Under-appreciated until you're well out of high school

Rating: 8/10 (26 April 2009)

I love this film! I don't think it can be watched and appreciated by today's teen audience though. But once you've put enough distance between you and high school - and grown up enough to recognise it - you can relate to this film. Even if the clothes and the hairstyles are outdated.
People talk about it being over-simplified - I think that's kind of the point. It's a simple film which addresses the need we all seem to have to make things more complicated than they have to be - perversely by putting over-simplified labels on people.
Kids have this complicated code of conduct - the jocks can't hang with the geeks, etc. Yet when you get down to it - in some ways, they're not that different, if only because they're all just trying to get through life, trying to earn approval from someone.
I think it's impressive that such a small cast operating in such a small set can hold the attention so well - down to the fact that everyone, even just a bunch of kids, have a story to tell.
A cult classic.
Oh, and I don't have a problem with the obviousness of the pairings at the end because it's totally subjective as to whether or not they really did overcome the stereotypes. Maybe they did ... Maybe they never spoke to each other again ...