I love teen movies for the same reason, I suspect, I love YA books: they represent an alternate universe of an experience I never had. Not because of any kind of horrible ostracism or lack of friendship or unpleasant events--my high school years fucking rocked, despite taking place in a country that was ravaged by war and the after effects of a revolution, where my sex was, for all the lip service given, treated as second class, and where 'normal' teenage activities, as defined by my peers in those years in less oppressed environments were punishable--sometimes by death--by law.
No, I love the homages to those hormonal years because they were something that I never could have, for the mere fact that it was never ever there for the taking, and so I have no angst, no envy, no disappointment to define the satisfaction I get from indulging in these types of movies (and books). I can truly enjoy them for what they are--entertaining fluff with occasional insight into the universal themes that effect teens, no matter where or when.
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The mid-90s to early 2000s were saw a surge in the teen movie productions. Not that production on those movies had really stopped completely since previous surge in early to late 80s, but they were spaced out and you didn't feel one coming on top of another in fast and furious order. I've seen the ones from both eras, and while I've enjoyed the more popularly acclaimed ones as much as the next person (The Breakfast Club, Bring It On, etc.) my two favorites from each decade are two that usually aren't on the immediate top three of most people's list. Well, maybe one is, but the other definitely doesn't come up.
I knew Some Kind of Wonderful was going to be my kind of movie from the very moment you see feisty, short-haired Mary Stuart Masterson drumming away, oblivious to anything but what she is playing, sensing she has no one to really look out for her. There, on the big screen, was the alternate me that I felt more kinship with, than my waist-length haired, classical piano-playing, family smothered self. Predictably, I hated Lea Thompson's character and, less predictably, Eric Stolz's. (Personally, I would have wanted to see 'Watts' say screw you to both of them, get on a motorcycle, and ride into the sunset by herself.
Also, the best fucking cover of 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You'. (The whole soundtrack rocks.)
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The other, newer(ish) teen movie that I like is Drive Me Crazy. I don't why this particular movie, which is fairly low on plot and could be criticized as a poor man's version of the other ones , is so high on my list, but I suspect it has a bit to do with the whole boy-next-door aspect of the film, which is something I can totally relate to. Also, there is actually some decent acting by Melissa Joan Hart in the movie, especially the scene where she is asking Adrian Grenier's character to take her out as revenge on their respective exes. Her line "You're not offended, so don't pretend to be" is executed with exactly the right conflicted balance of teenage exasperation at and confidence in her own popularity.
(Oh, and yeah, Adrian Grenier. He not only plays the boy-next-door, he looks like the boy-next-door, if you get my drift. I was sort of spooked the first time I saw the movie.)
* Yes, I know it is called Baba O'Reilly.
