Cooler temperatures, falling leaves, and the scent of pumpkin spice in the air herald the arrival of fall, which also brings with it the end of summer vacations and the anticipated/dreaded return to school for kids of all ages everywhere. In celebration of (or commiseration for) that fact, there is a huge range of schoolyard films perfect to embrace and enjoy while tackling homework assignments and waiting between classes, with these 25 the best to get kids through the schoolyard blues or come to terms with them.
Ranging from uplifting tales of academic brilliance and determination to eye-opening dramas, touching odes to teachers, and even goofy comedies that satisfy yearnings for the glory days, these back-to-school and first-day-of-school movies offer a holistic and universal embodying of the school experience. Teenage angst, educational pressures, family squabbles, and laughs and tears aplenty abound in these films that are not only enjoyable, but somewhat enlightening as well.
28 ‘Kindergarten Cop’ (1990)
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Is it a ridiculous, outdated, and awkward movie that has trouble juggling its action, comedy, crime, and romantic sensitivities? Of course it is, but Kindergarten Cop finds plenty of enjoyment within its unruly framework, largely thanks to a great comedic performance from Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Ivan Reitman film sees a tough and hardened cop begin working undercover as a kindergarten teacher in order to bust an at-large drug dealer obsessed with his ex-wife and young son. As the cop works the case, he also finds himself falling in love with one of the teachers.
For all its narrative pitfalls, Kindergarten Cop has a soft and mushy heart and an uncanny ability to entertain, even as the story takes some pretty absurd turns. It may not celebrate the wonder years of childhood effervescence and the schooling experience like many of the other best back-to-school movies, but it does occupy the setting with the right balance of chaotic fun and sentimental warmth to be of some value for those seeking some levity as they brave the return to the classroom.
27 ‘October Sky’ (1999)
Directed by Joe Johnston
A fascinating story of education, ambition, and passion that is made all the more powerful by the fact it is a true story, October Sky is a wonderful documentation of the early life of Homer H. Hickam Jr. (Jake Gyllenhaal), who would go on to become a NASA engineer. Based on Hickam Jr.’s 1998 memoir, the film explores his infatuation for rocket science following the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957. While his father disapproves of his newfound hobby, Homer continues to pursue rocketry with support from some of his friends and the school’s science teacher, Miss Riley (Laura Dern).
It is intriguing to see the obstacles that Hickam Jr. and his friends had to overcome, including schoolyard bullying and family pressures, but also union strikes and accusations from local authorities that they were responsible for starting a forest fire. It’s a fantastic inspirational tale that just goes to show how important it is to encourage an interest in sciences from an early age; you never know what might develop from it.
26 ‘Sixteen Candles’ (1984)
Directed by John Hughes
The directorial debut of John Hughes – the master of schoolkid drama – Sixteen Candles could well be the quintessential coming-of-age comedy. It tracks 16-year-old Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) as she struggles to enjoy her most important birthday, considering her family is more interested in her older sister’s wedding. Further compounding her angst, she frets about being good enough for her crush, a popular senior, while finding her sole admirer in the form of a nerdy classmate.
As a true product of the 80s, Sixteen Candles has some qualities that haven’t aged quite as gracefully as many may hope, but its core story of teenage anxiety, self-doubt, isolation, and an unlikely romance all conspire to ensure the film remains a rewarding viewing experience at large. Coming to a brilliant conclusion of how the best thing that can happen to someone can sometimes be the last thing they would have expected, Sixteen Candles embraces the highs and lows of high school as a holistic, formative experience everyone must learn to both endure and enjoy.
25 ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’ (2015)
Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Human connection is a defining pillar of movies that deal with schoolyard stresses and teenage angst. Often it is the case that the more unlikely the bond is, the more powerful the relationship will end up being. That is completely true of 2015’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which follows a socially awkward boy who spends most of his time making short film parodies with his one best friend as his mother forces him to befriend a classmate suffering from leukemia. With his aversion to deep human relationships shattered by Rachel (Olivia Cooke), Greg (Thomas Mann) finds himself enthralled by this newfound friendship.
The film is made distinct by its eccentricities, including fourth-wall breaks and striking moments of dark comedy, while still thriving as an understated tale of friendship amid tragedy. Greg’s initial lack of empathy and his journey to prioritize his feelings as well as his ambitions is beautifully realized, even if it does mean all the supporting characters are merely there to serve his evolution. Due in part to its realistic though bittersweet ending–the title is not misleading–Me and Earl and the Dying Girl easily earns a spot among the best high school movies ever made.
24 ‘Fame’ (1980)
Directed by Alan Parker
The arts are seldom represented in coming-of-age, high school movies, but 1980’s Fame places the disciplines of music, acting, and dance at center stage while still exploring the complexities and hardships of education and teenage life. It follows four teenagers at the New York High School of Performing Arts through their auditions to get into the institute right through to their senior year. While striving to excel in their fiercely competitive fields, the students also grapple with serious personal issues, relationship woes, and their education.
