Where I am, schools are letting out for summer this week. I guess this makes it as good a time as any to talk about movies set in high school. That's the topic for this week's Thursday Movie Picks hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves. If you're not one of the cool kids, you might not know what I'm talking about. It's simple. Wanderer suggests a topic and a bunch of us bloggers suggest three movies each for it. Well, we are all in our rebellious stage, so we occasionally suggest more, but that's another story. I'm going to skip all that, and just get right to my picks. If you've swung by here on a Thursday or two, you probably know I like to go off the beaten path for my picks. This means you should probably make a mental note of the full topic: Movies Set in a High School, Secondary School, or the Equivalent. Hmmm. Lots of wiggle room, here. Let's see what we come up with.
Reform School Girls
(1986)
A short while ago, I blasted the movie Prison Girls as being too sleazy to enjoy, even for B-movie aficionados such as myself. Well, the director of that movie decided to reverse fields, sort of, and make a movie spoofing the entire Women in Prison genre. He came up with this film in which a high school girl is sent to a reform school after being involved in a shootout. Never you mind none of the girls playing these roles is anywhere near young enough to do so. B-movie Queen Sybil Danning plays the school's evil warden. Is this a good movie? Not by any conventional definition. That can only mean one thing: It's so bad it's awesome!
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
(1988)
Right off the bat, I'll let you know this is strictly for fans of the franchise. Not really going to go into depth on what the story is, here. I'm guessing you have a pretty good idea even if you've never seen it, or you just don't give a crap. Fine by me. Just know that there is a lot that happens in a school in this one, perhaps more than any other movie in the franchise. By this time, the series had already become a parody of itself. This means there are at least as many laughs as there are frights. Probably more. That doesn't mean we don't get to see some crazy kill scenes. Right in the classroom.
Brick
(2005)
Okay, I figured I better give you at least one legitimately good movie, so here it is. Imagine a pulpy, film noir with the sort of snappy dialogue that would be right at home on the lips of Fred MacMurray. Now, change our leading man to a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the setting to a suburban high school in the 21st century. If it's difficult to wrap your head around that idea there is only one thing you can do to clarify the nuttiness I just spewed: See the movie. No crazy exploitation nor slasher madness, here. It's one of the most creative movies of the last decade and more people need to see it because it's excellent.
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Oh, In case any of you care, that is the high school I graduated from in the banner.