Don’t lie to me. We all do it.

We curl up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, a Diet Coke and soak up every minute of teenage nostalgia, especially the angst-y, heartbreak-y, hormone-driven parts that come with the High School Movie. We may be out of high school, but that doesn’t mean we’re over it. Our very fascination with those 4 years and the events that might have changed our lives is secretly compelling to us. So we watch. And we love it.

And that’s OK. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a little high school drama (and an occasional choreographed dance) again. There is so much to be learned from those flicks and so much happiness to be gleaned from the fact that we are no longer living them.

Just to let you know that indulging in high school drama is a healthy and well-adjusted way to waste your free time, I created a list of the best/awesomely funny/most ridiculous high school movies you will ever see.

1. Get Over It

Because breaking up is never funny (all the time) but getting over it is. High School Basketball star Burke Landers (Ben Foster) gets chucked by his girlfriend, who then takes up with the cocky, arrogant, “Mary Poppins sounding” Striker (Shane West). Burke ends up stalking them into the school play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, landing a lead role (after a series of unfortunate events) and develops a closer relationship with his best friends’ sister (Kirsten Dunst). If the way Burke attempts to get over the girl doesn’t get you, his “hip and understanding” parents will make you cringe and the boy band-esque song Ben Foster and Shane West perform will make you wet your pants… or vomit in your mouth.

Oh, I almost forgot: Sisqo of “Thong Song” fame has a supporting role.

2. Drive Me Crazy

They’re next door neighbors, former BFFs before high school. She’s preppy (Melissa Joan Hart). He’s alternative (Adrien Grenier). She wants to get a date for prom. He wants his girlfriend back. Quid Pro Quo. They fall for each other under watch of the scheming socialistas of high school. Nothing says true love like scheming for a prom date. Pre-Entourage Adrien Grenier is still oh so pretty. Yes, pretty.

Btw, they use similar SAT words that the supposed 15 year olds of Dawson’s Creek encouraged. Love it.

3. Some Kind of Wonderful

Classic. Mary Stuart Masterson is Watts. Her BFF is Keith (played by Eric Stoltz) is in love with the popular girl (what else is new). Watts, out of the kindness of her heart, helps him and realizes she’s falling for him. Why watch? Because Mary Stuart Masterson is amazing. She’s the tomboy you want to be.

John Hughes, writer/director/producer of Brat Pack film fame, gives this movie Pretty in Pink ‘s original ending. Is that a teardrop I see?

4. Dead Poets’ Society

You know how comedic actors try serious roles and are super successful and under rated? (Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction, Jim Carrey in The Majestic and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) This is Robin Williams’ moment. John Keating is the teacher above all teachers. Walt Whitman never made me cry harder than when Ethan Hawke saluted his teacher with O Captain, my Captain. Aw man, here I am getting misty eyed again.

This movie captures the awakening of adulthood within teenagers. It explores sex, suicide, love, and passion. It encourages Thoreau’s view that “the universe is wider than our views of it.”

This movie gets you.

5. Footloose

Ren (Kevin Bacon) moves to a town that banned public dancing and music. Think about how that would affect your life. Especially with a soundtrack this danceable!! You’ll sing along to “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” when he teaches his best friend Willard to dance. There’s also a lesson to learn about teenage relationships and abuse. (Dear Rihanna, I thought of you and CB.)

6. The Virgin Suicides

Kirsten Dunst has a knack for choosing fantastic roles. In this movie she is Lux Lisbon, the oldest in a family of five girls. The sisters suffer under their overprotective parents after the youngest sister commits suicide. The Lisbon girls are placed under house arrest and home schooled by their parents after Lux returns home the morning after a dance, their records are taken away and it seems like there’s nothing to live for. The story is told by the boys who lived next door and were fascinated by the girls. It’s a beautiful story. A bit bland but still heart wrenching. I guess the ending won’t be much of a surprise.

7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

If you don’t know, get familiar. Enough said.

8. Angus

Tagline: For everyone on the outside looking in…your moment has arrived! I saw this movie when I was 14 and I have always remembered it. Before James Van Der Beek found the Creek, he was a bully with a seriously tweaked sense of humor who tormented Angus. Angus is ostracized and humiliated by his peers because of his obesity. In addition, the girl of his dreams is the girlfriend of the bully of his nightmares. Armed with no confidence and fading hope, Angus tries to be invisible until he can leave the school.

9. Heathers

The Original Mean Girls!! They’ve got sex appeal and intimidation down. The Heathers could eat Regina George alive! Though Veronica is the one that should be feared. She killed them all. There are two lessons to learn from this movie:

1. Mean people suck!
2. Popularity leads to murder?

Still working on that last one.

