The Best Teen Movies Of All Time
Need great teen movies to watch? Here's a list of the best teen movies and films about teenagers, adolescence, and high school. What are the best teen movies of all time? Teenagers and young people have long been an ideal target market for film producers. They have more free time than adults, but can get themselves around and choose their own entertainment more easily than children. As well, they have disposable income, and typically spend more of their money on entertainment than their adult counterparts. What's the best teen movie ever? As this has steadily been true for several decades, it has led to a glut of films designed with teenagers in mind during that time.
Though there is no set definition on what makes a film a "teen movie," other than featuring teenagers (or at the very least, teenaged character) in significant roles, the genre has developed some defining features and common motifs over the years. Often, popular teen movies will explore high school as an environment, and specifically the high school community and the social cliques that form therein is a constant source of interest and observation. Much of the time, this is done with a snarky or cynical worldview, attempting to reflect the way that jaded teens often see the world of adults. Overwhelmingly popular recent entries in the high school movie sub-genre include Easy A and Mean Girls, while cult films such as Donnie Darko and Pump Up the Volume explore the same issues with an even darker or more subversive outlook. Some of these movies can even be considered teen adventure movies. With that being said, it's easy to see that this is far more that just a top 10 teenage movies list but all of them can be considered a must watch teen movie.
Teens are also frequently cast as the leads in horror films, particularly the sub-genre known as "slasher films." In these films, attractive young people are typically placed in precarious situations with serial murderers, and audiences can then delight in seeing them ripped apart.
The top teen movies on this list span all of these sub-genres and more, including genre mash-ups combining several different storytelling modes into one film (such as the horror-comedy Scream franchise.) It's an open list, so after you're done voting, if you see any good teen movies that aren't on here, add them at the bottom of the page.
- Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams
Released: 2004
Directed by: Mark Waters
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gabrielle Union
Released: 1999
Directed by: Gil Junger
- Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash
Released: 1995
Directed by: Amy Heckerling
- Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald
Released: 1985
Directed by: John Hughes
- Charlie Sheen, Matthew Broderick
Released: 1986
Directed by: John Hughes
- Emma Stone, Penn Badgley
Released: 2010
Directed by: Will Gluck
- Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum
Released: 2006
Directed by: Andy Fickman
- Anne Hathaway, Mandy Moore
Released: 2001
Directed by: Garry Marshall
- John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John
Released: 1978
Directed by: Randal Kleiser
- Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd
Released: 1985
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
- Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint
Released: 2004
Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón
- Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint
Released: 2005
Directed by: Mike Newell
- Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita
Released: 1984
Directed by: John G. Avildsen
- Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid
Released: 1998
Directed by: Nancy Meyers
- Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall
Released: 1984
Directed by: John Hughes
- Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix
Released: 1986
Directed by: Rob Reiner
- Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin
Released: 2012
Directed by: Jason Moore
- Sean Astin, Josh Brolin
Released: 1985
Directed by: Richard Donner
- Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze
Released: 1987
Directed by: Emile Ardolino
- Emma Watson, Nina Dobrev
Released: 2012
Directed by: Stephen Chbosky
- Hilary Duff, Jennifer Coolidge
Released: 2004
Directed by: Mark Rosman
- Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage
Released: 1983
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
- Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer
Released: 1984
Directed by: Herbert Ross
- Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint
Released: 2011
Directed by: David Yates
- Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo
Released: 2004
Directed by: Gary Winick