A Cute Film Addict’s 10 Greatest Teen Comedies for a Hilarious and Heartfelt Movie Night

The teen comedy genre has it all; adolescent adventures, high school drama, crushes, and interestingly fun prom nights. It’s no wonder the teen comedy has been a cinematic favorite for many years as it magnifies the hopes, dreams, greatest fears and aspirations of youngsters onto the big screen with snappy dialogue, ear worm soundtracks, and grand romantic gestures. They evolve every few years along with teen culture and become a time capsule forever documenting that time and place, not to mention containing formative performances from cinematic greats.

My goal here is to provide a list of what I consider to be the best teen comedies of all time. What follows (I hope) are the most quotable, enjoyable, swoon-some classics to capture all the pain and glory of the theatrical teenage experience. Teen comedy films aren’t just movies that feature teens; they say something about what it is to be a teenager. Most use this journey to dial in on the secondary school years where social circles are everything, first loves are life or death, and the promise of a bigger future awaits. Whether you’re a jock, a brain, a basket case, a princess, or the rebel without a cause, there’s something here for you.

A Cute Film Addict 10 Greatest Teen Comedies

10. Grease (1978)

Fair enough, it’s true that Grease is an easy target for the archetypal Actors Playing Teenagers Who Were Way Too Old To Play Teenagers flick. If you didn’t know, John Travolta (the baby of the bunch) was 23, Olivia Newton-John turned 29, and Stockard Channing was 33. How does that work? Well you somehow forget all about it once the film is rolling because Randall Kleiser’s throwback to a certain kind of ‘50s youth-a-palooza does so many other things right. At the heart, it’s a simple plot, bad boy Danny Zuko (Travolta hot on Saturday Night Fever fame) is too ashamed to date good girl Sandy Olsen (Newton-John) until he isn’t, but it’s laced with laughs, energy and great music. From the synchronous sing along of Summer Nights’ to the auto-erotic dancing of ‘Greased Lightning’ to the exuberant fun fair of ‘You’re The One That I Want’ (“ooh, ooh, ooh, honey”), it has the tunes to rival any top musical. Not to mention, it has a firm grasp on the touchstones of adolescence, the thrill of friendships, the embarrassment of rejection, the need for speed, and that uneasy universal feeling when you finally get enough courage to go talk to that someone you’re crushing on and they blow you off. No, I’m not still harboring any animosity, Joy. (Just to be completely factual, Joy was not her real name.)

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 7.9/10

9. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

”There’s a difference between like and love. Because I like my Sketchers, but I love my Prada backpack.” I’m not quite sure if Shakespeare himself had written teen comedies, he would have come up with lines this good, but screenwriters Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith were on their A-game in their ‘90s redo of The Taming of the Shrew. Bianca Stratford (portrayed by Larisa Oleynick) is the rich popular girl who is only allowed to date when her “heinous witch” of an older sister Kat (an exceptional Julia Stiles) does as well, which leads to a scheme in which bad boy Patrick (the swoon-some Heath Ledger) is paid to woo the elder sibling. What are the chances of them actually falling for each other? Adding to it’s snappy dialogue, the film boasts brilliant performances from its leads, especially Ledger, who delivers one of the all time great romantic gestures in cinematic history in the iconic marching band sequence, and a pitch-perfect pop-punk soundtrack led by Letters to Cleo.

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 8.0/10

8. Spider-Man Homecoming (2017)

Spider-Man is a distinct comic book character as he is a heroic high-schooler and perhaps no Spider-Man film has quite got that the way Homecoming did. Which puts it on this list. Tom Holland is without a doubt the most believably teenage Peter Parker, and though not as tortured as Tobey Maguire’s incarnation, he’s still juggling his superhero fantasies, local neighborhood obligations, school work, and those ooey-gooey feelings. It’s impossible to escape the influence of John Hughes on this film and its director, Jon Watts, but Homecoming also improves upon the teen movie genre, pushing beyond outdated cliches. For example, here, the bully Flash is an obnoxious preppy rich kid and not the typical jock. And Zendaya’s M.J. with her quirkiness, is more Ally Sheedy than Molly Ringwold. Add it all together with its punky Ramones fueled soundtrack and you’ve got a wonderful teen comedy experience.

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 8.1/10

7. Mean Girls (2004)

Mean Girls, rightfully so, draws a lot of comparisons to 1995’s Clueless. Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is a formerly home-schooled normal teenager who finds herself at an American high school after her parents move the family back from Africa, and quickly becomes friends with outcasts Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese). Despite this quick friendship, she’s literally invited to the table of the Plastics, North Shore High royalty, led by the “terrific yet evil” Regina George (Rachel McAdams). That’s right, cue a plot to take down the Plastics from the inside in a film that covers friendship, shaming, and high school hierarchies. Though Mean Girls is ultimately a film about kindness, it still revels in the antics of its aptly named, mean girls. Screenwriter and comedian, Tina Fey gifts the stellar cast a genius script where every scene is a knockout and every line has classic written all over it. The movie is so fetch! (There you go, Gretchen. You finally made fetch happen!)

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 7.8/10

6. Superbad (2007)

In this teen comedy classic, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg channel their teenage dynamic into a silly and swear filled one night odyssey hinged on the ultimate teen goal; securing booze for a party while underage. The lead characters are literally named Seth and Evan and portrayed by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. Jonah’s Seth is a brash blabbermouth, while Cera’s Evan is the sweet, but shy type. However, it’s Christopher Mintz-Plasse who steals the show here as slightly weird Fogell, who famously gets the worst fake ID in cinema history; the now legendary alias ‘McLovin’. I’ll admit upon rewatching, some of Superbad’s coarser gags have not aged so brilliantly, but it is still a riotously fun ride; and ultimately sweet to perfection, culminating as the two best friends admit how much they will miss each other when college life sends them their separate ways.

