Top 7- Films you have to watch as a teenager

This is my last week of secondary school. Emotions are high, girls are bursting into tears with no warning and a five year period of my life is ending. Blah, blah, blah, that's an excuse for me to talk about must see films for teenagers. Basically, if you're a teen, you should have watched these films by now. They're not necessarily teen films but they are essential for teens to watch.


7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

One of my favourite films ever, Eternal Sunshine is the best love story ever written. I've spoken at length about it's honesty and it's humour and how it is amazing so I won't here. Put simply, it's a film that you should watch for both the quality of the film, how different it is to everything else that exists and how honestly it shows love. As beautiful as it is brutal, this film is essential. And it's only number seven.


6. Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump has everything for everyone. It's funny, it's heartwarming and oh god, you will cry. It's an essential film to see. This is what so many films now want to be but aren't. Tom Hank's performance is also one of the best performances I've ever seen, bringing so much character to a character who could be a simple stereotype in the hands of a lesser actor. It's also a brief history lesson of the 1960s onward so hey, learn something and enjoy an excellent film.


5. Airplane

I defy you to find a film funnier than Airplane. It's over thirty years old but it holds up incredibly. Sure, some of the celebrity references may be outdated, along with it's views of women but that can't get in the way of hundreds of hysterical jokes. It is silly and bizarre and never even slightly serious but that is where it's joy lies. You'll never catch every joke but neither will you catch your breath as you're taken on a whirlwind ride though one liners, visual gags and pure silliness. It can't be missed.


4. The Social Network

This is the story of the man who made Facebook and the people he had to screw over to get it. It's a fascinating tale told beautifully by the masterful David Fincher. Not only is this a great entry point for David Fincher films, it tells the story behind Facebook, a social network that almost every teen will have used at some point. You should really know the story behind the social network that swept the world and formed the internet as it is today. It's a crucial tale and actually just a great film.


3. Donnie Darko

I love everything about Donnie Darko. It's one of the strangest cult films ever made but it's fascinating. You should watch this film for a few reasons. For one, it's a decent introduction into the world of cult films. These are plentiful and one of the more interesting sides of film for their polarizing nature, You'll want to get into them and this is a nice start. But also, it's a fascinating insight into a teenager's life at school. It's about isolation, it's about love and it's about what goes on in everyone's minds, whether it's about girls or an existential crisis.


2. The Breakfast Club

Don't you forget about this John Hughes classic. Every teen should have seen at least one John Hughes film and as much as it shames me to admit that I've only seen one, I have seen The Breakfast Club. It's a film about five teens trapped in Saturday detention who end up bonding over their differences and their multiple similarities. Some criticize it's lack of content saying that nothing happens. These people have missed the whole point. It's all about the dialogue that was written 30 years ago and still holds up amazingly. It manages to have dialogue more relevant and interesting than some modern films and that's quite the feat. So even if it's not for you, The Breakfast Club has to be experienced so you can make your own mind up about it and see how it shaped modern pop culture as we know it.


1. Animal House

Surprised? Don't be. Not only is Animal House one of the funniest comedies ever made and a perfect showcase of the comic genius of John Belushi, it's also the ultimate raunchy comedy. The raunchy comedy is a staple of every teenager's film consumption and many will foolishly look to American Pie or the solid but not excellent Bad Neighbours to fill that void. There is only one true raunchy comedy and it features toga parties, a dead horse and the human zit. Nothing can come close to anything in this film. It's the ultimate college film, a disgusting comedy but an essential view. If you haven't seen Animal House (teenager or not) then just watch it. You'll never see anything that comes close to it, even with the amount of imitators this film has had and how it's affected comedies forever. It's something else but in all the right ways. So all together now: toga, toga, toga, TOGA!