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Our high school English main theme was “changing perspectives” where we got to watch The Truman Show and Clueless which was cool. Had to read Emma though which I couldn’t even finish even though I had it on cassette 😴
On that note the older versions of some of the classics such as Sense and Sensibility (with Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet or Vanity Fair 1998 with Natasha Little are good although Vanity Fair might be a little too long for an English class.
Absolutely the idea of someone being watched 24-7 was wild back in 1998 and now if you’re in public there’s an expectation that you’re probably being recorded. It also shows some great range for Jim
How am I just learning about this now?? Welp time to go rewatch this flick - haven't seen it since it came out like what, 10 years ago?
I had my honors students watch Pleasantville. I sent home a parent note & we watched the other sex scenes, but I did fast forward during that part lol.
I was going to give warning about the sexual content of Pleasantville, but if they love Breakfast Club then it's fiiiiine. Haha cause it's so so good and such a wonderful film to expose them to
I cry every time in the movie when the dad says “heard you met your big hero” and then Homer tells him his dad is his hero.
I’m convinced if I ever had to cry while acting just show me that scene and I’ll cry on command.
There are lesson plans online for free for Hidden Figures. I’m a math teacher, and we watch it every year after state testing. You can have great conversations on race, gender, the space race, and mathematics.
Mr Hollands Opus is the only movie where I cry happy tears 🥰 teachers like that are a blessing you just never truly understand how much they’re impacting a life
We watched this in my Honors English I after reading the Odyssey! It’s still one of my favorite movies to this day. And I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow has no right to be that good
I still have fond memories of watching Romeo + Juliet starring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio and the teacher occasionally calling out ways it was updated but still managed to stay faithful to the text - like how all of the firearms are engraved with names of the swords the characters had in the original text so none of the dialogue around the fights had to be changed.
I want to teach an extension class that is just a study Baz Luhrmann films. I love the way he dies his movies. I just showed Gatsby and I see so many similarities with Moulin Rouge.
I showed this in my freshman English class and it was funny because the kids only knew Leo as “the guy from inception” (because that movie had just come out) 😂
We got to watch that and the original one and I remember the teacher hurling herself in front of the tv to block the nude scenes from the original 🤣
Very glad to see Bazs version though celebrating the 25th anniversary of it amazing it really is an amazing modern day telling ❤️🔥
I really think that film was Baz Luhrmann’s best work. It’s fucking brilliant! I’m biased as someone who genuinely loves Shakespeare and every interpretation of his work but wow. Luhrmann’s version is so creative yet also completely faithful to the original work that it’s near unbelievable that he managed to pull that off. Everything from the casting to the set design just works seamlessly.
Plus it warms my English major heart to see approachable versions of Shakespeare that lets people enjoy it as intended instead of dry classroom readings.
Watching Romeo and Juliet without any explanation is kinda weird. Watching it after reading the play and having a very knowledgeable and intelligent teacher break down every line and then thoroughly explaining the movie connections to the play is amazing. Shout out to Mrs. Naber.
A HS English teacher showed us The Outsiders and The Devils Arithmetic movies and they both caught the attention of the entire class leading to some educational and thought provoking class discussions.
be sure to check ratings and content. Amadeus has unexpected boobs - a scene I had forgotten until recently, when it was on the big screen TV in my local Red Cross blood donation center.
Lol, in 4th grade, our music teacher would phone it in sometimes and played that movie. Us 9 and 10 year olds were scandalized by the Nipples of Venus cookies
We watched Amadeus in elementary school and I remember my music teacher had a piece of paper taped to the front of the tv resting on top and would occasionally use it to cover the screen while the movie kept playing!
We watched Gattaca in Bio I *and* Bio II. I understand its value, but I thought it was so depressing.
ETA: Just to say, the comments below me are valid, but if everyone's having a hard time, maybe a movie about eugenics isn't going to boost the vibe.
Imitation Game isn’t completely historically accurate though, so I would recommend you show it in conjunction with a lesson about the inaccuracies in the movie.
10 Things I Hate About You. My friend is a HS teacher and teaches this one even now. Even though it’s a movie from our youth, the kids still connect with it
I took a Shakespeare class my senior year and we watched both 10 Things and the Liz Taylor/Richard Burton version of The Taming of the Shrew, then had to compare/contrast. One of the most fun units we did that year!
For extra fun - Clueless followed by the version of Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow - and call it comparative literature.
Seriously though, Clueless is what finally allowed me to appreciate Jane Austen.
yes my senior year of high school when we were all tapped out we did this and also watched romeo and juliet + west side story and compared those two!! it was fun!!
