So you're what now, 25 years old? Maybe a little closer to 30? You're
an adult, you have — well, if not a career, hopefully at least a job
of some sort. Maybe you pay rent. Perhaps you have health insurance
and a 401k plan. Maybe, just maybe, you every so often look at a pack
of teenagers at the local mall and call them "damn kids."
But don't you remember when you were a damn kid? It wasn't that long
ago, was it? Try to make that feeble old brain of yours think back to
when your biggest dilemmas were which polo shirt to wear with your
acid wash jeans and how to keep your friends from finding out that
you had a raging crush on the school freak.
Ahh...that was your life. And if it wasn't, Hollywood wanted you to
believe it was. Our decade of relative puberty is notoriously known
for its teen movies: John Hughes, Molly Ringwald, "Fast Times at
Ridgemont High," and more angsty teen love stories than we could
shake a can of
hairspray at.
Of course, this was not our invention. Ever since our parents were
experiencing those teenage traumas (yes, they were your age
once), movies have tried to reflect, predict, and otherwise dictate
how teen life should be. If you were rich, you were a jerk.
Poor--good hearted and misunderstood. Boys wanted sex, girls wanted
good hair and pretty boyfriends, and there was always a huge
orgiastic party at someone's house while their parents
were away.
Sound like your formative years? Yeah, mine neither. But I've come up
with this list of the other teen movies from throughout our
lifetime that are a little more, how shall we say, varied in their
depictions of the teenage experience. I give you, fellow borderline
young adults, The Best Teen Movies You've Probably Never Seen.
Next: The Warriors >>
