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Teen film is a film genre targeted at teenagers, preteens and/or young adults by the plot being based on their special interests, such as coming of age, attempting to fit in, bullying, peer pressure, first love, teen rebellion, conflict with parents, and teen angst or alienation. [1] Often these normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped or trivialized way. Many teenage characters are portrayed by young adult actors in their 20s. Some teen films appeal to young males, while others appeal to young females.
Films in this genre are often set in high schools and colleges, or contain characters who are of high school or college age.
Teen film genres include
Additional types of teen films can be divided again into sub-categories. These can be found at list of teen films.
Early examples of the genre in the United States include the "beach party films" of the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Gidget series. [2]
Codes and conventions of teen films vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they can include puberty, proms, alcohol, illegal substances, high school, parties, virginity, teen pregnancy, social groups and cliques, interpersonal conflict with peers and/or the older generations, fitting in, peer pressure, and popular culture. [3]
The classic codes and conventions of the teen film come from American films. One of the most widely used conventions is an emphasis on stereotypes and social groups. The stereotypes most commonly used include:
Apart from the characters, there are many other codes and conventions of teen film. These films are often set in or around high schools and places frequented by teens, such as shopping malls and themed restaurants. This technique allows for many different social cliques to be shown. These settings are typical for the classic romantic comedy teen film.
A good example of the use of archetypes in the teen film was displayed in the 1985 film, The Breakfast Club . These archetypes have since become a larger part of the culture. The jock, cheerleader, and social outcast, among others, become a familiar and pleasurable feature for the audience. However, genres are dynamic; they change and develop to meet the expectations of their target audience.
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Herman Raucher, along with Robert Mulligan, popularized the genre with Summer of '42 (1971), and Raucher continued the trend by writing Class of '44 (1973).
George Lucas has been credited for perfecting the genre by writing and directing American Graffiti (1973).
The genre gained more credibility during the 1980s with the works of writer and director John Hughes. His legacy of teen films, including The Breakfast Club , Ferris Bueller's Day Off , Sixteen Candles , and many more, proved to be popular not only with audiences but also with critics. [2]
Gregg Araki filmed independent films in the 1990s. His films, particularly the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy (consisting of Totally Fucked Up , The Doom Generation , and Nowhere ), are notable for capturing the disaffected attitudes of suburban teenagers of Generation X.
Éric Rohmer, a pioneering director of the French New Wave, was notable for focusing on young adults or youth and their complications with love in a number of his films. Some of these works are La Collectionneuse , Claire's Knee , Pauline at the Beach , My Girlfriend's Boyfriend , and A Summer's Tale .
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Popular actors in teen films have included Annette Funicello, Hayley Mills, and Sal Mineo in the 1960s and 1970s; Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Brendan Fraser, Luke Perry, Johnny Depp, Christina Applegate, Winona Ryder, John Cusack, Michael J. Fox, Robert Downey Jr., Matthew Broderick and members of the Brat Pack in the 1980s and early 1990s; and Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jonathan Brandis, Tatyana Ali, Neve Campbell, Chris Evans, Rose McGowan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Heath Ledger, Britney Spears, Brandy Norwood, Kirsten Dunst, Shannon Elizabeth, Breckin Meyer, Seth Green, Tobey Maguire, Alicia Silverstone, Gina Ravera, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Frankie Muniz, Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Rachael Leigh Cook, Drew Barrymore, Freddie Prinze Jr., Drake Bell, Josh Peck, Amanda Bynes, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew Lillard, Gabrielle Union, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Paul Rudd, Blake Lively and Hayden Panettiere in the mid-to-late-1990s and throughout the 2000s. Many of these actors were either pre-teens or teens themselves when the movies were made.
Notable teen genre actors in the 2010s and 2020s include Maya Hawke, Leah Lewis, Leighton Meester, Zendaya, Noah Centineo, Timothée Chalamet, Zac Efron, Lucy Hale, Lucas Hedges, Tom Holland, Anna Kendrick, Katherine Langford, Keiynan Lonsdale, Ezra Miller, Evan Peters, Nick Robinson, Cole Sprouse, Amandla Stenberg, Emma Stone, Ashley Tisdale, Emma Watson, Charlie Heaton, Justice Smith, Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Odeya Rush, Madison Iseman, Dylan Minnette, Storm Reid, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Charlie Plummer, Vanessa Hudgens, Sophia Lillis, Angourie Rice, Olivia Rodrigo, Finn Wolfhard, Lana Condor, Ramona Young, Liza Koshy and Mckenna Grace.
Heathers is a 1988 American teen black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and Penelope Milford. Its plot portrays four teenage girls—three of whom are named Heather—in a clique at an Ohio high school, one of whose lives is disrupted by the arrival of a misanthrope intent on murdering the popular students and staging their deaths as suicides.
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American indie teen coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Hughes. It stars Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. The film tells the story of five teenagers from different high school cliques who serve a Saturday detention overseen by their authoritarian vice principal.
The Brat Pack is a nickname given to a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s. The term "Brat Pack", a play on the Rat Pack from the 1950s and 1960s, was first popularized in a 1985 New York magazine cover story, which described a group of highly successful film stars in their early twenties. David Blum wrote the article after witnessing several young actors being mobbed by groupies at Los Angeles' Hard Rock Cafe. The group has been characterized by the partying of members such as Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, and Judd Nelson.