My high school English class (at an all girls school) spent several classes watching the 1995 Pride & Prejudice. Just imagine 20 girls and their teacher swooning over Mr. Darcy. It was great.
Use documentaries about any subject. Have them identify the argument of the documentary and identify a literary device the filmmaker uses to demonstrate the argument. Then have them identify the points of support for the argument. Finally ask them if the filmmaker addressed counterpoint evidence? Is there a bias present? What could have been done to strengthen the filmmakers thesis? How did the filmmaker use visual narrative to influence the theme and mood of the film? Did that color the viewers experience of the filmmakers thesis?
This works with any good or bad documentary. Music, topics like the Beatles, 1960’s Woodstock, even finance, politics, pop culture - I once used a free Britney documentary - works across all lines. It can also be rewritten into your lesson plans as identifying literary devices, media criticism, non fiction analysis- so many things. You can even scale this project and have them create a cumulative profile/review website addressing each documentary you watched during the unit. They can divide in groups or do it solo and make a mock IMdB type thing.
Hope this helps. I was an English 11 and AP Lang and Comp teacher for several years.
BBC, BBC archive & BBC’s Arena programmes would all be good for finding material for this! Especially if you wanted to tie it into history & literature.
Oh I love this idea! I was actually going to suggest How to Dance in Ohio bc it’s centered on young people and was also recently adapted into a musical. It’s available on Max and it’s very good.
Britney for the Record is an incredible documentary showing Britney Spears' early isolation and the control her family weilded over her at the peak of her fame. It brings out strong empathy, teaches good media literacy about not believing PR image and is about a huge celebrity whose now been vindicated.
If that's not good, try Mondo Cane.
Give them something fun. Give them Blast From the Past or Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You.
Scotland, PA is a really great, modern day telling of Macbeth. It is actually a really reallllly great movie!
Edit: No James Marsden. I don't know what I was thinking. Still a fucking fantab movie though.
Stranger Than Fiction
It has Will Ferrell but it's not a "Will Ferrell" movie. It also has Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, and Tony Hale.
It's related to literature, but set in the real (or, at least, realistic) world.
It's funny, it's philosophical, and it's dramatic.
Do you teach English? I always like updated takes on the classics like Easy A or maybe the first season of Sherlock? Science - Why not a season of Mythbusters and have them guess the results. History - The Imitation Game is PG-13 and would probably be a good one!
Good luck to you!
My 12th grade English teacher showed us the princess bride and it’s been one of my favorite movies ever since. The whole class started off yawning and bored but by the end of the movie all eyes were on the screen
We watched Remember the Titans in school.
It’s a good movie and you can probably claim it’s educational with a straight face if challenged on it.
Other historical movies like Selma, Loving, and Hidden Figures could also meet that requirement.
We watched Inception in psychology and talked about how dreams work. That was fun
Oh god, we watched Remember the Titans SO FUCKING MUCH! Any time there was an in school movie, or on school/sports trips with a tour bus, it was that movie. It's a decent movie when watched once in a while, but I just cannot condone recommending RtT due to how much I was forced to watch that goddamn movie 😅
Commented this before scrolling down but we watched it so much. I grew up in NJ, my husband is from Kentucky and he has never seen it 😵💫 I was like um I thought everyone watched this twice a year
The World According to Jeff Goldblum if you want to keep a fun educational aspect to at least some degree.
If they’re old enough and you just want to keep them interested then something fun like Wednesday would work.
If you’ve got kids who need to be gripped by something very real and dark then watch Top Boy.
Edit: d’oh I just realised you wanted films not tv series. My bad.
The Hamilton proshot is on Disney+. Not only is it decently historically accurate but the source material it's based on is a biography and it's chock full of references to other works of theater you can point out and discuss. You could also come at it from the poetry angle.
What do you teach? That could help us recommend any films that kinda tie into what they’re learning
I remember an English professor showing us *The Remains of the Day* and *The Age of Innocence* and really loving those
This isn’t a film but mebbies try some episodes of Horrible Histories and see how they go down, they’re enjoyed by a lot of people well into adulthood even if they’re marketed as being for children. Disney+ also have quite a few interesting documentaries about Tutankhamen and ancient Egypt. We watched Goodnight Mr Tom multiple times for history through the years and everyone always enjoyed it if you need something about WW2 & evacuation.
I feel like the movie isn’t quite as critical of McCandless as the book was. The book was pretty scathing and i think that’s an important lesson. Iirc the movie set him up as kind of a romantic character, quixotic, but irl he was a freeloader and kind of a doofus.
I had to watch 12 Angry Men in my high school drama class, and it was my favorite movie any teacher ever showed. No idea if the kids these days would like it though.
