Teen flicks are an odd phenomenon from the perspectives of both children and adults. For children, they speak of absolute nonsense worlds, annoying people, strange relationships, not to mention the highly unrealistic portrayals of school life. For adults they seem to sit somewhere between childishness and adulthood, with unrealistic expectations, exaggerated idealism, but genuinely mature topics being handled with all the subtlety of a Las Vegas club sign. But for a few brief years of our lives, they make so much sense to us. We can look at them and see reflections of ourselves, answers to life’s great questions, and a much clearer path toward the future than the one our parents have been trying to describe to us. And even as adults we hold fondness towards our first teen flicks, albeit grudgingly admitting they are not exactly the best preparation we could have for high school, university or the real world. But what is it that draws us to love them in the first place?
1: The cast are easy to relate to.
For starters, the cast are just so… simple. They’re kids. Nothing fancy or elaborate, they’re not great or perfect or total geniuses. They have a few things they are good at, a few things they are bad at, and that easy to relate everyday struggle of working out their lives through adolescence into something resembling adulthood. Culture changes every five to ten years and where before our parents rites of passage and experiences made sense to us, now we’re almost the only ones going through our exact struggles when we hit high school. So it is just nice to see someone say “we get it”.
2: But the cast are also completely not about us.
On the other hand, nothing is quite as mortifying to a teen as being shown themselves in a mirror. During these turbulent years we all struggle with constant insecurities, concerns about our bodies, desire for acceptance from both family and peers, as well as the urge to become adult as soon as possible. We don’t actually want to see a true reflection of ourselves on screen. We want to see someone with a more adult body, someone much more attractive, someone who is smarter, less socially awkward, more romantically successful and generally happier. In part this is for comfort. It is reassuring to see that people we think of as mature, attractive, smart and confident also have the same internal struggles that we do. In part, it helps us see ourselves more objectively. When we can say “if I were him, I’d ask her out” or “that’s dumb, not revising for the test”, we learn about our own mistakes and make better choices later on.
3: The wit of the staircase comes to life.
“The wit of the staircase” is a French expression meaning all those clever things you think of saying after the time has long passed to say them. And teenagers have a lot of moments like that. As our brains mature we get very creative, but we’re still socially awkward enough to suppress that creativity and just be shy when we’re faced with confrontation. It’s only afterwards that we realize all the clever things we could have said. But in teen flicks these things are said all the time, giving us an idea of both what is socially acceptable to say and do, as well as building our confidence.
4: We can’t help but root for the good guys.
Being a teenager is a time of extreme cynicism. We are starting to see that children are all brainwashed by adults, who are all full of s#*t about everything, or at least seriously misinformed. We feel we have got it all figured out. So when we see a deeper, more meaningful film with complex characters, ugly characters, characters who are pretty realistic… we dismiss it as pure fantasy. On the other hand, it’s so hard to be cynical about characters that are just so… good. We try and be a little cold towards them, but we genuinely want the good guy to get the girl, the smart kid to do well at school, the late bloomer to make friends. Our cynicism is broken in a healthy way and we are forced to be more mature about these matters. Which actually helps us grow into the adults we will eventually be.
All in all, teen flicks cater to that stage in our lives where everything seems uncertain and makes everything OK again. Which is why their audience loves them as everyone else watches on completely baffled.