90s teenage movies aren’t exactly the first thing we think of when it comes to quality films and, really, it’s not to everybody’s taste. But as a Gen Z Legally Blonde apologist, I believe that it is time we admit that some 90s teenage movies were actually really fun and a number of them have held up well over the years.
Have these movies won Oscars for their groundbreaking artistry? Maybe not, but they did help shape the tastes of a generation, and some of them, like The Virgin Suicides (1999), became cult classics that are still featured on Pinterest and Tumblr mood boards of young cinephiles today.
1. Clueless (1995)
Wherever would fashionistas be without the influence of Cher Horowitz from the 1995 teen flick Clueless? Even if you’ve never seen the movie itself, chances are, you’ve at least seen Cher’s iconic yellow suit and skirt ensemble either on her or on someone else inspired by her. Looking at you, Fancy by Iggy Azalea.
While we are yet to have the technological wonder of Cher’s digital wardrobe assistant in the 2020s, we do have Clueless to keep us company while we wait.
So what exactly is Clueless about? Don’t be fooled by its teen drama interpretation, this movie is actually an adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma whose rich, single, smart, yet unbearably bored heroine finds a way to use her smarts to meddle with other people’s lives until she’s forced to admit that it might not have been a good idea.
2. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Maybe you like your 90s teenage movies a little more literary or maybe more campy. I don’t know, Romeo + Juliet (1996) can fall into either. I have to admit, I wasn’t a big fan at first because I didn’t “get” it (I know, how very unintelligent).
Turns out they were speaking Shakespearen English from the original Romeo and Juliet while presenting it in a modern setting.
This admittedly makes Romeo + Juliet a pretty divisive film in terms of preferences. You either love it or hate it with a burning passion. Honestly, though, the teen movie-style adaptation is very fitting for the story’s protagonists and the tone of the original text because, spoiler alert, it turns out a playwright who makes dick jokes every other scene isn’t all that serious.
3. Never Been Kissed (1999)
Never Been Kissed is the buzzer beater of our list of 90s teenage movies as the film was released in 1999. But hey, many good things have come from that year like Mugler’s Spring 1999 collection and yours truly.
Anyway, Never Been Kissed. You’ve got Drew Barrymore playing Josie Geller, a No Boyfriend Since Birth and untouched Victorian damsel living in the 21st century as a copy editor for the Chicago Sun-Times.
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Rigfort, her editor-in-chief, gives her an assignment to write a report about high school students and, in a shocking turn of events, actually sends her to investigate youth culture rather than asking other non-youngins what the kids are up to.
Josie, who again works as a copy editor, understandably falls in love with an English teacher at the high school. This gets really awkward for both of them as Sam thinks she’s actually a minor.
At the same time, Josie struggles with her own high school traumas of being an unpopular nerd because come on, homegirl was unironically reading literature in high school. What did you expect?
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
No 90s teenage movies recommendations list would be complete without a vampire film because, as we all know, the vampire teen genre transcends the boundaries of time. Why else do you think Twilight had such a wide reach and still has fanfiction being made of it today?
Among the most iconic vampire teen shows/movies, though, is Buff the Vampire Slayer. While the show was wildly loved, the 1992 movie of the same name is viewed a little less favorably because of how campy it is.
But I digress. That’s what makes this teen movie so much fun.
It’s unapologetically tacky. You have a cheerleader who becomes a vampire assassin but remains as unabashedly feminine as Clueless‘s Cher Horowitz and Legally Blonde‘s Elle Woods.
Like many teen horror comedies of its time, it didn’t take itself too seriously and that’s okay. Movies can be unserious and just plain fun. Buffy is that movie and it deserves to be enjoyed with a liter of orange soda and a cold pizza slice.
5. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
The title I Know What You Did Last Summer may now be better known to my fellow Gen Z-ers as that Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello song, but it was originally the name of a 1997 horror movie based on a novel of the same name.
Along with Scream, this was one of the big 90s teenage movies of the time to re-popularize the slasher genre and like Scream, the plot, naturally, involves a group of teenagers getting caught in a terrifying murder plot that picks them off one by one.
The difference is that our group of teens kill someone first before they become the targets of a string of murders. Their decision to hide their crime leads to them being haunted by a stranger who keeps telling them “I know what you did last summer.”
Obvious, I know. But still, kinda creepy if that were happening to you.
6. The Craft (1996)
You don’t have to be a 90s teenage movie connoisseur to recognize The Craft (1996). Social media aesthetic, witchcraft, and movie buff accounts have all posted a screenshot from the movie before. I am specifically referring to the scene where a bus pulls up to pick up a group of young goth girls on the side of the road.
The driver warns them of weirdos out to hurt young girls but our teen heroines reply that “We are the weirdos, mister.”
See? Told you you know this movie.
Jokes aside, this 1996 horror film is about a group of young teen girls mastering the dark arts together while doing the whole discovering themselves as women in the world theme that girls’ teen movies typically have under the surface.