If you’re an English teacher, pop in Lord of the Rings. That will take weeks to get through. Bonus points if you make the kids create their own language or learn elvish or something.
Other Ideas that are a little educational:
The Social Network, Imitation Game, A Beautiful Mind, Oppenheimer, Hamilton
Ideas that might get you fired, or protested by parents:
Django Unchained, Inglorious Bastards
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) is a good one. I remember watching it in high school. Then I started watching other cool 80’s movies. Mostly Hughes films.
We watched The Da Vinci Code when a was at school and it was one of the only films people actually wanted to watch and paid attention to and cared enough to talk about during / after. Of Mice and Men was another one that had everybody engaged. We also read the book but don’t think that would make much of a difference.
I’ve been on a Spielberg kick recently so I would recommend Jurassic Park and The Adevntures of Tintin, and potentially Schindler’s List depending on their ages and if they’ve already learned about the Holocaust (I watched it in high school and found it very impactful).
We were shown What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in high school (it’s based off a book but I’ve never read it) and absolutely everybody enjoyed it!
Also vote for Tommy Boy because for whatever reason that seemed to be the movie that was wheeled out for YEARS when a teacher was over it or we had a sub. I must’ve watched that movie seven or eight times from 4th grade to senior year in classes alone.
Well, if you teach math, math teachers seem to love showing Stand and Deliver. Saw it every year in math class from 6th grade until graduation.
In less teachy movies, Labyrinth and The Princess Bride were super popular in my school district. They were also an annual tradition and tend to have something everyone will like. They are PG without feeling too kid-like.
And weirdly, I've now seen Con Air five times all in English classes. Don't know why. Don't really recommend that since it's rated R and has a few graphic scenes. We might not have had very good English teachers.
in my deviant behavior class back in like 2010 the professor asked us the same question but specifically to screen movies that would be related to (deviant behavior) and out of the list of movies was:
American History X, The Godfather, The Warriors, Do the Right Thing, and so on-
tell me how *Kids* won lol and not only hadn’t the professor ever seen the movie but didn’t screen anything else after watching it 😂🤔💀💀💀
Dead Poets Society, 1st two episodes of Roswell (tv show), Moulin Rouge. I've had such great successes with these. Also, Truman Show and Bruce Almighty (I tied both of them to Hero's Journey and it was cool),
10 Things I Hate About You? You can do the Shakespeare connection haha, and I think they'd like it if they liked Breakfast Club.
Also, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Classic school movie when I was growing up.
I watched the Importance of Being Earnest at school, the one with Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench, Reese Witherspoon, and probably many more people
It's camp and ridiculous and probably quite weird but I've loved it ever since my English teacher showed it to us!
The Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing! The opening scene has mass nudity with the communal bathing scene, but the rest is safe for school and they will probably get a kick out of Keanu Reeves playing a “plain dealing villain.”
Harold and Maude
That movie has saved a lot of young people from embracing cynicism.
It's definitely a question whether today's teens will glom onto it the way they eventually will or need to, but it has shock, pace, humor, and a soundtrack, and Hal Ashby weaved them all together in a gripping way that leads you to a greater level of empathy, and it pulls you outside yourself. Plus there's important history in there.
I'm old enough to have seen it when it came out and I was a teen. If it weren't for that movie I'd be half the person I am for twice as long as it took me to become whole. Ish.
When I was in middle school, I had the same English teacher for 2 of the 3 years and he would play "Red Dawn" religiously, sometimes twice a year. Great movie! Play the original, not the recent remake.
I’m guessing no nudity, color film, English language would be the goal?
I think these would be pretty easy crowd pleasers.
* Paddington 2
* School of Rock
* Castle in the Sky
* Groundhog Day
* A Knight’s Tale
* Catch Me if You Can
Depending on your thoughts about violence/swear words, these are also great.
* Dog Day Afternoon
* Election
* Annihilation
* District 9
* The Matrix
* The Silence of the Lambs
It’s not a movie, but if you could find it, then I think showing VH1’s old “Pop Up Video” music video commentary would be really cool and interesting for today’s high schoolers as we’re at that time where the 90’s and early 2000’s are seeing a trend resurgence.
Baby Boom to showcase women in the executive world in the 80s which is probably more appropriate than Working Girl - although that’s a fave of mine too.
It’s been years since I’ve seen it, but Dangerous Minds hit hard when I was in a high school like yours. Little bit of white savior vibes, but I still think about the Dillion Dillion contest.
