10 Teen Movies That Are Smarter Than You Think

The teen movie makers of the '90s and 2000s had an almost unhealthy obsession with the Bard, cranking out an unholy number of pictures based on Shakespeare’s plays. The films that resulted from this period weren’t exactly created equal, but there is a certain standard of quality to most of them, and an especially high bar set by 10 Things I Hate About You.

The breakthrough picture for Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the film touches down in Padua High, Seattle, where new student Cameron James (Gordon-Levitt) acclimatises to his new surroundings and promptly falls head over heels for Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik). There’s only one problem: Bianca isn’t allowed to date until her arty, feminist, men-hating older sister Kat (Stiles) does. Thus, Cameron pays bad boy Patrick Verona (Ledger) to lure Kat onto the dating scene. And, of course, things don’t quite go as planned.

Based on The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things strikes the perfect balance between its source material and its contemporary subject matter, integrating the nuances of Shakespearean romance into the '90s high school setting. All its characters have their own agenda, and the loops and twists in their relationships feel authentic while being elevated above the usual teen fare, trampling and sending up the standard tropes in equal measure.