“Election” (1999)
High school movies tend to come in very specific flavors: the gross-out comedy, the sweet and endearing, the nostalgically romantic, etc. But you’ll be hard pressed to find anything like Alexander Payne‘s sophomore pic, a dark, biting story concerning candidates in a student government election. Led by the perfectly cast Matthew Broderick (looking worn down, as if the real world caught up with Ferris Bueller), a trio of Chris Klein, Reese Witherspoon and Jessica Campbell duke it out for the presidency in stand out performances while Broderick’s Civics teacher tries his damndest to keep uptight manipulator Witherspoon from securing the big chair. The screenplay juggles four different viewpoints effectively by keeping things fair — everyone kind of fumbles and looks like an idiot, procuring laughs from stupid behavior or someone’s goofy face in a freeze frame. The latter is part of a snappy aesthetic that never produces a dull moment, nor a phony one — Payne utilizes them in a careful, sporadic way, and what generally can become a crutch just embellishes the hilarious, hate-them-all tone. It’s a tricky act to pull off considering audience members generally want to like their protagonists, but the actors are so committed to the flawed people they’re portraying that it’s hard to hate them. When Klein mentions that he “wants to play football so bad he can taste it” it’s a riot — but it’s also incredibly earnest. The director doesn’t compromise his vision for a sweet ending, instead creating one that fits snugly within the picture’s confounds, finding fulfillment in its own way. [A-]
“The Virgin Suicides” (2000)
Sofia Coppola proved herself a filmmaker to be reckoned with her debut feature, “The Virgin Suicides”, an adaption of the Jeffrey Eugenides’ book of the same name. The film tells the story of the five teenage Lisbon sisters — Cecilia, Lux (Kirsten Dunst at her teen-dreamiest), Bonnie, Mary and Therese, as remembered by a group of neighbourhood boys. Recounting the events that led up to the girls suicides, the story is told by omniscient deadpan narrator (Giovanni Ribisi), who guides us through the dreamy, sun dappled visions (aided by Edward Lachman’s knockout cinematography) of the young girls lives, from first kisses and dances through to heartbreak. As the boys piece together scraps of information to build a story, the girls remain as mysterious and unattainable as ever, more so in death. The Lisbons’ straight-laced religious parents — Kathleen Turner as the overbearing matriarch, and James Woods as the ineffectual father — go into protective overdrive after their youngest daughter commits suicide, which only seems to drive the girls further into despair and alienation from their peers. Josh Hartnett gives the best performance of his career as the swaggering adolescent playboy Trip Fontaine, the object of Lux’s (and the suburbs female population) affections; his entrance to the film, a model strut down the high school halls, to Heart’s “Magic Man,” never fails to set our hearts a-flutter. However Trip ends up being the catalyst of the girls ultimate undoing, as Lux flaunts her curfew for a cursed tryst on the football field, the girls are shut in their house by their parents, with seemingly no means of escape, except, well you know… French duo Air provide the darkly mesmerising score, complimenting the ’70s hits (from 10cc to ELO) to great effect, while the picket-fence suburban setting serves as stark contrast to the violence of the story. Coppola manages to imbue the film with an enviable nostalgic haze, while also managing to breath some sense of life into the girls, beyond the romantic pedestal the boys memories have placed them on. [A]
“Donnie Darko” (2001)
Is it a bona fide high school movie? Probably not, but the portrayal of the American high school in Richard Kelly’s creepy, cyclical debut “Donnie Darko” warrants mention here if only because of how neatly it skewers so many of the genre’s conventions to paint a dark portrait of school life that stands in direct counterpoint to many of the shinier, happier versions we list here. Donnie’s high school is a place of tedium and tyrannical conformity, where false idols are worshipped and any spark of inspiration or creativity is snuffed out by the forces of ultra-conservatism. It is an institution that can find no time for Donnie’s weird intelligence and so it morphs, as he unravels, into a hallucinatory, dread-filled place populated with monsters real and imagined: the opposite of the cossetted haven of prom night jitters and popularity contests that having a school-going protagonist usually involves. Here, the teachers who are not dangerously misguided are ineffectual and helpless, the drive to conformity grotesque and soul-destroying and long before the story of doom plays itself out, the school is seen to be something you might want to escape from, to try and survive, rather than a place of learning or potential fulfillment. What “Donnie Darko” may share with other films on this list is a scabrous disdain for the unimaginative incomprehension of the adult world, especially as contrasted with the resilience, intelligence and ultimate nobility of its youthful protagonist. That all this finishes up darker than dark, and ends on the most nihilistic note imaginable, is one of the many ways it differs. “Donnie Darko” may be a psychological, timebending, horror movie, but more terrifying than all the evil, bloodied, doomsaying bunnies in the world, is the soul-crushing high school, as personified by Donnie’s health teacher in all her steely self-righteousness and fanatical zeal. The line, “Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion” as delivered by the great Beth Grant? Now that’s creepy. [A]
“Elephant” (2003)
Gus Van Sant‘s minimalistic, meditative take on the Columbine High School massacre likely owes just as much to the director’s own high school experience as it does to Bela Tarr and Alan Clarke. The movie’s multiple and varied perspectives — ranging from a football player dealing with an accidental pregnancy to a quiet girl with undisclosed body issues — all take on their own interpretation of the events unfolding in their own distinct ways, with each narrative weaving in and out of each other effortlessly. Movies centered in a high school have a tendency to go out of their way to make things exciting — every day captured is an event, with either quirky teachers or malevolent principals that are the bane of the protagonist’s existence. Nostalgia-fueled reflections can have that effect on one’s memories; where did those mundane weeks consisting of little but walking to and from class go? It’s likely they blended into one another: somehow, an amusing lunch quip suddenly found itself taking place the same day a teacher blew up at a classmate. Of course, this is the kind of material that makes these moments a valid slice of commercial entertainment, and there’s a time and place for them. Still, there’s something to be said for the other side of the coin; portraying the realism of a typical high school day, going through the banal daily routine until that final bell rings and the shackles are off. To our knowledge, Van Sant’s movie gives the most true interpretation of those years. By focusing on the endless bland hallways and repetitive days, it helps set a tone that makes the impending threat even more profoundly unsettling. [A]
“Mean Girls” (2004)
With the genre increasingly tired in the mid ’00s, it would take a real comic force to shake up the high school movie, but fortunately, Paramount had Tina Fey, the head writer of “Saturday Night Live,” who penned a film that holds the same value for twentysomethings today that John Hughes‘s films did a generation beforehand. That’s not actually a fair comparison, it should be said: Fey’s going first and foremost for laughs, and they come in spades, thanks to a just-this-side-of-cartoonish tone established by director Mark Waters, and a cast that didn’t just include Fey and SNL pals like Amy Poehler (only seven years older than screen daughter Rachel McAdams) and Tim Meadows, but also sharp comic creations from the likes of McAdams, Lizzy Caplan, Amanda Seyfried and, yes, Lindsay Lohan, who shows so much promise here that it’s a little heartbreaking to watch now. The film falters when it has to take anything seriously — has there ever been a teen love interest duller than the one here? — but it remains a gut-buster nearly a decade on, and one with some smart points to make about the sociology of high school. [B]