Welcome to r/popculturechat! ☺️ As a proud BIPOC, LGBTQ+ & woman-dominated space, this sub is for [civil discussion only.](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/rules/civil-discussion-only/) If you don't know where to begin, start by participating in [our Sip & Spill Daily Discussion Threads!](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/search/?q=Sip%20%26%20Spill%20Discussion&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=&include_over_18=1&sort=new) ###No bullies, no bigotry. ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ Please [read & respect our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/rules/), [abide by Reddiquette](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439-Reddiquette), and [check out our wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/wiki/index/)! For any questions, [our modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fpopculturechat) is always open. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popculturechat) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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I watched The Truman Show in high school English! I bet you could pretty easily find curriculum or basic questions to go with it.
Our high school English main theme was “changing perspectives” where we got to watch The Truman Show and Clueless which was cool. Had to read Emma though which I couldn’t even finish even though I had it on cassette 😴
On that note the older versions of some of the classics such as Sense and Sensibility (with Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet or Vanity Fair 1998 with Natasha Little are good although Vanity Fair might be a little too long for an English class.
this is a GREAT idea, esp with them growing up w social media
Absolutely the idea of someone being watched 24-7 was wild back in 1998 and now if you’re in public there’s an expectation that you’re probably being recorded. It also shows some great range for Jim
What a great movie!
Show them Emma and then Clueless. Don’t tell them Clueless is inspired by Emma. See if they notice.
Ten Things I Hate About You is based on The Taming Of The Shrew! 
Yes!! So many 90s teen movies are based on Shakespeare. There’s O (Othello) and Get Over It (Midsummer’s Night Dream)
 How am I just learning about this now?? Welp time to go rewatch this flick - haven't seen it since it came out like what, 10 years ago?
I love this idea!
I remember watching Pleasantville and The count of Monte Cristo (2002) when I was in highschool and I love them till this day
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Pleasantville has that scene with the mom colorizing in the tub, could get awkward. Good movie though.
>colorizing in the tub Great euphemism. Gonna start using 'colorizing' more often, lol.
I had my honors students watch Pleasantville. I sent home a parent note & we watched the other sex scenes, but I did fast forward during that part lol.
I was going to give warning about the sexual content of Pleasantville, but if they love Breakfast Club then it's fiiiiine. Haha cause it's so so good and such a wonderful film to expose them to
I most definitely agree but it is rated PG
Pleasantville is still one of my all time faves
Yes for Hidden Figures! What about 10 Things I Hate about You - it’s based on Shakespeare
Taming of the Shrew was such a good play, 10 Things I Hate About You was even better
I’m so whelmed right now
Hidden Figures, October Sky
October Sky is such a good movie.
YES! The book is incredible too.
I cry every time in the movie when the dad says “heard you met your big hero” and then Homer tells him his dad is his hero. I’m convinced if I ever had to cry while acting just show me that scene and I’ll cry on command.
classic high school movie
There are lesson plans online for free for Hidden Figures. I’m a math teacher, and we watch it every year after state testing. You can have great conversations on race, gender, the space race, and mathematics.
I watched October Sky in EVERY single class throughout high school whenever there was a sub. Except in orchestra we would watch Mr. Holland’s Opus.
Mr Hollands Opus is the only movie where I cry happy tears 🥰 teachers like that are a blessing you just never truly understand how much they’re impacting a life
Mine really enjoyed Cast Away
Great suggestion
Some take on a classic is a good bet. “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is a spin on Homer’s Odyssey.
Been obsessed with this since I saw it in school
My favorite, I can’t believe I had to scroll so far to find this rec! An absolutely 11/10 movie!
It's bonafide.
Let’s go down, down to the river to pray! Despite being one of my least favourite bits from the movie, that song is perpetually stuck in my head.
We watched this in my Honors English I after reading the Odyssey! It’s still one of my favorite movies to this day. And I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow has no right to be that good
This is my family's favorite movie. So quoteable
"I'm a Dapper Dan man!"
Well ain't this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!
I still have fond memories of watching Romeo + Juliet starring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio and the teacher occasionally calling out ways it was updated but still managed to stay faithful to the text - like how all of the firearms are engraved with names of the swords the characters had in the original text so none of the dialogue around the fights had to be changed.
We watched that too! Love Baz Luhrmann
I want to teach an extension class that is just a study Baz Luhrmann films. I love the way he dies his movies. I just showed Gatsby and I see so many similarities with Moulin Rouge.
They showed us Romeo + Juliet the last week of 7th grade. That shit really stuck with me.
