This article originally appeared in the Just for Teens Issue
Lady Bird: Lady Bird is an instant modern classic, offering a poignant snapshot of modern adolescence and the challenges faced by young women coming of age. The true standouts of this movie are its almost entirely female creative team and cast, and also Timothée Chalamet who absolutely fucking rocked me. So real, so raw, so very much like the grad student to whom I lost my virginity.
10 Things I Hate About You: This modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew accomplishes the rare feat of making Shakespeare accessible to teens. That alone earns it a spot on this list, though I would be remiss not to also mention that one scene where Heath Ledger smokes a cigarette. Jesus fucking Christ. If he were still alive I would ride that like a tractor. By “he,” I mean Heath Ledger, not Jesus Christ. Actually, fuck it, I’d ride them both.
Breakfast Club: This classic high school movie begs the age-old question, “Fuck, marry, kill: the brain, the athlete, and the criminal?”
Dead Poets’ Society: A film which empowered young people to think independently and follow their dreams, perhaps most memorably in that scene where I realized I wanted to fuck Ethan Hawke. The way he smizes during all that sad shit? O captain, my captain.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: Honestly, young Matthew Broderick could get it. Honestly, old Matthew Broderick could get it. Great film.
—M. Blaney