Though the best college movies are less ridden with teenage angst, detentions, and school dances than their high school counterparts, they’re equally compelling and full of adversity. Coming of age does not, in fact, magically end the day one graduates from 12th grade. It continues well into college, as young people leave the familiarity of lunch-break cliques and football Friday night lights for real life.
Films set in uni reveal to us what exactly happens to our beloved high school protagonists as they prepare for adulthood and the working world. From the cult classic Legally Blonde to the more recent Shiva Baby, we’ve compiled 17 of our favorite films that encapsulate the joys, tears, and theatrics of life in college.
Below, check out the best college movies to get you settled into campus life.
Legally Blonde (2001)
In our books, this early-aughts rom-com is the quintessential college movie, and it needs little introduction. But as a refresher, after being broken up with, Elle Woods trades in her title of sorority sister for Ivy League-er, determined to win her boyfriend back by studying at Harvard Law School. Woods, portrayed by Reese Witherspoon, brings couture to the courtroom, and her pink wardrobe inspires endless Halloween costumes and celebrity looks to this day.
Where to stream: Netflix
Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)
The unofficial sequel to Dazed and Confused, this spirited film embraces ‘80s nostalgia. As the beginning of the semester looms ahead, members of a college baseball team move into an off-campus house together and disregard their coach’s rules from the start. From hosting parties to costumed bar-hopping, the gang of college boys relish in their last few carefree moments of summer.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video
Kill Your Darlings (2013)
A somewhat-mythologized retelling of the Beat Generation’s beginnings in New York, Kill Your Darlings is as restless as its characters’ artistic output. It follows a young Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), after he arrives at Columbia University as a freshman and is quickly drawn into the creative circle of Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan). From here, they descend into nitrous oxide-induced debauchery and feverish poetry sessions. The film offers complex queer overtones and a look into a group of young people dissatisfied with tradition, in search of new modes of expression.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube
Dear White People (2014)
By means of radio show, media arts major Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) directly confronts the racial tensions at her predominantly-white Ivy League school. Throughout the film, such strains are explored through the perspectives of various Black students, including queer journalist Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams) and White’s ex, Troy Fairbanks (Brandon P. Bell), offering a multifaceted look at the very real issue of diversity on campus.
Where to stream: Peacock
Spring Breakers (2012)
Directed by Harmony Korine, the fever dream of a film navigates a quad of college freshman-girls-gone-Florida after they rob a restaurant to fund their spring break. Set against a near-exclusive soundtrack of Skrillex, Disney veterans Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez star as Candy and Faith, alongside Ashley Benson as Brit and Rachel Korine as Cotty. The comedy crime film is not all pink ski masks and neon bikinis in the Sunshine State, however, as the consequences of their actions catch up to them (as does Alien, a culture vulture rapper-wannabe, portrayed by James Franco).
Where to stream: Max, Hulu
Whiplash (2014)
Welcome to the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory Studio Band: what any incoming college student’s nightmares are made of. Whiplash takes its turn with the trope of the obsessed artist, in the form of freshman and jazz drummer Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller). The deeply-ambitious musician is admitted into the band and subject to conductor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), whose teaching style relies more heavily on verbal abuse than it does on constructive critique. As viewers are trapped by a sense of perpetual anticipation for the moment Neiman breaks, the film’s tight editing and pacing leave them with the very feeling captured in its title.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube
Scream 2 (1997)
When college assignments pile up and deadlines quickly approach, just be thankful you do not have a killer on the loose to add to your list of things to deal with. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Ghostface return in this sequel, as college students begin showing up dead and a sorority house party that Prescott attends turns into a crime scene.