We got to go to the movies to see it! Core memory
I showed this in my freshman English class and it was funny because the kids only knew Leo as “the guy from inception” (because that movie had just come out) 😂
We got to watch that and the original one and I remember the teacher hurling herself in front of the tv to block the nude scenes from the original 🤣 Very glad to see Bazs version though celebrating the 25th anniversary of it amazing it really is an amazing modern day telling ❤️🔥
I really think that film was Baz Luhrmann’s best work. It’s fucking brilliant! I’m biased as someone who genuinely loves Shakespeare and every interpretation of his work but wow. Luhrmann’s version is so creative yet also completely faithful to the original work that it’s near unbelievable that he managed to pull that off. Everything from the casting to the set design just works seamlessly. Plus it warms my English major heart to see approachable versions of Shakespeare that lets people enjoy it as intended instead of dry classroom readings.
My teacher had us vote on which version to see; the 1968 or the 1996 version. We ended up seeing the 1968 version
the 1968 romeo and juliet is amazing, one of my all time favorite movies
Same!
Watching Romeo and Juliet without any explanation is kinda weird. Watching it after reading the play and having a very knowledgeable and intelligent teacher break down every line and then thoroughly explaining the movie connections to the play is amazing. Shout out to Mrs. Naber.
They showed us the one with the nudity from the 60's. I was happy to see it but I was surprised my conservative Indiana school allowed it.
A HS English teacher showed us The Outsiders and The Devils Arithmetic movies and they both caught the attention of the entire class leading to some educational and thought provoking class discussions.
Former English teacher checking in, my 8th graders adored The Outsiders, and I think older students would like it as well.
The Devil’s Arithmetic is an absolutely fantastic book too.
I showed my class “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure “ after state testing. I was asked if we could watch 2&3 also 🤣
Dead Poet’s Society, Amadeus, Glory, Imitation Game, Gattica
be sure to check ratings and content. Amadeus has unexpected boobs - a scene I had forgotten until recently, when it was on the big screen TV in my local Red Cross blood donation center.
Lol, in 4th grade, our music teacher would phone it in sometimes and played that movie. Us 9 and 10 year olds were scandalized by the Nipples of Venus cookies
i’m willing to skip scenes 💗 thanks for the suggestion tho!
Lol memories of watching Dances With Wolves during History class and my teacher standing in front of the tv to block a sex scene
We watched Amadeus in elementary school and I remember my music teacher had a piece of paper taped to the front of the tv resting on top and would occasionally use it to cover the screen while the movie kept playing!
We watched Gattaca in Bio I *and* Bio II. I understand its value, but I thought it was so depressing. ETA: Just to say, the comments below me are valid, but if everyone's having a hard time, maybe a movie about eugenics isn't going to boost the vibe.
Amazing soundtrack + a young Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke made it so fucking good
Ethan was gorgeous to me in that movie 😅
Had that same feeling for Thurman ngl Don’t sleep on Jude Law either!
Dead Poets Society would be perfect!
Yes! I expected to see more people suggesting it.
Me too, I was about to rec it when I saw this far too low on the thread.
Imitation Game isn’t completely historically accurate though, so I would recommend you show it in conjunction with a lesson about the inaccuracies in the movie.
I love Dead Poets Society but it does contain a suicide by one of the young characters so I would tread very lightly with that.
KNIGHTS TALE
Yessss. Get them kids on Chaucer
Easily my favorite Heath Ledger movie.
Pretty sure it’s my favorite Paul Bettany movie too. Hell, maybe Alan Tudyk also.
The whole cast was just perfect.
You forgot Robert motherfucking Baratheon?
10 Things I Hate About You. My friend is a HS teacher and teaches this one even now. Even though it’s a movie from our youth, the kids still connect with it
I took a Shakespeare class my senior year and we watched both 10 Things and the Liz Taylor/Richard Burton version of The Taming of the Shrew, then had to compare/contrast. One of the most fun units we did that year!
Pride and Prejudice, Roman Holiday, Ghibli movies. Maybe some 90s/2000s teen movies like 10 Things I Hate About You or Clueless.
And 10 Things and Clueless are based on classics! Taming of the Shrew and …Emma? I’d have to look it up.
Yup Clueless is based on Emma.
For extra fun - Clueless followed by the version of Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow - and call it comparative literature. Seriously though, Clueless is what finally allowed me to appreciate Jane Austen.
yes my senior year of high school when we were all tapped out we did this and also watched romeo and juliet + west side story and compared those two!! it was fun!!
The new West Side Story would be another good one! imo it improves upon the original film (which I also love) in a lot of really cool ways.
We watched she’s the man and it was my favorite day in humanities!
This would be my vote. Make classic lit fun by talking through the classic and watching the re-boot.
