High School- Minus the Musical

Stuffed full of highly over-romanticized tropes, though incredibly entertaining, this movie is nowhere near realistic. For starters, big romantic gestures such as Patrick’s promposal aren’t just uncommon, they’re completely impossible to stumble upon in high school. Not to mention, fights are rare, and never look like they do on screen. The one thing this movie got right? The skeevy ulterior ...

While it does capture the extremely awkward and uneasy feelings that accompany being a teenager, it doesn’t exactly understand that most people in their twenties have better things to do than take care of high school freshmen. Also, aside from Halloween, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a “themed party” being thrown? Points for trying!

Deemed “the modern Superbad,” this film does a great job of satirizing the more hellish aspects of high school. It perfectly captures the more annoying aspects of each club and clique, and offers an extremely talented and diverse cast. The downside? Oh, just the prestigious colleges absolutely everybody gets into with minimal effort. Also, what kind of teacher attends a high school party?...

One of the most authentic high school films that still manages to miss the actual idea of high school completely, it displays genuine feelings mixed with totally not relatable experiences. For example, while Brian’s being overwhelmed is something shared by most high school students, I’m not sure anybody has actually been scheduled for a Saturday detention, much less one with hardly any supervision...

Possibly the least realistic movie on this list, “Carrie” somehow managed to make a movie about high school that got nothing right. Of course, being a movie about supernatural powers it’s bound to have fantastical elements, but there’s so much that’s just off. For instance, nobody cares that much about prom queen or periods, and neither would result in public harassment....

Ugh, as if this movie would be possible to live up to! Makeover montages are (unfortunately) not an actual day-to-day occurrence and most students try their best not to meddle in teachers’ love lives. However, “Clueless” did an immaculate job of portraying one of high school’s most relatable truths- nobody can drive, and highways are terrifying.

An extremely underrated and accurate display of the vulnerabilities and insecurities that are practically essentials for any high schooler, this movie gets (most) things right. Tension with friends and family, and (gently) forcing teachers to fill in for absentee fathers are relatable experiences. What isn’t relatable and also highly illegal is rolling up to your teacher’s house in the middle o...

A fact of life: parents are always obsessed with the youngest child, and Hughes does a great job of emphasizing that in this lighthearted and upbeat film. However, no school cares enough about truancy to investigate your house and follow you around the big city of Chicago. Also, is there a single student in the school that absolutely everybody gets along with? Probably not....

I understand that this movie is satire, and it’s brilliant in that way, but that doesn’t mean it’s realistic. I mean, I hope that if somebody were to fire a gun in the cafeteria they would get more than detention, and I hope that if there were a spree of suicides the school would do more than lightly address it, but who knows? At least this movie did a good job of portraying the insane intern...

Single-handedly responsible for creating unfairly high expectations for high schoolers everywhere, the only accurate detail of this movie is the emphasis put on high school sports by administration. The singing, school spirit, and strict cliques are but a figment of Ortega’s imagination. And the biggest lie? That any school play would ever have an audience of more than 75 people....

Aside from suffering from “everybody-gets-into-prestigious-college-itis,” Gerwig actually managed to portray high school in a semi-realistic manner. There’s always the awkward and stubborn student that obsesses over their future and sticks out like a sore thumb, and that student is almost always convinced that they are the most talented actor to have ever existed. Also, high schoolers are preten...

The only accurate detail included in this movie is that students would absolutely sacrifice themselves for a vending machine. The detentions filled with life-changing friendships are nowhere to be seen at Liberty, and it’s even less likely to find a high school band that students legitimately care about. Also, nobody actually enjoys hearing people sing in class.

Though iconic and quotable, this movie instills a fear of bullying that most students will never have to worry about. Not only that, but it suffers from the same concept of these uber-defined cliques as “High School Musical” and “The Breakfast Club.” However, the comedically insufficient sex ed and weirdly ambitious superiority complex that overtakes most juniors is absolutely spot on....