10 essential high school comedies

Head of the class: Best high school comedies

By Geoff Berkshire, Metromix

"I Love You, Beth Cooper," opening July 10, is the latest in a long line of high school comedies, a genre that's become as unavoidable (and frequently annoying) as high school itself.

The best of the bunch use witty dialogue and recognizable characters to explore the pressures, anxities, frustrations and occasional triumphs of high school life. And because of that more than a few have proven themselves essential viewing for movie fans.

In compiling a list of the finest, some worthy movies were disqualified for arguably arbitrary reasons ("Risky Business" and "Juno" focus on the adult world more than high school; "American Grafitti" unfolds after its characters have graduated). Otherwise the only requirement was for a high school comedy to be awesome, important, or preferably both.