In teen movies, there are always two sides. David Denby shows us this in “High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies”. He describes the first side, or the villains, consisting of the popular, blonde cheerleader that everyone hates and fears, and alongside her is the airhead, jock boyfriend that is only looking to date the hottest girl in school. However, on the other side of the spectrum, we have the heroes. It is made up of the artistic, female outcast who wears ugly clothes and glasses, and who is susceptible to tripping and dropping her books. Alongside her is her friend, the male outcast. He is usually a small, skinny kid that can’t talk to pretty girls or a hipster that doesn’t care about the opinion of others. These two sides collide
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As Denby explains it, “... his gaze lights her up, and we see how attractive she really is” (Denby 370). This plot, or idea, is seen in movies such as Ten Things I Hate About You, Disturbing Behavior, She’s All That, and Never Been Kissed. Since every teen movie follows this, Denby argues that teen movies have overused plots that follow a certain pattern causing these movies to be rather predictable. They constantly start and end the same, and they all have the same theme of teens humiliating and embarrassing other teens based on their appearance while no adult or teacher ever steps in to help. This leads Denby to argue that the plot of teen movies can actually be, consequently, more of a problem to teenagers than beneficial. Girls may feel that they need to fit in with the popular crowd while nerds need to date a pretty girl in order to avoid being ridiculed (Denby …show more content…
I think that parents often play one of the biggest roles. Most of the time, parents can act as the motivation for why the teens act the way they do during school. In multiple teen movies, the cheerleader that bullies the nerds is often stressed at home, whether it’s because the parents are getting divorced or there is a large amount of pressure to be the prom queen just like their mother. The same goes for the dumb jock. In the teen movie She’s All That, Zack faces immense pressure from his dad to go to the Dartmouth, the Ivy League school he went to, while Zack doesn’t want to. Even the outsider is affected by it. Most only have their dad because their “... mom has died or run off with another man” (Denby 369). This causes them to not dress in all the newest trends and to be socially awkward due to not having a mother there to teach them how to dress and do their hair and to gossip with. Therefore, I believe that adults, especially parents, play a huge role in teen movies, although it may not seem like it at first glance. I also disagree with Denby about the reason teen movies are made. I don’t think that it is because the movie producers were once nerds themselves. In high school, there isn’t a certain distinction of who is popular and who is a nerd. I know at my high school, the nerds where the popular kids. All the athletic kids were also super smart. There wasn’t a distinct line
As Denby explains it, “... his gaze lights her up, and we see how attractive she really is” (Denby 370). This plot, or idea, is seen in movies such as Ten Things I Hate About You, Disturbing Behavior, She’s All That, and Never Been Kissed. Since every teen movie follows this, Denby argues that teen movies have overused plots that follow a certain pattern causing these movies to be rather predictable. They constantly start and end the same, and they all have the same theme of teens humiliating and embarrassing other teens based on their appearance while no adult or teacher ever steps in to help. This leads Denby to argue that the plot of teen movies can actually be, consequently, more of a problem to teenagers than beneficial. Girls may feel that they need to fit in with the popular crowd while nerds need to date a pretty girl in order to avoid being ridiculed (Denby …show more content…
I think that parents often play one of the biggest roles. Most of the time, parents can act as the motivation for why the teens act the way they do during school. In multiple teen movies, the cheerleader that bullies the nerds is often stressed at home, whether it’s because the parents are getting divorced or there is a large amount of pressure to be the prom queen just like their mother. The same goes for the dumb jock. In the teen movie She’s All That, Zack faces immense pressure from his dad to go to the Dartmouth, the Ivy League school he went to, while Zack doesn’t want to. Even the outsider is affected by it. Most only have their dad because their “... mom has died or run off with another man” (Denby 369). This causes them to not dress in all the newest trends and to be socially awkward due to not having a mother there to teach them how to dress and do their hair and to gossip with. Therefore, I believe that adults, especially parents, play a huge role in teen movies, although it may not seem like it at first glance. I also disagree with Denby about the reason teen movies are made. I don’t think that it is because the movie producers were once nerds themselves. In high school, there isn’t a certain distinction of who is popular and who is a nerd. I know at my high school, the nerds where the popular kids. All the athletic kids were also super smart. There wasn’t a distinct line