11 Best High School Movies That Are Streaming at the Top of Their Class - Netflix Tudum

  • What To Watch

    These 11 High School Movies Are at the Top of Their Class

    No matter what lunch table you call home, there’s a teen movie for you.
    By Mary Sollosi
    Nov. 1, 2024

Everyone take your seats, because class is in session! There are few settings as rich in romance, scandal, heartbreak, and hilarity as high school — a perfect storm of pressures, both social and academic, and passions, both personal and extracurricular. 

As such, the halls of these familiar institutions — rife as they are with gossipy cliques, college dreams, and unbridled adolescent emotions — have provided the backdrop for countless beloved movies. These films portray a wide variety of high school experiences, so there’s something for everyone. Whether you’re a sports star, a debate clubber, a dance champ, a mean girl, an artsy weirdo, a class clown, or the undisputed Most Likely to Succeed, the syllabus for your ultimate teenage stream is below. 

Popular Now

Alex Strangelove

Craig Johnson’s sincere rom-com revolves around a love triangle of an underrepresented type: Alex (Daniel Doheny) is dating his best friend Claire (Madeline Weinstein) when he meets Elliot (Antonio Marziale), whom he finds surprisingly compelling. Even as he makes plans with Claire to lose his virginity to her, he’s distracted by his undeniable feelings for Elliot, making him reflect upon his sexuality. Funny and sincere, there’s nothing strange about it — but plenty to love. 

Alex Strangelove
1h 39m   TV-MA   2018

Watch

Candy Jar

Step aside, queen bees and jocks — this one’s a love story for the nerds. Sami Gayle and Jacob Latimore star in Ben Shelton’s rom-com as a pair of Ivy-hopeful overachievers, co-presidents of their private high school’s debate club. The only thing this duo can agree on is how much they hate each other (a grudge partially inherited from their mothers, onetime classmates played by Christina Hendricks and Uzo Aduba). But when they’re forced to compete in their last high school debate tournament as a team, their rivalry begins to evolve into a romance.

Do Revenge

Armed with the killer instinct (and killer wardrobes to go with it), the teenage girls played by Maya Hawke and Camila Mendes in Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s Do Revenge are not here to make friends. After a cruel public humiliation, Mendes’ queen bee finds an unexpected ally in Hawke’s new girl, and the pair conspire to bring down their respective tormentors. Like so many vendettas before, however, our heroines’ quest delivers more twists and turns (not to mention wisdom from their school’s chic headmaster, played by ’90s teen queen Sarah Michelle Gellar) than anyone bargained for. 

Easy A

If you can’t shut down the rumor mill, why not embrace it? That’s the perspective of the teenage Olive (Emma Stone, in her first lead role) in Will Gluck’s sly 2010 rom-com. After she tells a white lie to a friend, it balloons into a widespread (and wholly inaccurate) reputation for promiscuity. Rather than refuting the characterization, Olive leans into it, updating her wardrobe à la Hester Prynne and disrupting her high school’s social order by allowing some unpopular classmates to claim they’ve slept with her. In the process, she earns the ire of a sanctimonious mean girl (Amanda Bynes), as well as the admiration of an old friend (Penn Badgley). 

The Half Of It

A tenderhearted LGBTQ-teen spin on Cyrano de Bergerac, Alice Wu’s The Half of It transposes Edmond Rostand’s play to a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Leah Lewis stars as the film’s Cyrano, Ellie Chu, an introverted straight-A student with a great love of literature and classic cinema. After striking a deal with jock Paul (Daniel Diemer) to write love letters and texts to popular girl Aster (Alexxis Lemire) on his behalf, Ellie develops not only a close friendship with Paul but her own romantic feelings for Aster, who remains oblivious to the true identity of her correspondent. 

He's All That

This gender-swapped remake of 1999’s She’s All That gives that millennial Pygmalion a Gen-Z makeover. Mark Waters’ film stars Addison Rae as a teenage influencer who, after being humiliated in a live stream gone awry, takes a bet that she can turn an artsy loner (Tanner Buchanan) into the prom king, hoping to win back her clout with the transformation. Though made for a new generation of teens, the film also makes loving nods to its predecessor, featuring some of the original stars in small roles and a new version of a certain swoony ballad on the soundtrack. 

The Kissing Booth

When Vince Marcello’s adaptation of Beth Reekles’ YA novel The Kissing Booth landed on Netflix in 2018, the high school romance — in which a teenage girl, Elle (Joey King), starts dating Noah (Jacob Elordi), the older brother of her best friend, Lee (Joel Courtney), after locking lips at a school fundraiser’s kissing booth — became a phenomenon. The wildly popular film bloomed into a trilogy, with The Kissing Booth 2 and The Kissing Booth 3 chronicling the evolution of the central couple’s relationship through the rest of Elle’s time in high school. 

Moxie

The second feature directed by Amy Poehler, Moxie serves plenty of just that. Based on Jennifer Mathieu’s 2017 YA novel, the film stars Hadley Robinson as Vivian Carter, a shy but plucky teenager who, inspired by a stash of old feminist zines belonging to her mother (played by Poehler), secretly starts her own. Teaming up with new student Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Peña) and several other girls in their class, who are also fed up with the normalized misogyny and sexual harassment they’ve suffered at school, Vivian launches the anonymous publication to effect change and empower her classmates. 

