(extreme paula cole voice) where have all the lighthearted teen movies gone?
give me frothy, give me glossy!
this past weekend, i curled up on the couch and turned on clueless, the seminal teen comedy that was undoubtedly influential in both my life and the lives of countless other millennials. watching it was as much a celebration of its very recent 30th anniversary as it was a comfort-watch reflex, which led me to an important question: forget about the cowboys — where have all the fun and frivolous teen movies gone?
as a card-carrying elder millennial, i came of age in a very specific era when it came to media. from 1995-2010, it seemed that nearly every week, another teen movie was being churned out. and we ate. them. up!
you had the bigger name flicks — including clueless — which are still frequently quoted and referenced today:
can’t hardly wait
empire records
10 things i hate about you
she’s all that
american pie
bring it on
mean girls
eurotrip
never been kissed
the princess diaries
superbad
she’s the man
napoleon dynamite
but there were just as many — if not more — less popular or underrated ones in the same vein:
drive me crazy
detroit rock city
loser
down to you
whatever it takes
a cinderella story
boys and girls
john tucker must die
nick and norah’s infinite playlist
what a girl wants
chasing liberty
get over it
the new guy (unrelated note: i went on my first date to see this and it was awful)!
confessions of a teenage drama queen
while they varied in subject matter, they were all heartfelt and more importantly, they were all HAPPY. you didn’t have to analyze too much. you didn’t have to think too hard. you could blissfully munch away on your buttery popcorn for two hours while enjoying an unadulterated, joyful, mix-and-match combination of:
spontaneous, yet completely choreographed, dance routines!
tender serenades! (RIP heath) (the paintball makeout scene set to semisonic later in the movie is still my #relationshipgoal)
goofy karaoke performances of guns ‘n roses’ “paradise city!”
aspirational, inspirational makeover montages!
wildly romantic, yet totally implausible, scenarios!
rooftop musical performances by record store employees!
outlandish plots involving alcoholic rock stars!
you get the gist. they were cheesy, sure, but they were so gosh-darn-wholesome at their core that you left the theater feeling like you were just a pep rally and a prayer away from making your dreams come true — whether they were to score a smooch from your crush in AP english or to head up the school paper. and there were sooo many of them!
so many at one time, in fact, that the sheer volume was parodied in not another teen movie. and even if they involved 20-somethings more than teens, the silly sweetness was still there a bit later on with 27 dresses, what’s your number (one of my personal favorites because of anna faris’ apartment in it), she’s out of my league, confessions of a shopaholic, when in rome, no strings attached, and crazy, stupid, love. and then…they…just disappeared.
don’t get me wrong; i love me some lady bird and booksmart. i do. but as hollywood seemingly tightened its belt and butterfly clips made way for button-downs, the whimsy and fun went from 100 to zero real quick. at least in my view. today, it seems like every other movie is a huge comic book franchise sequel, a pale remake of a ‘90s classic, or a way-too-artsy, overly serious A24 film that’s supposed to convey a Very Important and Deep Message — ya know, like an IRL version of the bizarre performance scene in she’s all that — that only succeeds half of the time.
all of these movies are fine and good, of course, but i think we can still make room for some surface-level delights at the cinema. in fact, it might be a need at this point. i feel like the vapidness of cher horowitz, *whelmed*-ness of bianca stratford (and the snark of her sister kat, my role model as a teen), and hopeless romanticism of pop-tart-lovin’ preston meyers is what we as a society are missing right now:
seriously — a good teen movie renaissance might just bring us all together again faster than the coldplay kiss cam scandal.
which one(s) do you find yourself revisiting?
here for this!