Academic studies are certainly important throughout the film, but it’s the artistic growth and development of each of the main characters that makes Fame an engaging experience. It’s hard to believe the movie, which clocks in at only 134 minutes, manages to track so many disparate rises and falls while intermingling their personal lives and dealing with some seriously heavy themes. With some help from its rousing and iconic soundtrack and tight direction from Alan Parker, Fame goes to show it takes a lot of hard work to be a star.
23 ‘Monsters University’ (2013)
Directed by Dan Scanlon
There are so many school movies about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll; about the overwhelming angst, anxiety, dread, and social pressures that come with being a teenager who wants to fit with their peers. Something of a palate cleanser in the context of modern cinema’s eagerness to view students as broken, lost, and wounded people, Monster’s University thrives as a tale of friendship and ambition that welcomes kids and adults alike back to the wonderful world of Monster’s, Inc. by running as a prequel.
It follows a young and dreamy-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) as he sets off to university to learn how to become one of the scariest monsters alive. While he initially clashes with his roommate, natural scarer Sully (John Goodman), the two monsters gradually develop a friendship and must set right the wrongs caused by their rivalry with the help of some of other misfit rejects of the university. It’s definitely not a conventional college film, but it’s got enough of the familiar elements that are painted in a monstrous veneer, making Monsters Universitya uniquely enjoyable movie about school and friendship.
22 ‘Animal House’ (1978)
Directed by John Landis
It goes without saying that Animal House is probably among the first films that come to mind when thinking about college movies, and with good reason. The 1978 comedy classic directed by John Landis and starring such notable names as John Belushi, Kevin Bacon, Tom Hulce, Tim Matheson, Donald Sutherland, and Karen Allen would be imitated and paid homage to for decades to come. It’s arguably the quintessential college gross-out movie and, for better or worse, came to define the common notion of the phrase “frat party”.
Selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2001, it is a movie that bears a certain cultural relevance and staying power with its unusual tale of hard partying and persecution. It’s a rowdy and rude rampage of anti-authoritarian angst that is outrageously funny, frightfully vulgar, and yet also strangely subversive. Its legacy can’t be denied, still standing tall as an emphatic middle finger to the powers that be, one that demands the youth have the right to be reckless, revolting, and wrong on every level.
21 ‘Back to School’ (1986)
Directed by Alan Metter
Here’s a film that gets just about as much respect as its lead character. Back to School was a 1986 comedy starring Rodney Dangerfield as Thornton Melon, a self-made and successful yet uneducated businessman who enrolls in college alongside his dejected son Jason (Keith Gordon) in order to keep him in school. Far from being a tale about how hard work can get you through even the most imposing obstacles, Thornton buys his admission into the school and parties his way through all of his classes while romancing a literature professor and drawing the ire of other faculty members.
Rodney Dangerfield is, unsurprisingly, an electric comedy presence throughout the story of rekindled adolescence, but the film also finds some narrative depth to keep things engaging between the gags and goofs. Its underlying thematic point that money can’t buy everything has only grown more pointed over the years, while the film’s comedic sense has aged admirably as well. As a fun tidbit of trivia, it also contains Robert Downey Jr. in one of his earliest film roles.
20 ‘Old School’ (2003)
Directed by Todd Phillips
Here it is, the modern fraternity classic that rejuvenated interest in the sub-genre 25 years after Animal House set the bar. Old School is director Todd Phillips’ sophomore film following the road trip comedy … er, Road Trip. It brings together the strong and established comedy talents of Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson in order to set them in opposition against Dean Gordon Pritchard (Jeremy Piven), a.k.a. Cheese.
Old School differed from college films that came before it in that the central trio was actually a group of 30-somethings who decided to found a fraternity in order to keep their party house, which has been designated as campus housing. A wild ride of booze, boobs, and Blue (You’re my boy!) follows as the immature adults act as mentors for a group of college students going through the new fraternity’s initiation process. However, like similar films that came before it, the fraternity must pass a number of academic and athletic tests in order to retain its charter and defeat the evil dean. For what it’s worth, there are few films that capture the nostalgic yearning many adults feel towards their school days quite like Old School.
19 ‘Higher Learning’ (1995)
Directed by John Singleton
Following films like Boyz n the Hood and Poetic Justice, John Singleton brought his eye for scintillating drama and issues of race in America to the schoolyard with his 1995 drama Higher Learning. It follows three distinctly different freshmen students from diverse backgrounds who are forced to endure traumatic and unpleasant experiences during their first year at college. Star track athlete Malik (Omar Epps) faces racial abuse, the wide-eyed Kristen (Kristy Swanson) has her innocence shattered, and the awkward Remy (Michael Rapaport) finds acceptance in a neo-Nazi gang.
