Highest-Rated Movies about 'American Suburbia'

Donnie Darko (2001), Blue Velvet (1986), Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Election (1999), Pump Up the Volume (1990), Thoroughbreds (2017), Palo Alto (2013), Excision (2012) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best American Suburbia movies.

#1. Donnie Darko (2001)

Storyline: Donnie Darko doesn't get along too well with his family, his teachers, and his classmates; but he does manage to find a sympathetic friend in Gretchen, who agrees to date him. He has a compassionate psychiatrist, who discovers hypnosis is the means to unlock hidden secrets. His other companion may not be a true ally. Donnie has a friend named Frank, a large bunny which only Donnie can see. When an engine falls off a plane and destroys his bedroom, Donnie is not there. Both the event, and Donnie's escape, seem to have been caused by supernatural events. Donnie's mental illness, if such it is, may never allow him to find out for sure.

Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, sci-fi, surrealism, time travel, existentialism, anti-hero, mental illness ...

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#2. Blue Velvet (1986)

Storyline: College student Jeffrey Beaumont returns to his idyllic hometown of Lumberton to manage his father's hardware store while his father is hospitalized. Walking though a grassy meadow near the family home, Jeffrey finds a severed human ear. After an initial investigation, lead police Detective John Williams advises Jeffrey not to speak to anyone about the case as they investigate further. Detective Williams also tells Jeffrey that he cannot divulge any information about what the police know. Detective Williams' high school aged daughter, Sandy Williams, tells Jeffrey what she knows about the case from overhearing her father's private conversations on the matter: that it has to do with a nightclub singer named Dorothy Vallens, who lives in an older apartment building near the Beaumont home. His curiosity getting the better of him, Jeffrey, with Sandy's help, decides to find out more about the woman at the center of the case by breaking into Dorothy's apartment while he knows she's at work...

Plot Keywords: mystery, thriller, crime, film noir, psychological thriller, surrealism, horror ...

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#3. Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

Storyline: Seventh-grade is no fun. Especially for Dawn Weiner when everyone at school calls you 'Dog-Face' or 'Wiener-Dog.' Not to mention if your older brother is 'King of the Nerds' and your younger sister is a cutesy ballerina who gets you in trouble but is your parents' favorite. And that's just the beginning--her life seems to be falling apart when she faces rejection from the older guy in her brother's band that she has a crush on, her parents want to tear down her 'Special People's Club' clubhouse, and her sister is abducted....

Plot Keywords: coming of age, adolescence, family conflict, social outcast, black comedy, indie film, 1990s ...

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#4. Election (1999)

Storyline: The high school Class President election is approaching and it looks like Tracy Flick is going to win, unopposed. However, teacher Jim McAllister has other plans. He convinces jock Paul Metzler to run, sparking off an interesting chain of events.

Plot Keywords: black comedy, political satire, high school life, ambition, moral dilemma, power struggle, teacher-student relationship ...

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#5. Pump Up the Volume (1990)

Storyline: Mark is an intelligent but shy teenager who has just moved to Arizona from the East Coast. His parents give him a short-wave radio so he can talk to his pals, but instead he sets up shop as pirate deejay Hard Harry, who becomes a hero to his peers while inspiring the wrath of the local high school principal. When one of Harry's listeners commits suicide, inspired chaos breaks out at the school and the authorities are called in to put a stop to Harry's broadcasts.

Plot Keywords: teen, rebellion, loneliness, high school life, secret identity, social issues, counterculture ...

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#6. Thoroughbreds (2017)

Storyline: In suburban Connecticut, upper-class high schooler Amanda (Olivia Cooke) euthanizes her crippled horse with a knife, resulting in charges of animal cruelty. Some time later, Amanda arrives at the home of the more popular and academically-inclined Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy). The girls had previously been best friends but grew apart after the death of Lily's father. They meet under the pretense of hanging out and having a casual tutoring session, but Amanda knows that her mother (Kaili Vernoff) has paid Lily to socialize with Amanda. Lily denies being paid, but Amanda, left emotionless by an unspecified mental disorder, is unfazed. Lily meets with Amanda again, this time voluntarily, and they rekindle their friendship..

Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, black comedy, drama, crime, teen, friendship, murder ...

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#7. Palo Alto (2013)

Storyline: Shy, sensitive April is the class virgin, torn between an illicit flirtation with her soccer coach Mr. B and an unrequited crush on sweet stoner Teddy. Emily, meanwhile, offers sexual favors to every boy to cross her path - including both Teddy and his best friend Fred, a life wire without filters or boundaries. As one high school party bleeds into the next - and April and Teddy struggle to admit their mutual affection - Fred's escalating recklessness starts to spiral into chaos.

Plot Keywords: youth, coming of age, rebellion, confusion, love, friendship, loneliness ...

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#8. Excision (2012)

Storyline: This film is about Pauline, a young woman (18yo) who lives with her family and her younger sister Grace who has Cystic Fibrosis. Pauline has some delusions of being a great surgeon, and she also has some horrific dreams that she actually finds "stimulating" to say the least. Her family put up with her delusions and her school classmates find her annoying. But as this is all happening around her she has a plan, a plan that will leave them all shocked, and some people may not survive.

Plot Keywords: horror, psychological thriller, black comedy, independent film, gore, teen, family conflict ...

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#9. Crime and Punishment in Suburbia (2000)

Storyline: This is a contemporary fable loosely based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment". Roseanne is outwardly a perfect and popular teen. However, her image is hiding the abuse at her stepfather's hands, and she decides to take revenge. The events that follow are a mix of dark humor and an exploration of modern morality as Roseanne faces not only a fellow suburbanite who knows, but her own conscience as well.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: crime, psychological thriller, teen, suburban life, murder, moral dilemma, literary adaptation ...

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#10. Ken Park (2002)

Storyline: Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim. But they spend precious little time together and none of them seems to know much about one another's family lives. This bizarre dichotomy underscores their alienation # the result of suburban ennui, a teenager's inherent sense of melodrama, and the disturbing nature of their home environments.

Plot Keywords: controversial, teenagers, coming of age, sexuality, violence, rebellion, repression ...

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