This column has been so serious of late. So, as a reward for sticking around, here's a top ten. Yay. Etc. It's a hectic field and I'm sure I've missed plenty, so feel free to berate me in the comments.

10. Napoleon Dynamite

While in retrospect the film should perhaps be judged harshly for encouraging thousands of personality free folk to express their personalities with 'Vote for Pedro' t-shirts, the phrases "Girls only like guys who have skills" and "Gah" and their ability to do the dance at the end, Napoleon Dynamite is still a pretty excellent comic creation. With some sweet ass moves.



9. Teen Wolf

I was tempted to include Teen Wolf 2, because, you know, Jason Bateman, but wasn't this fun back in the day? Also rates a mention as being the first VHS I ever owned, after I was given it by a friend for my 5th birthday. He obviously knew my taste in film.



8. Rushmore

While the last couple of Wes Anderson films have left me a little underwhelmed ("Fantastic Mr Fox? More like Fantastic Mr Dickhead!... I'll let myself out"), his early works are perfectly balanced little exercises in quirk. This tale of high school infatuation, nerdiness and impressively rococo theatrical endeavours is charming, weird and makes me wish we could have had full pyrotechnics in our school plays.



7. Heathers

More than just the answer to any game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, Heathers is also the hard-edged cousin to the John Hughes family of films. More sex, more violence, more swearing. Revenge fantasy for the ostracised set.



6. Brick

Perhaps one of the most intriguing films about school ever made, this strange, ambitious neo-noir debut from Rian Johnson turned the suburban high school wastelands of Los Angeles into a menacing, otherworldly assemblage of violence, drugs and... intrigue. Really, really, really not like my high school experience.



5. Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Based on an investigation by Cameron "I'm the guy who Almost Famous was about" Crowe, this is a piercingly honest, occasionally unsettling and very funny take on adolescence and the weirdness of sex. Also, it involves a scene with Phoebe Cates and a bikini which is seared into the erotic imaginations of a good solid portion of the male population.



4. Donnie Darko

I went pretty goddamn crazy for this movie when it first came out. SO MUCH EMOTION. While I'm willing to admit that some of that obsession was to do with the fact that I myself was coming out of adolescence and so the "themes" "resonated with me", it still stands as a curious, sad and hopeful film that also happens to include the best bunny character of all time.



3. Dazed and Confused

"So you're not going to go to law school? What are you going to do then?"
"I want to dance!"

Story of my life.



2. The Breakfast Club

While the film vastly overstated the fun one could have when struck with a Saturday detention (and have they just taken weed or PCP in this clip?), it's pretty hard to deny the film's iconic status. To this day, it pretty much defines what it feels like to be a teenager.



1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

This probably doesn't really need any explanation, does it? So instead, here's the film recut to the theme from Requiem for a Dream.