Films to help you settle in like a pro:
Starter for 10
Starter for 10 stars James McAvoy as Brian, a student starting out at the University of Bristol in the ‘80s. Though it focuses primarily on the University Challenge team, the film is a witty and realistic portrayal of the life and loves of your average student, and manages to show the process of settling in at university in a warm, funny, and accurate way. Worth watching if only to see a pre-Sherlock Benedict Cumberbatch stealing every one of his scenes as the grating Patrick Watts.
Educating Rita
It may not reflect everyone’s university experience, but if you want to know the importance of the student/tutor relationship at Oxford, this is a must-see. Michael Caine is the ageing, alcoholic academic, and Julie Walters the student who rekindles his love for his subject, and gets an insight into the educated world, in this adaptation of Willy Russell’s stage play. An absorbing, slightly cautionary, tale, the film celebrates the capacity of education to change people, while advising that it doesn’t make them forget their identity completely.
Monsters University
It’s a long way from Pixar’s best, but, like everything else released by the studio, Monsters University sure has a warm heart. The relationship between Mike and Sulley shows that university is a place where friendships are born, relationships change, and first impressions can be drastically revised. And if you’re nervous about coming to uni, watching this will make you feel more warm and fuzzy than Sulley himself.
Legally Blonde
A film reflecting the American system – it’s set in Harvard Law School – but which holds many truths about the university experience. Reese Witherspoon is Elle Woods, an image-obsessed sorority queen who becomes a student of law. She may not seem like it at first, but Elle – who must prove herself to the students who don’t take her seriously – is a fantastic role model, displaying an enviable faith in her own ability, and a commitment to hard work. She develops her identity on her own terms, showing the importance of being willing to change for the people that you care about, and refusing to compromise yourself for those that you don’t.
National Lampoon’s Animal House
The original, and still the best. 35 years on from its release, Animal House remains as grossly and shockingly funny as ever. John Belushi is ‘Bluto’ Blutarsky, the head of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity, who fight the authorities, throw lavish parties, and generally raise as much hell as they can. Though the college is American, the theme of fighting for what you believe in is universal, and the fraternity demonstrates the importance of having fun at university, rolling with the punches, and not always taking life so seriously. Altogether now – Toga! Toga! Toga!
And, if you’re missing school already, here are the top five films for reliving those halcyon days:
Grease
Aside from the fact that it boasts 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6…) of the catchiest songs in cinema history, Grease is worth watching as it’s still the best portrayal of leaving school to be found on screen. Danny and Sandy’s turbulent love story takes in a drag race, a leaving dance, and for some reason a carnival as the Greasers and the Pink Ladies alike prepare to step out into the big wide world.
10 Things I Hate About You
By far the best film adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew set in an American high school: Julia Stiles is Kat, a girl who doesn’t believe in love until won over by Heath Ledger’s Patrick Verona. The first-rate performances make this peculiarly affecting, and there are enough engaging characters that you can relive school life from the aspect of the outsiders, the popular kids, and everyone in between.
Mean Girls
The most quotable film ever made – seriously, even the White House quoted it on its Twitter feed – needs no introduction. Watch it to see the bitchiness of secondary school exaggerated wonderfully (if barely), and to learn what colour to wear on Wednesdays, why some people have big hair, and that there are some questions which you just can’t ask.
21 Jump Street
This remake of an old TV show is warmer, funnier, and rings far truer than anyone expected on its release last year. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are cops who return to high school to sniff out drug dealers, but the focus is firmly on their reliving of the high school experience. With varying degrees of success with love interests, the sports teams and the school play, there’s much here about which to reminisce – and to be glad you’ve left behind.
High School Musical 3
OK, it may not be the greatest film ever made. But watch it in the right mood and it could have you weeping into your mortarboard, tearing up your exam results and begging your headteacher to let you back for just one more year. Of course, watch it in the wrong mood and it will only serve to remind you of all the worst parts of school; but at least it will make you glad that never again do you have to return.
