The nineties were full of teenagers running around trying to hook up, party, and get into decent colleges or just make it to graduation, get out of high school, and survive into the next phase of their lives. If that sounds familiar, that’s probably because that pretty much describes teenagers in every decade in history. The settings of the stories are what gets changed. The uniqueness of some of the stories changes as well.
With movies like American Pie, Clueless, Scream, Never Been Kissed, and several other teen movies of the nineties, these below movies have their followings as well. But they’re still the 10 Most Underrated Teen Movies Of The 90s.
Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead
Christina Applegate began her ascent to big screen stardom here in Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead. She plays Sue Ellen (Swell for short), the oldest of five kids. Mom is heading to Australia for the summer.
But, instead of absolute freedom, the kids get straddled with a babysitter, but she has a heart attack. A bunch of unruly kids running around all summer long with Swell and her slacker brother to care for them leads to a really funny movie even if plenty of the twists are obvious ones.
PCU
If you’ve ever gone to a concert while wearing the shirt of the band and one your friends says “don’t be that guy,” they’re quoting PCU. Starring Jeremy Piven, Jon Favreau, and David Spade, the movie is an Animal House for the nineties.
It’s also almost a good measuring stick for today’s PC heavy culture. At PCU (Port Chester University), fraternities are a thing of the past and being PC is all that matters. It’s hysterical to see how the issues of woke culture were a big part of a movie over 20 years ago.
Empire Records
Records are making a decent comeback in some nostalgia-based circles. In the nineties, before CDs took over, records were still the jam and working at a record store was one of the coolest jobs you could have.
Definitely not as cool as the staff of Empire Records, but they’re in a movie and you’re in the real world. Liv Tyler, Renee Zellweger, Robin Tunney, and Robert LaPaglia are part of a cast of misfits who work at the local record store trying to avert being sold to a big chain. “Damn the man, save the Empire!”
Mallrats
Kevin Smith’s second film is often overlooked and underrated—unless you’re a Kevin Smith mark. Mallrats is just what Smith wanted to have, an unabashed slacker comedy without all of the philosophical thoughts of Dante Hicks. Enter wisecracking Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee), and his “Dante,” T.S. Quint (Jeremy London) pine for their respective girlfriends using retail therapy at the mall.
But, instead, they have to deal with Brandi’s father, the guy that Rene is seeing, and the shenanigans of Jay and Silent Bob to try and win their ladies back. It’s actually good, clean fun, just with foul language and some nudity.
10 Things I Hate About You
“How do I loathe thee?” was the punny line that was used in a lot of trailers for 10 Things I Hate About You, now retroactively known in some circles as “When The Joker Met Robin.” The movie is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Taming Of The Shrew and gifted Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles to the masses. It also helped to have Ledger croon “I Can’t Take My Eyes Of You.”
The Faculty
Robert Rodriguez’s early movies go down in age to the market. First was El Mariachi and Desperado, more adult-oriented. Then were the Spy Kids movies. But, in between, he hit the teenage market with The Faculty. He teamed up with Kevin Williamson of the Scream movies to tell a story a lot of teens think - their teachers are aliens. Only in this movie, the actually were!
Jawbreaker
In between Heathers and Mean Girls, Jawbreaker lies. Three of the most popular girls in high school kidnap their friend as a joke and gag her with a jawbreaker. Tragically, the prank goes terribly wrong, and Liz dies while in the trunk.
Rose McGowan plays Courtney, and she makes Regina George look like a very nice girl. She’s “satan in heels,” just as the film’s narrator says. As Pam Grier’s Detective Cruz closes in, so does the rest of the student body since Courtney’s a shoo-in for prom queen.
The Craft
For every girl or boy for that matter, that has ever felt bullied The Craft might be for you. If you grew up in the nineties and ever knew a Wiccan, there’s a good chance they were huge fans of this movie and started learning the Craft because of The Craft.
When Sarah moves to town, she is befriended by three other outcasts, and they all practice Witchcraft. Only, the leader Nancy is demented and wants to punish everyone, and Sarah happens to be a descendant of an actual Wiccan who can stop Nancy and her friends.
Cry-Baby
When Johnny Depp was trying to shed his teen idol image, Avante Garde director John Waters stepped in to help by... casting him as a bad boy teen idol. Depp plays the title role in Cry-Baby as Wade Walker. Walker falls for a nice girl square, Allison.
It’s a classic take on a bad boy—good girl romance, but it’s also a John Waters movie, which means no one takes themselves seriously at all and just about every second of the movie is played up for laughs.
Can’t Hardly Wait
The graduating class of Huntington Hillside Can’t Hardly Wait for their massive graduation party. The movie is jam-packed with all kinds of “omg that’s (insert name here)” actors and actresses who went on to do some serious stuff.
Preston has spent years pining for Amanda (who could blame him, she’s played by Jennifer Love Hewitt). That’s just one story that’s going on in this ultimate party movie, also starring Lauren Ambrose, Seth Green, Jason Segel, Jamie Pressly, and just about everyone you could think of.