Though they find empowerment with each other and power through each other, the girls quickly realize that nothing comes for free, especially unholy powers that let them dramatically alter the fates of others.
7. 10 Things I Hate About You(1999)
Most of us remember Heath Ledger for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight which, while memorable, wasn’t his only big performance. For many ladies, he was Patrick Verona of 10 Things I Hate About You the bad boy love interest of Kat, one of the two female leads of the film.
If the surname Verona strikes you as oddly specific, that’s because 10 Things I Hate About You was a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, a play where two guys plot to marry the sweeter younger sister once they get the protective older sister out of the way by finding her an S.O.
Man, what is it with these 90s teenage movies and adapting classic literature as high school drama flicks? (And how do we bring this trend back?)
That’s the general plot of 10 Things I Hate About You too, except instead of marriage everyone is just dating, and the convoluted reason why Bianca can’t date anyone is that her father says she can only do so if her much sterner older sister dates first.
8. Scream(1996)
Scream (1996) is a cult classic, horror classic, and among the most iconic 90s teenage movies. Honestly, it doesn’t need an introduction. High school kids play cat and mouse, solidly teen slasher film tropes, kill, and get killed.
Speaking of tropes, this movie is also the source of that scene where a bunch of teens on a sofa mock horror movie tropes right before those same horror movie tropes happen to them. The humor is so very.
9. The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Yes, I know, Marie Antoinette (2006) is the aesthetic Sofia Coppola film, but the girlies also really like The Virgin Suicides (1999). It’s like Ladybird (2017) before Ladybird and the two often go together on the same aesthetic mood boards.
The Virgin Suicides is based on a 1993 best-selling novel of the same name and, as the name implies, it follows the lives of five sisters through the eyes of a group of boys who are very much male gazing into their distant, alien, and feminine lives that these guys personally cannot relate to or fully understand.
The girls, who live disconnected and sheltered lives because of their overprotective Catholic parents, succumb to depression one by one as they become unable to complete the female teen coming of age story.
10. Show Me Love (1998)
Since we can’t fit all the 90s teenage movies in the world here, here’s one that unexpectedly reached a (relatively) large audience but remains mostly unknown.
Show Me Love (1998) is a romantic drama about two teenage girls falling in love. Doesn’t sound too revolutionary these days, but the movie was set during the 90s in the small Swedish town of Åmål.
You know the recent trend of drawing “I’m Not Like Other Girls” memes as girlfriends? This is that but it’s a whole ass movie. She was a punk and she did ballet. Can I make it any more obvious?
Agnes and Elen can’t be more different, but as they say, opposites attract, and after a long journey of coming to terms with the fact that they’re very in love with each other, the two become one of the few lesbians to have happy endings in movies.
Ugh, we love that for her. Hers? Them.
FAQs
These Ten 90s Teenage Movies Are Actually Still Kinda Good? ›
One reason films from the 90s hold such appeal is that they seem to depict a simpler, more innocent time. “A lot of these films were written by baby boomers, so even if someone had a dead-end job, they were still able to afford accommodation, they lived in a nice neighbourhood.
Why movies in the 90s are better than today? ›One reason films from the 90s hold such appeal is that they seem to depict a simpler, more innocent time. “A lot of these films were written by baby boomers, so even if someone had a dead-end job, they were still able to afford accommodation, they lived in a nice neighbourhood.
Why are all the good movies from the 90s? ›Why are the 90s movies better than the current ones? 90s were absolutelly better becouse entertainment industry has dramatically changed. Studios in that decade were interested in creating deep stories for big audiences worldwide becouse the world had little other options to consume in that time.
Was the 90s a good decade for movies? ›Not only the best decade for live action films, even animated films. Forrest Gump, Titanic, The Shawshank Redemption, Wayne's World, The Lion King, Dumb And Dumber, Pulp Fiction, The Matrix, And many more great movies were from the 1990s!
Why are 90s movies so grainy? ›Film grain used to be a natural part of filmmaking. That textured, “noisy” look of old movies was a side effect of shooting and recording onto celluloid film. It was a natural part of the process, and so it became something people automatically associated with watching a movie. Flashforward to 2020.
Why old movies are better than modern? ›According to previous studies, it is reported that older movies focused a lot more on character development and conversation. The moviemakers made these movies with the general assumption that people had the time to watch these longer films. Today, modern films are focused on actions that adapt to our everyday life.
Why do people think old movies are so good? ›They also are a reminder of the past and life at the time. For many people, old movies are a beautiful reminder of a time when things were simpler. These movies don't rely as much on technology to wow and shock the viewer, the story lines are clear and straighter forward, their plots simpler.
Why do 70s movies look better than 90s movies? ›Most 70's footage was preserved on 16mm film. Most 90's footage was shot/preserved on videotape, which has poorer resolution and tends to degrade over time.
What was the best era for movies? ›Most film scholars will tell you that the 1970s were the greatest decade of film.
