11. Detachment
Tony Kaye's first fiction feature since "American History X" is a devastating, gritty take on a tired genre of a substitute teacher coming into a high school and changing his students' perspective. It is Kaye's rant about the educational system, which he sees a being highly flawed. If any word describes this film, it is unsentimental. Filled with good actors, it gets to the crux and the core of the soul with its unflinching view of the world and the school system. Being a student in the New York public school system, a lot of the film hits closer to home than I would like to admit.
10. Turn Me On, Dammit!
Very rarely is there a film that deals with the burgeoning sexuality of a female teen earnestly. Too often in American films, it's been used as a device for melodrama or as a comedic tool in which that character will soon fall down embarrassing themselves. "Turn Me On, Dammit!" is a Norwegian film that never makes its main character into a fool as she navigates the movie wanting to experience sex. The comedy comes from uncomfortable truths that might resonate to an American male. This film knows not to treat its character with condescending eyes. It is more intuitive than "Sixteen Candles" as it truly captures the awkwardness of a teen finding her sexuality for the first time.