-heart teachers.
Sure, her motives are not always pure (she hopes the teacher tango will lead to good grades), but there are flashes of Cher's humanitarian self. Why else would she benevolently hand down last season's designer duds to Lucy the maid?
Directed by Fast Times at Ridgemont High's Amy Heckerling, Clueless takes Jane Austen's Emma and reworks it into 1990s high school. Gone are elegant prose and Elizabethan ensembles in this world of killer threads, booming soundtracks, cell phones and witty one-liners.
As with the novel's heroine, this seemingly spoiled, selfish brat turns out to be a do-gooder in snobby, rich girl's computer-chosen clothing.
Clueless? We think not.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/5hspics.gif
http://cache.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/schoolflicks.gif
Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Paper: Our Coolest High School Flicks of All Time
by Kimberly Potts
Okay, so a lot has changed over the years. But for high schoolers, one thing remains constant: Those rascally kids are always struggling against something or other.
In the '50s, it was a fight against the grown-ups who hated that jungle music known as rock 'n' roll. In the '60s, it was against all that adult stuff like wars and bombs. And in the decades since, teens have largely been pitted against one another in the pursuit of high ranking on the social-status pole.
Happily, moviedom has faithfully reflected this slice of adolescent life, with classic tales of geek versus chic, brains versus brawn and the evergreen students versus faculty. Indeed, all you ever really needed to know in high school, you learned at the movies.
So, take a look at our cheat sheets on the 10 coolest clique flicks ever made. Maybe your favorite made the grade.
#10 Valley Girl (1983)
"She's cool. He's hot. She's from the Valley. He's not."
But are the Romeo and Juliet of Southern California destined to couple anyway? Fer sure, like, totally!
In Nicolas Cage's first leading role, he's Randy the Hollywood rocker, who crashes a preppy party and meets the total Val chick Julie (Deborah Foreman). Julie's just dumped Val dude Tommy, and she's lookin' for love. So, despite her friends' objections, she finds herself, like, smitten to the max with this punk hunk.
Part peer-pressure parable, part love story, this is basically a pretty cheesy flick with one overwhelmingly endearing quality: It's the film of record for documenting the brief yet storied history of the legendary pop-culture blip known as the "Valley Girl" (all due respect, of course, to Moon Unit Zappa and her anthem)--and a, like, totally tubular one at that.
I'm soooo sure.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/10hspics.gif
#9 Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
Gabba gabba...Hey! They're burning all the Ramones records!
Evil ***** Principal Togar (played by former Velvet Underground pal Mary Waronov) is adamant in her proclamation that there be "no more rock 'n' roll!" at Vince Lombardi High.
But that stomps the buzz of cool grrl Riff Randell (Carrie costar and ex-Mrs. Dennis Quaid, P.J. Soles), who likes nothing more than cranking up records over the loudspeaker and skipping school to camp out for Ramones concert tickets.
The cult classic, which started out as Disco High until director-writer Allan Arkush cast the punk-rockin' Ramones, features one of the quintessential teenybopper fantasies--a panty-clad Riff getting serenaded by her celebrity heartthrob, none other than Mr. Joey Ramone.
There's also a great concert sequence (which translates into a great soundtrack), but the film's apogee has to be the final scene, in which the Lombardi radicals stage a raucous revolution against Miss Togar and her Hitler-esque tactics to get them to pipe down. Hell hath no fury (or fire, in this instance) like a rock 'n' roll fanatic scorned!
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/9hspics.gif
#8 Dazed and Confused (1993)
When a weary teen has had enough of the big, bad world, he should hark back the following pithy words of encouragement:
"The older you get, the more rules they are going to try and get you to follow. You just gotta keep on livin', man, L-I-V-I-N!"
Okay, so spelling's not his forte, but Wooderson's (Matthew McConaughey) perpetually toked philosophy makes total sense to the gaggle of equally laced high schoolers who follow him around.
Director Richard Linklater's stoner Pied Piper is but one of the colorful, doobie-sparkin' savants cruising aimlessly in search of the next beer party while riffing nostalgic about random topics ranging from the intricacies behind Gilligan's Island to the hipness of Martha Washington.