The Faculty is a 1998 American science fiction horror film directed and edited by Robert Rodriguez with a screenplay by Kevin Williamson. It stars Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick, Usher Raymond, Jon Stewart, and Elijah Wood.
Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American coming-of-age teen comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. Written and directed by John Hughes in his directorial debut, it was the first in a string of films Hughes would direct, centering on teenage life. The film received positive reviews from critics and was a box-office success, earning $23.6 million against a $6.5 million budget, and launched Ringwald to fame.
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 American satirical teen romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit in her feature directorial debut and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential in-patient conversion therapy camp to "cure" her lesbianism. At camp, Megan realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and, despite the "therapy", comes to embrace her sexuality. The supporting cast includes Clea DuVall, RuPaul, and Cathy Moriarty.
Long Duk Dong is a fictional character who appears in Sixteen Candles, a 1984 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes. Played by Japanese American actor Gedde Watanabe, the character is a Chinese foreign exchange student and a supporting character in the film set at a US suburban high school. The character has been called an offensive stereotype of Asian people.
Adolescent cliques are cliques that develop amongst adolescents. In the social sciences, the word "clique" is used to describe a group of 3 to 12 "who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting". Cliques are distinguished from "crowds" in that their members socially interact with one another more than the typical crowd. Crowds, on the other hand, are defined by reputation. Although the word 'clique' or 'cliquey' is often used in day-to-day conversation to describe relational aggression or snarky, gossipy behaviors of groups of socially dominant teenage girls, that is not always accurate. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popularity. Although cliques are most commonly studied during adolescence and in educational settings, they can exist in all age groups and settings.
In the United States and Canada, a jock is a stereotype of an athlete, or someone who is primarily interested in sports and sports culture, and does not take much interest in intellectual activity. It is generally applied mostly to high school and college athletics participants who form a distinct youth subculture. As a blanket term, jock can be considered synonymous with athlete. Jocks are usually presented as male practitioners of team sports such as American football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and ice hockey.
Can't Buy Me Love is a 1987 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Steve Rash, starring Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson in a story about a nerd at a high school in Tucson, Arizona, who gives a cheerleader $1,000 to pretend to be his girlfriend for a month. The film takes its title from a Beatles song of the same title.
Teen Wolf, known as The Cartoon Adventures of Teen Wolf in the United Kingdom, is an animated television series broadcast from 1986 to 1987, that was produced by Southern Star / Hanna-Barbera Australia in association with Clubhouse Pictures in the first season and Atlantic/Kushner-Locke in the second season. It was based on the live action film Teen Wolf (1985), and the second installment overall in the titular franchise.
A Midsummer Night's Rave is a 2002 American film adapted from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream released on November 1, 2002. The film stars Corey Pearson, Lauren German, Andrew Keegan, Chad Lindberg, and Sunny Mabrey; and was directed by Gil Cates Jr. It is set at a rave, rather than the forest where most of the original is set. The film received little attention from professional movie critics, but is considered a success with teen audiences, and has been used as an exemplar for a category of movies in more academic publications.
Bratz is a 2007 American teen comedy film based on the fashion dolls of the same name from MGA Entertainment. The film is directed by Sean McNamara with a screenplay by Susan Estelle Jansen, from a story written by Adam de la Pena and David Eilenberg. It is the first live-action film based on the toyline after a series of direct-to-video animated films and a television series.
A queen bee is a woman who dominates or leads a group, is in a favoured position or behaves as such. The term has been applied in several social settings.
A teen situation comedy, or teen sitcom, is a subgenre of comedic television program targeted towards young people. In general, these type of programs focus primarily on characters between 10 and 18 years of age and routinely feature characters involved in humorous situations, and often focus on the characters' family and social lives. The primary plot of each episode often involves the protagonist(s) the program centers on, while secondary plotlines often focus on the character(s') parents, siblings or friends, although the secondary characters may sometimes also or instead be involved in the episode's main plot.
A play is a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than mere reading. The creator of a play is known as a playwright.
Awkward is an American teen comedy-drama television series created by Lauren Iungerich for MTV. The show's central character is Jenna Hamilton, a Palos Verdes, California, teenager who struggles with her identity, especially after an accident is misconstrued as a suicide attempt.
A clique, in the social sciences, is a small group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests rather than include others. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popularity. Although cliques are most commonly studied during adolescence and middle childhood development, they exist in all age groups. They are often bound together by shared social characteristics such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Examples of common or stereotypical adolescent cliques include athletes, nerds, and "outsiders".
Basic is a slang term in American popular culture used pejoratively to describe middle class white people, especially women, who are perceived to prefer mainstream products, trends, and music. "Basic bitch" originated in hip hop culture and rose in popularity through rap music, songs, blogs, and videos from 2011 to 2014. Their male counterparts are usually termed "bros". Similar labels to "basic bitch" or "airhead" in other English-speaking countries include contemporary British "Essex girls" and "Sloane Rangers", and Australian "haul girls" known for their love of shopping for designer gear, and uploading videos of their purchases on YouTube.