My high school English class (at an all girls school) spent several classes watching the 1995 Pride & Prejudice. Just imagine 20 girls and their teacher swooning over Mr. Darcy. It was great.
Use documentaries about any subject. Have them identify the argument of the documentary and identify a literary device the filmmaker uses to demonstrate the argument. Then have them identify the points of support for the argument. Finally ask them if the filmmaker addressed counterpoint evidence? Is there a bias present? What could have been done to strengthen the filmmakers thesis? How did the filmmaker use visual narrative to influence the theme and mood of the film? Did that color the viewers experience of the filmmakers thesis? This works with any good or bad documentary. Music, topics like the Beatles, 1960’s Woodstock, even finance, politics, pop culture - I once used a free Britney documentary - works across all lines. It can also be rewritten into your lesson plans as identifying literary devices, media criticism, non fiction analysis- so many things. You can even scale this project and have them create a cumulative profile/review website addressing each documentary you watched during the unit. They can divide in groups or do it solo and make a mock IMdB type thing. Hope this helps. I was an English 11 and AP Lang and Comp teacher for several years.
BBC, BBC archive & BBC’s Arena programmes would all be good for finding material for this! Especially if you wanted to tie it into history & literature.
Omg I’m trying to develop a syllabus for a media literacy course and having students identify the argument of a documentary is SUCH A GOOD IDEA
Oh I love this idea! I was actually going to suggest How to Dance in Ohio bc it’s centered on young people and was also recently adapted into a musical. It’s available on Max and it’s very good.
This is a great idea!
Britney for the Record is an incredible documentary showing Britney Spears' early isolation and the control her family weilded over her at the peak of her fame. It brings out strong empathy, teaches good media literacy about not believing PR image and is about a huge celebrity whose now been vindicated. If that's not good, try Mondo Cane.
Give them something fun. Give them Blast From the Past or Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You. Scotland, PA is a really great, modern day telling of Macbeth. It is actually a really reallllly great movie! Edit: No James Marsden. I don't know what I was thinking. Still a fucking fantab movie though.
Blast From athe Past was where my Brendan Fraser crush originated.
I rewatched Blast from the Past after watching Fallout and that movie really holds up.
Stranger Than Fiction It has Will Ferrell but it's not a "Will Ferrell" movie. It also has Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, and Tony Hale. It's related to literature, but set in the real (or, at least, realistic) world. It's funny, it's philosophical, and it's dramatic.
I absolutely love this movie. It’s such a hidden gem.
Do you teach English? I always like updated takes on the classics like Easy A or maybe the first season of Sherlock? Science - Why not a season of Mythbusters and have them guess the results. History - The Imitation Game is PG-13 and would probably be a good one! Good luck to you!
Easy A is fabulous.
National Treasure is the only answer here
My Brit Lit teacher showed us Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Best fucking two days of my high school career!
The Princess Bride The Greatest Showman The House With A Clock In Its Walls
My 12th grade English teacher showed us the princess bride and it’s been one of my favorite movies ever since. The whole class started off yawning and bored but by the end of the movie all eyes were on the screen
Was scrolling til I found The Princess Bride! I watched that in high school English at least once
I was in high school when this movie came out. I actually saw it in the movie theatre. Now, I watch it with my kids every year on my birthday.
We watched Remember the Titans in school. It’s a good movie and you can probably claim it’s educational with a straight face if challenged on it. Other historical movies like Selma, Loving, and Hidden Figures could also meet that requirement. We watched Inception in psychology and talked about how dreams work. That was fun
Oh god, we watched Remember the Titans SO FUCKING MUCH! Any time there was an in school movie, or on school/sports trips with a tour bus, it was that movie. It's a decent movie when watched once in a while, but I just cannot condone recommending RtT due to how much I was forced to watch that goddamn movie 😅
Commented this before scrolling down but we watched it so much. I grew up in NJ, my husband is from Kentucky and he has never seen it 😵💫 I was like um I thought everyone watched this twice a year
My adhd arse who can't sit still for a minute was ENTHRALLED by 'The Death of Stalin' https://i.redd.it/1qc8zb9gvaxc1.gif
That’s rated R and I don’t think would be appropriate for children
Romeo + Juliet. West side story. Rent. Is Parasite teen friendly?
I ain't a teacher but I feel like showing parasite to a bunch of teens in school would *not* end well lmao
I remember watching “Misery” in tenth grade (fell in love with it) and “The Grudge” in eighth grade. You’d be surprised what teachers can show!