10. Election

You are not an overachiever if you’re not Tracy Flick. She slept with, then blackmailed her teacher to win an election. I bet you’ve only made straight A’s. BO-RING!

There you have it. The best of the best high school movies.
Order from Netflix, visit Blockbuster, or buy online. Just watch em!

As a woman, I know we have a tendency to be rather catty at times. I’m not sure if it is nature or nurture, but it is there and sometimes it can get the best of us. Who is better to teach women the art of cattiness, than the women of Hollywood? We are constantly exposed to bickering women not only on TV and in the movies, but also in the celebreality of their day-to-day lives. The cattiness factor comes more often than not when a man is involved and the love triangle becomes a tug-of-war. (Please keep in mind, in most of these upcoming catty situations the guy is hardly worth it…except for maybe Brad.)

In December’s issue of Vogue, hitting stands next week, Jennifer Aniston discusses her feelings about Angelina Jolie providing a time-line for when she and Brad Pitt began having their affair (yes, while Jen and Brad were still married.) Jen said it was really “uncool” and “inappropriate” of Ang to discuss their affair, especially admitting the fact that she couldn’t wait to come to work during the filming of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Poor Jen. She’s better off without him! Though he is mighty fine to look at…

Breaking up is hard to do, especially when ex-husband starts bangin’ your best friend. As was the case in with Heather Locklear, Richie Sambora, and Denise Richards. Locklear reportedly went crazy when she found out Richards was boning her ex-husband, Sambora. In the end, Richie lost both of the hot women in his life, Heather may have turned into a drunk and Denise has revitalized her career as a hollywood homewrecker. Bummer.

Lindsay Lohan. Enough said, right? She has been in the news for everything from drug abuse to turning gay, but there was a time when she was an innocent teenager whose boyfriend cheated on her. Lindsay and Hilary Duff were at each other’s throats calling each other immature and childish over a little spat over…get this: Aaron Carter! (teeheehee…come on girls, seriously?) Hilary went as far to say that she hated Lindsay. May not sound like much, but at Disney that is like a racial slur. Ouch!

Why anyone would ever date or even look at K-Fed, I’m not exactly sure. But, two women did and they even fought over the loser, which is even more difficult to imagine. Not only did Shar Jackson and Britney cat fight over K-Fed, they even had his gross babies (ok, ok they aren’t gross. They’re actually pretty cute). Britney stole Shar’s man…. and then she went crazy insane. Coincidence? I think not. K-Fed is the human version of ebola.

Where there is smoke, there always seems to be a blond hotel heiress. Paris Hilton once dated Rick Solomon and then Rick married Shannen Doherty. I guess Shannen didn’t want to make “movies” with Rick, so he started boinking Paris, again. Unfortunately, it was while he was still married to Shannen. Paris allegedly sent psycho messages to Shannen telling her to leave Rick alone. It appears that money doesn’t always bring happiness or sanity, but it will attract a greasy wanna-be amateur porn-king. I am glad I am poor.

While we at College Candy understand that this economic climate is not exactly ripe for thriving magazines (or much else, really) and we extend our condolences to the folks over at Radar, we can’t quite say we didn’t see it coming. Were there red flags? You betcha! The following are a few reasons Radar didn’t quite cut it:

1. The cover featured Shannen Doherty.

Like I said, these are difficult times. With a national election just over a week away and a crashing economy, there are plenty of hot-button issues to tap these days. But what was the feature of Radar‘s most recent issue? One miss Shannen Doherty, star of the “new” 90210. What’s she up to, you ask? Oh, well, she she has a germ phobia, and she really likes Manolos and, uh…yawn!

2. The advice column is written by Spencer from The Hills.

Seriously. Who would take advice from a douche who makes his girlfriend choose between himself and her family? I’ll be consulting Dear Abby for my queries, thank you very much.

3. No one really knows what the magazine is about.

For sex advice, you go to Cosmo. For fashion, you go to Vogue. For music, you go to Rolling Stone. For gossip, you go to Us Weekly. Get the picture? Sorry, Radar, but if you bill yourself as a magazine about “pop, politics, scandal, and style,” we get a little overwhelmed.

4. They’re actually lowering political standards.

Radar Online seriously has a feature in which you can test out your ability to correctly guess “what kind of asshole” (Democrat or Republican) political pundits are just by looking at them. All I learned from the interactive is that Democrats look frumpy and Republicans look stiff. Isn’t this all a bit political party-ist?

5. The magazine has already folded before…twice.

Today’s folding of Radar is actually the third time the magazine has gone out of print. Let’s look at this like an ex-boyfriend: how many times is he going to leave you before you realize you’re better than that? For shame.

[All images courtesy Radaronline.com]