A far cry from the other comedy college flicks that define schoolyard cinema, Higher Learning makes an attempt to tackle the most serious issues befalling modern-day youths in unflinching detail. The cauldron of the college campus proves to be a pressure cooker of social rage and racial tensions that lurches towards a violent tragedy. The final few scenes in this movie make one hell of an impression, but it’s sadly one that continues to play out in real life and across news channels more than 20 years later.
18 ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus’ (1995)
Directed by Stephen Herek
It’s not only students who feel the grinding weight of school crushing their dreams one year at a time, a lot of teachers also struggle to realize their grand aspirations as they lose time to their day jobs. Mr. Holland’s Opus is a terrific testament to exactly this, with the film following an aspiring music composer who agrees to teach at a high school and finds his temporary placement turning into a career spanning decades. While frustrated at first, he soon settles into the role even as his unusual methods stir the ire of the principal, though he never truly realizes how great an impact he has on those he mentors.
It’s a wonderful ode to teachers all over the world, ones who invest in their students and aspire to make the classroom a genuinely engaging and riveting place that welcomes and feeds the interests of children. It also covers the unfortunate reality of how the arts are often the most vulnerable course when the budget gets tight. Ending in a somewhat bittersweet yet emotionally rousing and triumphant fashion, Mr. Holland’s Opus is a tear-jerking celebration of the impact great teachers can have, and a lovely reminder to never take their hard work for granted.
17 ‘Stand and Deliver’ (1998)
Directed by Ramón Menéndez
Perhaps the greatest adaptation of a real-life inspirational figure from the world of academia, writer/director Ramón Menéndez‘s 1988 film Stand and Deliver is tragically overlooked, except by folks researching the movie’s reference in an episode of South Park. No matter what you think of Cartman’s impression of high school math teacher Jaime Escalante, actor Edward James Olmos earned himself an Oscar nomination for his performance of the role.
The late Escalante was a math teacher at James A. Garfield High School in Eastern Los Angeles, a school populated by Hispanic students from working-class families who had a reputation for poor academic performance and social difficulties. Despite these challenges, Escalante plans to have his class take (and pass) the AP Calculus exam by their senior year. While fellow faculty members, classmates, and even their family members doubt the students’ abilities, Escalante has faith in his class’s “ganas”, or desire/motivation. As frustrating as it is at times, this movie remains one of the truest and most inspiring stories in cinematic history, and easily one of the best school-related films ever. Órale!
Stand and Deliver
- Release Date
- March 11, 1998
- Run Time
- 1 hr 42 min
- Actors
- Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, Rosanna DeSoto, Andy García
16 ’17 Again’ (2009)
Directed by Burr Steers
There is no shortage of people who, for one reason or another, found the greatest times of their lives in high school and spend much of the rest of their lives living in yearning for such times again. 17 Again sees that nostalgic fantasy become a reality for Mike O’Donnell (Matthew Perry), once a basketball star at high school who, twenty years later, finds his life has stagnated. However, he finds a new lease on life when he wakes up as his 17-year-old self (Zac Efron), but his initial desire to recapture his youth subsides when he finds a new opportunity to connect with his teenage kids under the guise of being their friend.
Efron chews the scenery as a middle-aged deadbeat finally learning his priorities while occupying a teenager’s body, milking the comedic moments for all they’re worth. But 17 Again truly finds its soul as a touching and complicated tale of self-discovery, family drama, and teenage effervescence. It relishes the fact that one’s high school years are some of the most formative they’ll experience, and using the time-jump premise to explore this two-fold paints an interesting tale of regret and maturity, even if a flawed one.
15 ‘Billy Madison’ (1995)
Directed by Tamra Davis
Billy Madison deserves to be on this list simply because of the sheer amount of times the titular character has to go back to school throughout the film. In fact, he even has a great little song about it. The film sees Adam Sandler play a good-for-nothing 27-year-old living happily off his father’s wealth when he is forced to re-attend grades 1 through 12 in 24 weeks and graduate in order to remain eligible to inherit his father’s fortune. As he progresses through school, he finds himself growing attracted to one of the teachers.
A benchmark film about grown-ups returning to school to live the joyous life of a child anew, Billy Madison is comfortable embracing its inherent stupidity to produce plenty of dumb fun. It helped secure Sandler his stardom, with his man-child persona balancing lovable goofiness, a boiling rage, and an underlying heart of gold to make for a surprisingly likable lead character who is easy to cheer for.
14 ‘School of Rock’ (2005)
Directed by Richard Linklater
Despite the fact that he wasn’t actually a qualified teacher, there are few movie teachers anyone would rather have taking their class than Jack Black‘s Dewey Finn. The struggling rock-and-roll musician with a roguish predisposition to authority finds himself in charge of a class of fourth-graders when he takes his housemate’s position as a substitute teacher to make some quick money. With no idea how to or what to teach the students, he takes to forming a rock ‘n’ roll band with them instead.
