Sixteen Candles. John Hughes gave us some classic school-related movies. He was also responsible for some really crappy ones (“Flubber,” for instance). “Sixteen Candles” is the story of a high school sophomore who is sad because everyone forgets her 16th birthday, but happy because she eventually makes out with dreamy hunk Jake Ryan. It’s a near-great entry in the Hughes canon.
School Daze. You probably won’t believe it, but Spike Lee used to be a great filmmaker who created cutting-edge movies. This was Lee’s 1988 take on life at a historically black college, on South African apartheid, and on the value of hair among African-Americans. It’s also a musical.