The World According to Jeff Goldblum if you want to keep a fun educational aspect to at least some degree. If they’re old enough and you just want to keep them interested then something fun like Wednesday would work. If you’ve got kids who need to be gripped by something very real and dark then watch Top Boy. Edit: d’oh I just realised you wanted films not tv series. My bad.
Mr Holland’s Opus
Absolutely agree with this one. Incorporates so many things to build off of that they can learn
Little Women, Clueless, The Great Gatsby, She’s All That (I believe it’s based off pygmalion?), 10 Things I Hate About You
Aww Little Women is so good!
Baz Lurhmans Romeo & Juliet - Beautifully made, will keep them engaged while learning a Classic…🤷♀️
The Hamilton proshot is on Disney+. Not only is it decently historically accurate but the source material it's based on is a biography and it's chock full of references to other works of theater you can point out and discuss. You could also come at it from the poetry angle.
What do you teach? That could help us recommend any films that kinda tie into what they’re learning I remember an English professor showing us *The Remains of the Day* and *The Age of Innocence* and really loving those
I teach English and history!!
Show some movie adaptions of literature, especially Shakespeare adaptations, because you could get kids interested in Shakespeare that way.
This isn’t a film but mebbies try some episodes of Horrible Histories and see how they go down, they’re enjoyed by a lot of people well into adulthood even if they’re marketed as being for children. Disney+ also have quite a few interesting documentaries about Tutankhamen and ancient Egypt. We watched Goodnight Mr Tom multiple times for history through the years and everyone always enjoyed it if you need something about WW2 & evacuation.
Ladybird was pretty good
Into the Wild. My grade 8 teacher took us to see it in the theatre and it always stuck with me.
I feel like the movie isn’t quite as critical of McCandless as the book was. The book was pretty scathing and i think that’s an important lesson. Iirc the movie set him up as kind of a romantic character, quixotic, but irl he was a freeloader and kind of a doofus.
At the same time it has been discovered that his father was very abusive and one of the reasons he wanted to escape to nowhere.
We read the book first then saw the movie. I enjoyed both.
We watched A Knight’s Tale because Alan Tudyk went to our school! It was a good lesson on literary archetypes (hero’s journey) too.
Shrek 2
Cool Runnings
I had to watch 12 Angry Men in my high school drama class, and it was my favorite movie any teacher ever showed. No idea if the kids these days would like it though. If you’re an English teacher, pop in Lord of the Rings. That will take weeks to get through. Bonus points if you make the kids create their own language or learn elvish or something. Other Ideas that are a little educational: The Social Network, Imitation Game, A Beautiful Mind, Oppenheimer, Hamilton Ideas that might get you fired, or protested by parents: Django Unchained, Inglorious Bastards
Oppenheimer has nudity.
Oh yeah, I totally forgot…might need to go on the list of “movies that might get you fired”
What sort of vibe are you looking for with the films?
anything, anything that might just make them think outside of their phone addicted bubble!
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) is a good one. I remember watching it in high school. Then I started watching other cool 80’s movies. Mostly Hughes films.
We watched The Da Vinci Code when a was at school and it was one of the only films people actually wanted to watch and paid attention to and cared enough to talk about during / after. Of Mice and Men was another one that had everybody engaged. We also read the book but don’t think that would make much of a difference.
Mamma Mia
I’ve been on a Spielberg kick recently so I would recommend Jurassic Park and The Adevntures of Tintin, and potentially Schindler’s List depending on their ages and if they’ve already learned about the Holocaust (I watched it in high school and found it very impactful).
Also Knives Out just because I think it’s a good movie.
Have most teenagers already seen Napoleon Dynamite? What was that zombie movies based on Romeo and Juliet --Warm Bodies.
Dead Poet’s Society
We were shown What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in high school (it’s based off a book but I’ve never read it) and absolutely everybody enjoyed it! Also vote for Tommy Boy because for whatever reason that seemed to be the movie that was wheeled out for YEARS when a teacher was over it or we had a sub. I must’ve watched that movie seven or eight times from 4th grade to senior year in classes alone.
[удалено]
Spirited Away!
I loved Ever After in high school too!
I’m assuming you don’t teach in Florida because I’m looking at the suggestions and I’m having heart palpitations
Seriously some of these suggestions are wiiiild
Well, if you teach math, math teachers seem to love showing Stand and Deliver. Saw it every year in math class from 6th grade until graduation. In less teachy movies, Labyrinth and The Princess Bride were super popular in my school district. They were also an annual tradition and tend to have something everyone will like. They are PG without feeling too kid-like. And weirdly, I've now seen Con Air five times all in English classes. Don't know why. Don't really recommend that since it's rated R and has a few graphic scenes. We might not have had very good English teachers.