School of Rock is undeniably ridiculous and, hopefully, quite impractical as a premise, but it is also a fun-filled dose of schoolyard excitement that, perhaps only semi-consciously, highlights how so many classrooms need to incorporate more enjoyment to maximize the potential of children. It is vibrant, delightfully offbeat, and infectiously engaging, to be one of the most fun school movies ever made.
13 ‘Rushmore’ (1998)
Directed by Wes Anderson
A film of striking unconventionality imbued and strengthened by Wes Anderson‘s unique visual quirks, Rushmore is certainly one of the most bizarre and outrageous school movies ever made. Starring Jason Schwartzman in his debut performance, it follows eccentric teenager Max Fischer who excels at every extracurricular activity yet struggles academically as he finds his friendship with wealthy industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray) strained when they both vie to win the affection of elementary school teacher Ms. Cross (Olivia Williams).
It is undeniably offbeat, but it excels at finding a peculiar resonance within its ridiculous tale of love triangles and teenage rebellion. Max is made particularly intriguing as a capable, talented, and hard-working student who experiences a certain malaise and aimlessness, one that only intensifies after his heartbreak. Rushmore also ushered in a new wave of independent films for Bill Murray, seeing the actor’s career begin a new phase of enticing drama undercut with acidic comedic bite.
12 ‘Grease’ (1978)
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Grease is way more musical than any high school experience has any right to be – and the students are far older than any high schooler in history – but it remains a necessary inclusion on a list of best school-related movies. Randal Kleiser‘s 1978 musical romance is nearly two hours of an absolute fever dream that ramps up the 1950s glory days glimpsed in Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs’ original play. The film follows the romance between the local Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and the vacationing Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John).
Though it starts out in the summer of 1958, it finds the summer lovers reunited during their senior year of high school. During the film’s inevitable march to the seniors’ graduation, the tumultuous romance plays out over climactic drag races, concerns over teen pregnancy, and dance competitions. The 50s, and the American culture of the decade, may be long gone, but Grease will always endure as an idyllic, romantic adventure of young love and the good ol’ days in all their illustrious, slicked-back glory.
Directed by Herbert Ross
While the premise of Herbert Ross’ 1984 musical drama Footloose sounds like it was conjured up in a Hollywood boardroom–a Chicago teen moves to a small town where a local minister has outlawed dancing and rock music–it was actually inspired by a similar way of life in a small Oklahoma town. It might sound like a straight-up story of kids acting out against authority, but newcomer Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon) actually goes to great pains in order to befriend the local kids, expand their horizons, and meet the town’s conservative council halfway by citing Biblical passages in praise of dancing and celebrations.
Footloose also explores the pitfalls of an abusive relationship, the deep pains suffered after the loss of a child and the mob mentality that can arise in even the most well-meaning of folks. The movie’s got a lot more to it than just high school kids having a barn dance, so it’s worth a revisit if only to remind ourselves what a group of like-minded youths can do when they put their heads together.
10 ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ (1982)
Directed by Amy Heckerling
There are so many notable things about Fast Times at Ridgemont High that have nothing to do with the film itself that the story could (almost) be overlooked in favor of the movie’s cultural significance. It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2005, it’s the feature directorial debut of Amy Heckerling, the debut adaptation/screenplay work for Oscar-winner Cameron Crowe, and featured early (or debut) roles for some of today’s biggest names in Hollywood including Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage, Forest Whitaker, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
The story itself was inspired by Crowe’s experiences going undercover at San Diego’s Clairemont High School for Rolling Stone Magazine. It centers on a year in the lives of two sophomore students and their older friends as they coast by on their wits while navigating drugs, sex, social status, and dejection. As a 1982 release, the film predates many of the most iconic school movies of the 80s, making it a remarkable, trendsetting success as well as a fantastic tale of teenage life.
9 ’10 Things I Hate About You’ (1999)
Directed by Gil Junger
If Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Sixteen Candles were responsible for introducing 80s audiences to some of the best actors of their generation, then 10 Things I Hate About You did the same for a new generation, providing breakout roles for Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The late 90s high school setting makes for a wonderfully modern take on William Shakespeare‘s The Taming of the Shrew, as it follows two high school relationships, including one between an eccentric bad boy and a dismissive feminist.
A clever twist on typical high school romantic comedies, 10 Things I Hate About You is defined by its sincerity and its performances, both of which are qualities that stand the film in good stead even when the narrative starts to get a little muddled. It is also a fantastic example of how timeless Shakespeare’s work is, and how when a director is prepared to be as committed as Gil Junger is to the romantic overtones of the movie, it can work an absolute treat.
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