Dating back to the mid-to-late 1930s, with the Andy Hardy movies, the teen film has been a Hollywood staple. There was Sandra Dee in the late 50s, the beach movies of the 60s, and Grease 20 years later, followed soon after by John Hughes, who is responsible for creating the template for the genre in the past couple of decades.
And if the last few years are any indication, the teen film is alive and well at the box office and for critics. We have been fortunate enough to see some instant classics, though some initially skirted underneath the radar. Here is list of The Ten Best Teen Films of the Decade (According to Rotten Tomatoes).
A Silent Voice (94%)
One of the many positive forward steps for American moviegoers is greater visibility of Japanese animated films. A Silent Voice is one of the best imports from our friends across the Pacific.
The film centers around a teenage protagonist with crippling self-hatred who finds a new lease on life when he attempts to make amends to a deaf girl he bullied in elementary school. While there is a high degree of angst, the critics praised the story for its emotional poignancy and the breathless animation.
The Edge of Seventeen (94%)
Hailee Steinfeld blossomed in the 2010s. She ushered in the decade with an outstanding performance as a girl driven by revenge in True Grit and has become a bonafide musical star, not to mention her own TV show, Dickinson. Her finest hour, however, remains 2017's Edge of Seventeen.
Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, the dramedy centers on a 17-year-old who struggles to face the grief of losing her father and the revelation that her older brother and her best friend have started dating. Critics praised Craig for her directing and writing, and Steinfeld for her very believable performance.
It Follows (95%)
Teens and the horror genre are a match made in cinematic hell. It comes as no surprise that one teenage horror flick finds its way onto this list.
It Follows is structured almost like a game of tag, but a sexual and violent tag. After having sex with someone she thought was her boyfriend, Jaimie starts being followed by a mysterious entity and learns she cannot outrun it. With help from her friends, she tries to fight back to free herself from the burden. Critics have pondered over the film's meaning, opining that is a parable about sexually transmitted diseases.
Booksmart (97%)
Coming of age comedies are a dime a dozen in Hollywood. We've seen it all, right? Apparently not. Olivia Wilde, in her directorial debut, provided a raunchy and fresh new spin on the old story.
Booksmart follows two academically minded girls who decide to break free of their normal routines and party hard on the day before their graduation. The dynamic duo of Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever find themselves in unfamiliar and uncomfortable situations, resulting in a careful examination of their relationship. The lowbrow antics are matched by a surprising degree of emotional resonance.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (97%)
If we are being perfectly honest, 2018 was a bad year for the Oscars. Not only did the wrong movie win Best Picture, the movie that should've at least been in the top two (alongside Blackkklansman) wasn't even nominated...because it was an animated superhero feature.
Into the Spider-Verse was much more than a superhero origin story, rather it poked fun at them, and added a degree of cultural nuance missing from most films dealing with race. Watch it for the story, which is Fun with a capital F and watch for the seamless blending of multiple animation styles.
Boyhood (97%)
Boyhood holds mixed opinions for viewers. On the one hand, there are the people who loved it, found it unlike any movie about growing up they had ever seen, while on the other, there are those who found it boring and the idea of filming a kid over the course of many years to be a gimmick. There is no such division among critics. Richard Linklater's 2014 release was met with near universal praise, as they singled out the intimacy with which the story is told.
To All The Boys I've Loved Before (97%)
2018 may go down in history as the year Asian Americans achieved lasting mainstream success in the entertainment industry. Crazy Rich Asians received all of the media hype, but To All The Boys I've Loved Before was watched by more audiences and was arguably the better movie.
While the film follows the high school rom-com textbook, its premise and characters--the first believable and relatable Asian American teen girls we've seen-make for a highly watchable movie. To All The Boys I've Loved Before is the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine (of some of the other movies on this list) go down.
Your Name (97%)
Our second anime entry on the list was created by the burgeoning director Makoto Shinkai, who is on record saying A Silent Voice far exceeds anything he could make. The critics saw otherwise, handing Your Name higher praise.
The film represents a maturation for its protagonists and for Shinkai. While the two leads Taki and Mitsuha unravel the mystery of their body switching and learn more about themselves in the process, this is the first time that Shinkai pairs his virtually unmatched animation quality with an entertaining story that possesses an impeccable structure, humor, and surprising emotional and cultural resonance.
Lady Bird (99%)
The 2010s have provided us with breakthroughs for talented young actresses. Hailee Steinfeld was one, while Saoirse Ronan is another. While not her first successful film, Lady Bird proved she had the makings of a star.
Greta Gerwig also proved her directing chops, as her tale of a graduating senior seeking to escape her Catholic school in Sacramento, and her complicated relationship with her mother, reveals a deft ability to showcase the struggles of growing up amid a changing society. The critics flocked to the movie and it held a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes for a long time.
Eighth Grade (99%)
What is it with the late 2010s? They kept giving us films driven by realistic and relatable female teen protagonists directed by freshmen helmers. Eighth Grade might be the first film to accurately portray the middle school experience in all its cringeworthy awkwardness and social yearning.
Star Elsie Fisher and comedian turned director Bo Burnham are forces to be reckoned with should Eighth Grade prove prophetic for future projects. The critics could not get enough.