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 8.3/10

5. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Probably known more today for Clueless, some 13 years before that film Amy Heckerling made her directorial debut in this adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s book in which the 22 year old writer moved back in with his parents and enrolled in Claremont High School under the name Dave Cameron. Much like Crowe’s novel, the film does not touch on the undercover aspect, instead creates a believable unpolished mosaic of teen life that manages to be both raw and brazen, yet sensitively observant and authentic. The film also sports one of the greatest teen movie cast lists of all time, as it provided a launching pad for Jennifer Jason Leigh, the certainly memorable Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold, Eric Stoltz, Forrest Whitaker, Anthony Edwards, Nicolas Cage (then Nicholas Coppola), and the standout performance of Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli; the always stoned surfer dude constantly at odds with strict history teacher Mr. Hand (Ray Walston).

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 7.8/10

4. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Ferris Bueller lives out every teenager’s dream of ditching school to embark on the ultimate skip day, but I dare to say not many dreamed this big. The film find’s Matthew Broderick in his definitive role as a smooth, super slick goof-off, whose verbal jujitsu can get him out of almost any situation. You will also find him to be smug, superior, and almost entirely insufferable, sympathies go out to his long suffering sister Jeanie “Shauna” Bueller (Jennifer Grey). And yet, despite all of that, Ferris is easy to root for. He is as the sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, and dweebies will attest, one righteous dude. This was John Hughes’ fourth film and it is an all encompassing deep dive into teenage fantasy, part love letter to Hughes’ Chicago, as Ferris along with girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) and best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) spend their day of mischief sightseeing in a “borrowed” Ferrari, tearing it up vocally on a parade float, and masquerading as the city’s sausage king. This would of course, become the film Hughes is most known for and it is a gloriously bold, fourth wall breaking nod to the art of slacking off. You can have no better way of spending your day of leisure than to watch the king of leisure. Bueller!

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 8.5/10

3. American Pie (1999)

American Pie was originally pitched by screenwriter Adam Hertz as “Untitled Teenage Sex Comedy That Can Be Made For Under $10 Million.” The Weitz brothers would go onto make a movie, though it is not for everyone, that has a core of sweetness underneath its mature humor. Jason Biggs plays likable dork, who along with his classmates, makes a pact to pop his cherry by prom; though it’s a rather more forbidden fruit that makes for his most memorable coupling in the film, as we soon find out that the boys have much to learn. The cast is full of habitual scene-stealers, from Jim’s well meaning dad (Eugene Levy) and sex obsessed Stifler (Sean William Scott) to flute-toting nerd Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) and robo-braggart The Shermanator (Chris Owen). Overall the film nails the comedy and the cruelty of school, albeit one you’d actually like to attend.

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 7.7/10

2. The Breakfast Club (1985)

The quintessential John Hughes movie that’s all about breaking down barriers, The Breakfast Club does so right from its opening image of a lyric from David Bowie’s “Changes” shattering into fragments. The movie isn’t a film for teens or about teens; instead it’s one that speaks directly to the audience about the invisible rules that seem to govern the world, that really don’t exist. Our characters, Bender (Judd Nelson), Claire (Molly Ringwald), Andrew (Emilio Estevez), Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) and Allison (Ally Sheedy) are the embodiments of separate high school subsets, respectively the rebel, princess, athlete, brain, and basket case, and they’re all stuck together for Saturday morning detention. Over the course of the one day, via some rule breaking and some really egregious makeovers, the group come to realize that they’re really not that different. It is true that in many ways, The Breakfast Club is a product of its time, and so some of the specificities don’t exactly match up today. But you can find the answer to the film’s continued relevance in the iconic letter sign-off; ‘Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club’. Yes, it’s this sheer sincerity, the attempt to understand and relate to complex teenage lives that still endures. Well, that and the Simple Minds’ incredible hit ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’. And we never will.

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 8.5/10

1. Back to the Future (1985)

Back to the Future is a time travel movie. It’s a science fiction adventure. It’s a fish out of water story. It’s a comedy that’s shows us (perhaps) how your parents grew up, that is if they grew up in the 1950s. It’s also the first movie I was enamored by and at its heart it’s a teen comedy. It could be, that because Marty’s main relationship is a friendship with an eccentric old scientist, that at first we don’t think of it as such, but remember Marty McFly is a 17 year old kid. Of course, he may seem more adult like at times, he’s self-possessed, resourceful, and quick with the quips, but he is, at his core, a hormonal kid whose biggest goals in life just happen to be to rock hard, skateboard harder, and steal away his girlfriend, Jennifer, for an illicit weekend. All of this we discover in the first few minutes of the movie. The teenage side of Marty shines through in his impetuosity; that quickness of temper; the arrogance. And when director Robert Zemeckis allows Marty to hang out with the kids his own age; the relentlessly horny Lorraine (Mom!), and the painfully awkward George; it’s here that the film’s teen comedy roots are undeniable. By the way, the movie was a big gamble in 1985, but as it turned out, not only were audiences ready for it, but their kids were going to love it too. And even now, a new generation of kids.

A Cute Film Addictive Rating 9.2/10

I hope you have enjoyed your time here. If so, there’s more to discover.