The Perfect Date

A working-class high school senior looking to fund his Ivy League dreams stumbles upon the perfect money-making scheme: professional plus-one. Noah Centineo stars in Chris Nelson’s 2019 romantic comedy as Brooks, a cash-strapped but highly socially adaptable teen, who launches an app through which girls can hire him to be their perfect date, each time adopting a new personality according to the client’s preferences. Somewhere in all the characters he’s playing, however, he’s got to find the person he really is — and somewhere among all the girls he goes out with, there just might be one that’s right for him, too. 

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

Based on Jenny Han’s series of young adult novels, the To All the Boys trilogy serves up three delicious doses of sweet high school romance. The first film, directed by Susan Johnson, sees shy daydreamer Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) mortified when her little sister distributes all the secret love letters she wrote to her crushes over the years — including popular lacrosse star Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo). The follow-ups, To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You and To All the Boys: Always and Forever, follow Lara Jean when another love letter recipient comes back into her life and when she and Peter graduate high school. 

Work It

Upon learning that her application to her dream school looks exactly like that of countless other AV nerds with 4.0 GPAs, Quinn (Sabrina Carpenter) realizes that her only chance is to stand out. So she goes from being the lighting designer for her high school’s celebrated dance team to one of its members. With the help of best friend Jasmine (Liza Koshy), choreographer Jake (Jordan Fisher), and a mismatched crew of teammates, the previously clumsy Quinn finds her rhythm — and a passion she didn’t know she had — in Laura Terruso’s rousing dance comedy.  

The Netflix Movies You Love Are on TudumFrom interviews with the stars to behind-the-scenes exclusive content, you’ll find it here.
Additional reporting by Jessica Derschowitz.

Shop

GO TO NETFLIX SHOP

Discover More What To Watch

  • What To Watch
    Reality bites, but these shows don’t. 
    By Allie Baker
    Dec. 11
  • What To Watch
    Drop everything now. 
    By Cole Delbyck
    Dec. 9
  • What To Watch
    ’Tis the season for confections, kitchen fails, and seasonal showstoppers.
    By Will Gleason
    Dec. 9
  • What To Watch
    Take inspiration from old favorites or start a new holiday tradition.
    By Mary Sollosi
    Dec. 6
  • What To Watch
    Your mission: Get caught up in some high-stakes espionage.
    By Erin Corbett and John DiLillo
    Dec. 5
  • What To Watch
    ’Tis the season for joy — and comedy.
    By Derek Lawrence
    Dec. 5
  • What To Watch
    You’re gonna love these. 
    By Erin Corbett
    Dec. 5
  • What To Watch
    Let them make your movie nights merry and bright.
    By Dalene Rovenstine
    Dec. 4

Discover More Comedy

  • Explainer
    Creator Liz Feldman is revealing all about the twisty dark comedy.
    By Ariana Romero
    12:30 am
  • News
    The Nobody Wants This star takes center stage live on Feb. 23.
    By Jinnie Lee
    Yesterday 9:54 pm
  • News
    Netflix’s Tracey Pakosta explains how the show fits into the Netflix comedy universe.
    By Jean Bentley
    Yesterday 4:30 pm
  • Deep Dive
    Ian Harding, Kristin Chenoweth, and more also star. 
    By Ariana Romero
    Dec. 13
  • News
    Love Actually director Richard Curtis is back with an animated movie. 
    By John DiLillo
    Dec. 13
  • News
    Oliver Hudson, Jameela Jamil, Pierson Fode, and Melissa Joan Hart also star in the holiday flick.
    By Tara Bitran
    Dec. 12
  • Sneak Peek
    The black comedy from Dead to Me creator Liz Feldman opens house on Dec. 12.
    By Ariana Romero
    Dec. 11
  • News
    “If I can stay funny, then I can stay alive.”
    By Cole Delbyck
    Dec. 11

Related Videos

  • What To Watch
    Coming-of-age stories you won’t want to miss. 
    Dec. 15, 2023
    2:10
  • What To Watch
    From swoony adaptations to tragic dramas, these movies are all about love.
    Aug. 11, 2023
    2:12
  • Trailer
    Kitty Song is back for her own adventure in Seoul.
    May 18, 2023
    1:49
  • What To Watch
    Single or not, these V-Day movies will have you swooning.
    Feb. 9, 2023
    2:25
  • What To Watch
    From ‘Home Team’ to ‘Windfall,’ tune into these sweet and short flicks!
    Feb. 6, 2023
    3:49

Popular Now

  • Deep Dive
    The Norwegian series centers around a volcano eruption in the Canary Islands.
    By Ingrid Ostby
    Dec. 13
  • Deep Dive
    Who lives, who dies, and who gets through airport security?
    By John DiLillo
    Dec. 13
  • News
    Watch Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni bring Colleen Hoover’s book to life.
    By Erin Corbett
    Dec. 9
  • What To Watch
    Finish the year by closing out your streaming to-do list.
    By Dalene Rovenstine
    Nov. 30