Dazed succeeds as a harbinger of future stars (McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Renée Zellweger, Adam Goldberg, Jason London and Parker Posey all made appearances), and also paints a perfect portrait of high schoolers in 1976, who, in all their infinite (if stoned) wisdom, manage to convey the wise anti-stress message: Don't worry. Be hippie.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/8hspics.gif
#7 American Graffiti (1973)
Long before he was conjuring galaxies far, far away and creating irksome characters like Jar Jar, George Lucas was examining the middle-American teenage condition. It wasn't a pretty sight.
Bored small-town nights with nothing to do but cruise the same strip of road over and over again are hallmarks not only of Lucas' own adolescence but of his teen-angst opus known as American Graffiti.
The night before they're set to scoot off to college, buddies Kurt (Richard Dreyfus) and Steve (Ron Howard), and Steve's girlfriend/Kurt's sister Laurie (Cindy Williams), take one last nostalgic spin around their hometown.
Steve is anxious to leave both home and, at first, his girlfriend behind, while a frightened Kurt is toying with staying put instead of facing the unknown. Laurie is upset about losing both her beau and her bro.
Also out for a ride are Terry "The Toad" Fields, a dateless wonder suddenly in possession of hot wheels; Milner, an older hanger-on who drives around in a souped-up racer (think Fonzie sans the leather jacket); and cocky Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford), who's about to get knocked down a notch or two.
Lucas' much-heralded flick, which spawned a 1979 sequel with most of the original cast (including Ford), is a cohesive melding of coming-of-age tale, rebellion against small-town life and nostalgic, '60s period piece that proves not only is breaking up hard to do, growing up is hard to do, too.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/7hspics.gif
#6 My Bodyguard (1980)
Chris Makepeace (a prime "where is he now" candidate, if ever there was one) plays Cliff Peache, a physically underdeveloped kid who transfers from his upscale Chicago prep academy to a rough-and-tumble public high school.
A quick study, Cliff notes that his new school is ruled by a gang of low-rent ruffians--led by Moody (a young Matt Dillon)--who exhalt in extorting lunch money from their intimidated classmates. After suffering mega humilitation for refusing to capitulate, our hero does the only logical thing and employs a bodyguard to keep him not only safe but fed.
Thing is, there's more to silent giant Ricky Linderman (a wonderful Adam Baldwin) than bodyguarding and all those rampant rumors that he's shot a student, broken a teacher's leg and popped out a classmate's eyeball. A tragedy had befallen Linderman's little brother, so it's up to Cliff, Cliff's eccentric grandma (Ruth Gordon) and the morale boost of building his own motorcycle to drag Linderman back among the living.
The film, which notably marks the big-screen debuts of Joan Cusack and Jennifer Beals, is simple, sweet and more than a little mawkish (open the floodgates, baby), but even the improbable Rocky-like ending takes a backseat to how great it feels to see the good guys win.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/6hspics.gif
#5 Clueless (1995)
Cher Horowitz is rich, popular and, according to her litigator daddy, "the most beautiful girl in all of Beverly Hills." So, what's the problem?
Boredom. Cher's biggest woes (and, admittedly, the romp's only real plot) stem from entanglements that ensue when she tries to busy herself with rearranging the lives of everyone around her--like when she makes over her frumpy friend Tai, organizes a Pismo Beach Disaster Relief Team and plays matchmaker to a pair of lonely-heart teachers.
Sure, her motives are not always pure (she hopes the teacher tango will lead to good grades), but there are flashes of Cher's humanitarian self. Why else would she benevolently hand down last season's designer duds to Lucy the maid?
Directed by Fast Times at Ridgemont High's Amy Heckerling, Clueless takes Jane Austen's Emma and reworks it into 1990s high school. Gone are elegant prose and Elizabethan ensembles in this world of killer threads, booming soundtracks, cell phones and witty one-liners.
As with the novel's heroine, this seemingly spoiled, selfish brat turns out to be a do-gooder in snobby, rich girl's computer-chosen clothing.
Clueless? We think not.
http://aol.eonline.com/Features/Topten/Highschool/Images/5hspics.gif