Where to stream: Paramount+
Mistress America (2015)
When Tracy (Lola Kirke), a lonesome freshman at Barnard, meets her polar-opposite step-sister-to-be Brooke (Greta Gerwig), the former is instantly fascinated by the latter’s carefree, drifter lifestyle. Tracy aspires to be a writer, Brooke schemes up a restaurant-hair-salon concept, and although their relationship begins to unravel, the pair are able to learn from one another’s shortcomings in this openly candid dramedy.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video
The Social Network (2010)
From documenting the college acceptance process via TikTok to discreetly curating Instagram stories to entice a crush, social media plays a pivotal role in the lives of college-age people more than ever, and this biographical drama illustrates the messy beginnings of the platform that changed the game: Facebook. It depicts Mark Zuckerberg’s undergrad studies at – and probation from – Harvard, the various social websites he collaborates on, and the legal troubles they spurred.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video
Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017)
Nestled deep within the clouds is Endor College, a school for witches that’s accessible exclusively via broomstick. Bored with her new life after moving, protagonist Mary Smith wanders off her great aunt’s estate and finds herself whisked away to the campus, only to become aware of the sinister experiments it has secretly kept underway. Though very far from your typical university and college experience, this animated fantasy centers on self-discovery as its driving theme.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video
Shiva Baby (2020)
As college students near graduation, the onslaught of unwarranted questions surrounding career paths, academic performance, and long-term goals thrown at them only increases. Senior Danielle, portrayed by Rachel Sennott, finds herself amidst such conversations at a chaotic post-funeral service. Here, she has accidental run-ins with her ex-girlfriend, her sugar daddy, and his family. Absurdly discomforting and humorous, Shiva Baby paints a picture of a woman in between college, real life, and adulthood.
Where to stream: Max, Hulu
Maurice (1987)
Based on the E.M. Forster book, this film follows Maurice Hall (James Wilby) as he navigates his sexual identity in Edwardian England. While attending the University of Cambridge in 1909, Hall befriends fellow classmate Clive Durham (Hugh Grant), and as their relationship deepens, they’re subject to choose whether or not to risk class standings for the sake of their sexualities. The period piece was released amidst the AIDS crisis in the ‘80s and is among queer movie staples.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video
Raw (2016)
Despite drawing in criticism and investigations, college hazing continues to play a substantial role in college and Greek life, and Raw depicts the effects of such initiations at a nightmarish extreme. While lifelong vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier) takes on vet school, the rituals she and other freshmen undergo during their first week at college leaves her thirsting for raw meat. Hallucinatory and full of tension, the woman-directed horror film utilizes this overwhelming craving of hers to drive the plot and its exploration of the anxieties faced when trying to fit in.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video
Sh*thouse (2020)
Despite its title, Cooper Raiff’s directorial debut is anything but. Alex, played by Raiff himself, grapples with homesickness and solitude as he enters college, going so far as to lie about his social and romantic life to his family back at home. His outlooks eventually begin to change after he leaves his shell, falls in and out of love, and this tender movie can resonate with any college student who’s felt misplaced after moving far away from familiarity.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video
Pitch Perfect (2012)
Love it or hate it, Pitch Perfect passes the Bechdel Test and offers a musical spin on the underdog tale. When Beca Mitchell (Anna Kendrick) arrives at college, she aspires to become a DJ and reluctantly winds up in her university’s womens a cappella group, helping it rise to success and redeem itself in an annual musical competition. Whether you’re an a cappella enthusiast or not, you can’t deny that "Cups" was a mid-2010s cultural reset.
Where to stream: Netflix
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
In this Gen Z take on the whodunit genre, a group of wealthy college-age (for the most part) people seek refuge in a mansion party amidst a hurricane. Sophie (Amandla Stenberg), David (Pete Davidson), and others fill the estate with drinking, dancing, and a party game gone deeply foul. This ironic dark comedy examines privilege in an age of social media buzzwords, performativity, and woke-washing.
Where to stream: Hulu
Good Will Hunting (1997)
What would a roundup of college movies be without mentioning this critically-acclaimed drama? 20-year-old Will Hunting (Matt Damon) lacks drive but possesses great potential and intellect, encouraged by four friends who try to get him on track. Only when Hunting at last acknowledges and begins to unpack his deeply-rooted pains is he able to move on and pursue his life.
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube
