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Baker's Dozen

A Cinema Baker's Dozen: Jon Savage's Favourite Teenage Films
Mat Colegate , March 20th, 2014 11:33

With his new film Teenage released earlier this year, Jon Savage picks the top thirteen films that capture the spirit of adolescence

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Animal House (John Landis, 1978)
I remember seeing it at the time and thinking it was fantastically irritating. It was the post punk period and I didn't really like that woozy American liberal culture of the time. Then I re-watched it a few years later and really enjoyed it. It's so amoral and horrible and of course there's the kind of post Vietnam thing of all the people who are against the ROTC and the militaristic guys. The end scene where they totally fuck up the parade is just amazing. It's very entertaining and now it looks really great. That American liberalism looks like an endangered species these days. Something like Animal House or Smokey and the Bandit couldn't be made now – smoking joints and breaking the law – America's gone a lot more right wing since then.