Why old movies are so jerky? ›Silent films were mostly shot on hand-cranked cameras, which meant they were intended to run at variable speeds through the cinema projector, rather than today's standard 24 frames per second. Run a silent movie at the modern speed and more often than not it will look ridiculous – jerky and comically fast.
Why 90s is the best decade? ›
In a nutshell, the 90's were perfectly sandwiched between a time when toys could literally kill you, and later when the internet took over our brains. It was the last decade when people had to rely somewhat on their analog skills to survive, but could also find a decent arcade nearby.
Why was the 90s important? ›The 1990s is often remembered as a decade of relative peace and prosperity: The Soviet Union fell, ending the decades-long Cold War, and the rise of the internet ushered in a radical new era of communication, business and entertainment.
Why do 70s movies look better? ›The 1970s movies were still using film while the 1980s were going video. This makes everything look brighter. The cuts are also neater and sound is better. The 1970s movies aimed for looking gritty.
Why do old films look faster? ›Economics dictated shooting closer to the threshold of the illusion, and most silent films were filmed around 16-18 frames per second (fps), then projected closer to 20-24 fps. This is why motion in those old silent films is so comical, the film is sped up: Charlie Chaplin.
What was the best movie genre in the 90s? ›The 1990s' most popular genre, action, channeled anxieties about global threats such as AIDS and foreign terrorist attacks into escapist entertainment movies. Horror films and thrillers were on the rise, but family-friendly pictures and feel-good romances netted big audiences too.
Why do critics like old movies? ›Quantity vs quality
Another reason older movies receive higher ratings is because more and more movies are being made each year on average, and most of them are bad. Before digital videography became the mainstream in the 2000s, far fewer people had the resources to actually make a film.
A good, classic movie can inspire pleasant memories for older adults, especially those with dementia. Watching nostalgic films is a great way for seniors to reminisce about their pastime in a positive light and talk about those memories with others.
What do you call someone who likes old movies? ›A person with a passionate interest in cinema is called a cinephile (/ˈsɪnɪfaɪl/), cinemaphile, filmophile, or, informally, a film buff (also movie buff). To a cinephile, a film is not just a form of entertainment as they see films from a more critical point of view.
Why 80s movies are so good? ›On top of nostalgia, the '80s' popularity also stems from its aesthetics. The '80s have a specific aesthetic that almost anyone can recognize immediately. When the '80s rolled in, the world was still reeling from the '70s.
Why do 80s movies look so good? ›Why do 80s movies look so good? Older movies and shows used the Technicolor process to make their prints. Technicolor is a “dye transfer” process. To make a Technicolor print: You first created three black-and-white negatives of your movie, one each for red, green and blue.
Why do adults like coming of age movies? ›
4. A Deep Look into Provocative Themes. Great coming-of-age stories usually feature the main characters navigating a myriad of issues while growing up. Themes like betrayal, self-identity, sexuality, class structure, racism, injustice and violence are often woven into the story to set us thinking and reflecting.
Why were Disney movies so good in the 90s? ›Maybe it was the time period or the people in the writer's room, but '90s Disney movies were genuinely funny. Animated movies utilized well-known actors to do the voice acting for animated movies, which helped to create larger-than-life characters that really stand out.
Why are movies getting darker? ›The first one's pretty simple: As popular content leans grittier and darker in tone (i.e. The Batman, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, etc.) the visuals tend to reflect that. But productions have also moved from shooting on film to shooting with digital cameras, and the way scenes get lit has changed dramatically.
Why 80s movies are better than today? ›Use of green screens and CGI were rare back in the day. Budgets were also smaller. This meant movies relied on good practical FX and excellent story telling. The acting itself is a byproduct of the script.
What was the golden age of movies? ›Though historians can't agree on the exact years of Hollywood's so-called Golden Age, the years 1930 through 1945 were particularly good for moviemaking. Hollywood glittered not just with profit, but with popular stars and brilliant filmmakers.
What is the number 1 movie in history? ›With a worldwide box-office gross of over $2.9 billion, Avatar is proclaimed to be the "highest-grossing" film, but such claims usually refer to theatrical revenues only and do not take into account home video and television income, which can form a significant portion of a film's earnings.
Why 1994 was the best year for movies? ›1994 is also cited as one of the greatest years for movies thanks to the booming American independent filmmaking scene and the number of high-quality movies made within the Hollywood studio system.
Has watching films changed nowadays compared to the past? ›The way that we watch movies has changed so much over the past century, that what we experience today is basically unrecognizable from the past. What used to be only accessible in theaters and special buildings, now we have access to thousands of films at any given time with a computer and internet connection.
Why was 90s TV so good? ›One of the things that made '90s shows so great was their ability to tackle social issues in a single episode. Writers and directors dedicated whole episodes to targeting social problems and aired them without the worry about it being taken down. A show that did this often was the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
Why are movies less popular now? ›The rise of streaming services has contributed to the decline of turnout in theaters. Going to the movies is a beloved experience for many, but has become less popular as of late. In 2021, a notably high 61% of Americans skipped out on the moviegoing experience.