10 essential high school comedies

6. “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982)

Sean Penn played a stoner, Phoebe Cates opened up her bikini top, and the high school comedy would never be the same. Cameron Crowe adapted the screenplay from his book based on his undercover reporting at a San Diego high school. Director Amy Heckerling assembled an impressive cast (also including Jennifer Jason Leigh and Judge Reinhold) for one of the most authentic portrayals of teen life audiences had seen yet. A groundbreaking movie that paved the way for John Hughes to take the genre to the next level.