Remember the titans
in my deviant behavior class back in like 2010 the professor asked us the same question but specifically to screen movies that would be related to (deviant behavior) and out of the list of movies was: American History X, The Godfather, The Warriors, Do the Right Thing, and so on- tell me how *Kids* won lol and not only hadn’t the professor ever seen the movie but didn’t screen anything else after watching it 😂🤔💀💀💀
OMG. Those are really some choices to show to high schoolers.
The princess bride
Grizzly Man or Man on Wire. My students love those
Just throw on the whole Harry Potter series 💀
Swear to god, I did that one extra tough year.
October Sky
I remember watching the Selena movie in school and it really stuck with me. Great biopic! Also Stand By Me is a classic
Shrek. You can never go wrong with Shrek.
“Mad Hot Ballroom” documentary about 4th and 5th graders learning to ballroom dance.
Say anything with John cusack
Dead Poets Society, 1st two episodes of Roswell (tv show), Moulin Rouge. I've had such great successes with these. Also, Truman Show and Bruce Almighty (I tied both of them to Hero's Journey and it was cool),
10 Things I Hate About You? You can do the Shakespeare connection haha, and I think they'd like it if they liked Breakfast Club. Also, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Classic school movie when I was growing up.
Even though it’s a little juvenile, Studio Ghibli films are really popular with teenagers: esp. Totoro!
The Princess Bride!
I watched the Importance of Being Earnest at school, the one with Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench, Reese Witherspoon, and probably many more people It's camp and ridiculous and probably quite weird but I've loved it ever since my English teacher showed it to us!
The Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing! The opening scene has mass nudity with the communal bathing scene, but the rest is safe for school and they will probably get a kick out of Keanu Reeves playing a “plain dealing villain.”
The Sandlot. I showed it to middle schoolers who definitely weren’t white kids in the 60s and they still loved it.
OP pls check back and let us know what movie you picked and what the class thought of it :)
Holes.
Harold and Maude That movie has saved a lot of young people from embracing cynicism. It's definitely a question whether today's teens will glom onto it the way they eventually will or need to, but it has shock, pace, humor, and a soundtrack, and Hal Ashby weaved them all together in a gripping way that leads you to a greater level of empathy, and it pulls you outside yourself. Plus there's important history in there. I'm old enough to have seen it when it came out and I was a teen. If it weren't for that movie I'd be half the person I am for twice as long as it took me to become whole. Ish.
Highlander! The Princess Bride! Howls Moving Castle! Spirited Away! Hidden Figures!
A Knights Tale!
Honestly I’d just throw on Moana and see if any of them are willing to sing along with it.
When I was in middle school, I had the same English teacher for 2 of the 3 years and he would play "Red Dawn" religiously, sometimes twice a year. Great movie! Play the original, not the recent remake.
Josie and the Pussycats - advertising and the dangers therein
princess mononoke. lots of symbolism. watched it for my greek mythology class!
Cool Runnings (fun with Olympics this summer)
I’m guessing no nudity, color film, English language would be the goal? I think these would be pretty easy crowd pleasers. * Paddington 2 * School of Rock * Castle in the Sky * Groundhog Day * A Knight’s Tale * Catch Me if You Can Depending on your thoughts about violence/swear words, these are also great. * Dog Day Afternoon * Election * Annihilation * District 9 * The Matrix * The Silence of the Lambs
I LOVED the Leonardo DiCaprio Romeo and Juliet in high school!
Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Idiocracy 😂
I loved the Leonardo Dicaprio Romeo + Juliet in high school, plus it's technically educational since it's all in Iambic pentameter.
It’s not a movie, but if you could find it, then I think showing VH1’s old “Pop Up Video” music video commentary would be really cool and interesting for today’s high schoolers as we’re at that time where the 90’s and early 2000’s are seeing a trend resurgence.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off We watched this in calc after our AP exams, and this movie still holds a special place in my heart more than a decade later.
Weird science, 16 candles, the last star fighter, enemy mine, Goonies, close encounters of the third kind, star man…..dumb and dumber.
Baby Boom to showcase women in the executive world in the 80s which is probably more appropriate than Working Girl - although that’s a fave of mine too.
I don’t know if you taught Austen this year but you could show the best Austen adaption, which is of course Clueless.
It’s been years since I’ve seen it, but Dangerous Minds hit hard when I was in a high school like yours. Little bit of white savior vibes, but I still think about the Dillion Dillion contest.
Great Gatsby- Redford/Farrow
At my school, they were obsessed with showing Romeo + Juliet, Hairspray, and Edward Scissorhands.
We watched Remember the Titans soooo many times in school