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High School Confidential

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High School Confidential
High school in real life is full of surprises, but according to David Denby in his article "High School Confidential," High School in the movies is very predictable. The typical Hollywood "High School Scene" opens with the jock and the cheerleader characters. Blonde and buff, the Jock and the Cheerleader are superficial and proud to proclaim it. They are popular and perky, and always too good to be true. The cheerleader is usually the enemy of the hero or heroine. She is generally rich, blonde, and queen bee of the social circle, with no sense of selflessness. The jock is usually the bully, muscular, good looking and not very smart.(Denby 343) In an essence, the male counterpart of the cheerleader. The Jock and the Cheerleader are almost always the doppleganger of the hero and heroine. The jock and cheerleader stand for everything the hero despises, yet seemingly have everything that the hero is aiming for.

The heros of the movie are outsiders, geeks, freaks, and social bottom-dwellers. They are physically awkward and wear virtually unflattering clothing.(DEnby 345 She is generally funny and sarcastic, with a hint of feministic views. She stands at an awkward still when spotting the jock, her handsome dream date. The male version of this awkward hero is a stuttering, shaking mass of sexual tension. He 's stringy and shrimpy with almost no bodily form, and he is usually some kind of genius. The female nerds tend to attract the jocks. Denby suggests that this comes from the fact that the authors of these films were once nerds themselves, and they are trying to provide some kind of closure for themselves. (Denby 345)

Then there is the best friend to the hero; who are either satanic, or saintly. Long black hair and piercing everywhere, they are ironic and pessimistic. Finally we have the parents; virtually clueless, the parents and adults in teen movies are never the enemies, the ultimate enemies are the student 's peers, the jocks and the cheerleaders(Denby,

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