About American Pie
Released in 1999, American Pie remains the crown jewel of coming-of-age anarchy – a horny, heartfelt yearbook signed in permanent marker. It tracks a squad of friends careening through first crushes, mortifying heartbreaks, and that hilariously misguided pact to lose their virginity before graduation caps hit the sky.
What keeps it sticky in the pop-culture cortex isn’t just the one-liners or the pastry incident. It’s the cocktail of endearing idiots, unapologetic raunch, and feelings that still punch across generations. The franchise exploded into sequels and spin-offs for a reason: whether you’re a day-one fan or jumping in late, you’ll laugh, cringe, and flash back to your own high-school disasters with alarming clarity.
After a fresh rewatch, I went hunting for movies that echo that American Pie frequency- not just the sequels you already know, but the adjacent chaos gremlins that bottle the same reckless spirit. Below is a memory-lane mixtape of personal favourites that channel the classic Pie energy. Here’s hoping you spot a few gems (and wince at a few memories).
15. Not Another Teen Movie (2001)
Directed by Joel Gallen (yes, the MTV exec taking his first spin in the big chair), Not Another Teen Movie is a sledgehammer-satire aimed at the entire teen-movie canon. Instead of one neat narrative, it’s a collage of clichés – makeovers, prom bets, locker-room wisdom – stitched together with snark and glue sticks. The soundtrack is a time capsule of turn-of-the-century bangers: Everclear, Marilyn Manson, Sixpence None the Richer, System of a Down, and Scott Weiland all crash the pep rally.
It’s also the place many first clocked future Captain America himself, Chris Evans, alongside Chyler Leigh, Mia Kirshner, Jaime Pressly, and Lacey Chabert. Not Another Teen Movie swings gleefully at sacred cows and hits more than it misses. And yes – I fully recognise it’s a satire. That’s the point, and the punchline.
14. Road Trip (2000)
Todd Phillips steers a cross-country panic attack about a college kid, Josh, who accidentally mails the wrong videotape to his girlfriend. Spoiler: it’s the incriminating kind. He and his chaos brigade sprint across state lines to intercept the evidence, ricocheting from one ill-advised detour to the next.
Under the beer-stained jokes beats a surprisingly sincere heart about friendship, young love, and the combustible chemistry of growing up too fast. Road Trip is a GPS (before GPS’s were invented) set to “bad decisions only,” and somehow, that’s the charm.
13. Scary Movie (2000)
Keenan Ivory Wayans turns the slasher playbook into confetti, lampooning Scream, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and every masked maniac in between. It also introduced a lot of folks to Anna Faris’s comedy voltage, which short-circuits entire scenes for sport.
The tone of Scary Movie is established immediately: Carmen Electra sprinting from a killer in nothing but bra and panties. Subtle? Absolutely not. Effective? Box-office history says yes – $19 million budget, $278 million global haul. Try pulling that off today without an IP multiverse and six post-credit scenes.
12. Superbad (2007)
Greg Mottola captures the panic-sweat of impending adulthood through Seth and Evan – two best friends stumbling toward graduation with one final, delusional quest: secure booze, impress crushes, and maybe, just maybe, transform into the kind of legends people remember.
Superbad is an odyssey of humiliations, miraculous almost-victories, and the kind of quiet honesty that sneaks up between punchlines. No other film on this list nails the awkward ache of growing up quite like Superbad. The laughs sting because they’re true.
11. Van Wilder (2002)
Walt Becker’s college romp follows the myth, the man, the seventh-year senior: Van Wilder. When Dad cuts the tuition pipeline, Van has to keep the lights on without dimming the party. Cue rival fraternities, romantic misfires, administrative threats, and a masterclass in extracurricular chaos.
It’s raunchy, ridiculous, and a formative text for campus-comedy devotees. If American Pie is high-school mischief, Van Wilder is the elective you take exclusively for the stories.
10. She’s All That (1999)
Robert Iscove’s teen rom-com royalty stars Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook. Dumped and desperate to salvage his reputation, Zack bets he can turn any girl into prom royalty. Enter Laney Boggs: an art-world introvert with more spine than her ego can process.
The makeover is the hook; the emotional unmasking is the catch. Zack learns, predictably and delightfully, that Laney is no project – she’s the point. She’s All That is a 90s time capsule with charm to burn. And yes – now I feel old.
9. Loser (2000)
Loser follows Amy Heckerling as she shifts coasts and gears for a sweet NYC campus romance. Paul Tannek (the small-town outlier at Columbia) trips face-first into metropolitan indifference – until Dora shows him how to breathe in the city without choking on it. As Paul finds his footing (and his feelings), the past threatens to drag him back to safe smallness.
Soundtrack spotlight: Wheatus’s “Teenage Dirtbag,” an anthem marinated in high-school angst – amusingly at odds with our college-age leads heading to an Everclear gig instead of Iron Maiden. Ironic? Sure. Still a vibe? Absolutely.
8. The Girl Next Door (2004)
Luke Greenfield’s cheeky coming-of-age shake-up stars Emile Hirsch as Matthew Kidman, a valedictorian-in-waiting whose life combusts when Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), a former porn star, moves in next door. What starts as teenage fantasy tripwires into a more complicated reality: Danielle isn’t a stereotype; she’s a person, and Matthew’s “plan” needs to evolve or evaporate.
The Girl Next Door blends teen comedy with a winking edge, carving out its own lane in a crowded subgenre. Forgive the pun; it practically wrote itself.
7. Dead Man on Campus (1998)
Alan Cohn directs a pitch-black premise: campus lore says if your roommate dies by suicide, you get straight A’s. Cooper and Josh, academic arsonists without a match, decide to game the myth by recruiting the “right” roommate – an idea that curdles the longer it sits.
Enter Razor (Poison Ivy), an unpredictable wildcard who scrambles their scheme and the film’s moral center. Dead Man on Campus is an oddball, deeply 90s curiosity – underrated if your humour runs dark and your tolerance for bad ideas is high.
6. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
The Farrelly Brothers bottle lightning with Cameron Diaz’s titular Mary – and Ben Stiller’s hapless Ted – a romantic arms race where every suitor trips over himself (and several bodily fluids) trying to win her heart.
There’s Something About Mary is gleefully offbeat, packed with set pieces that hijacked the late-90s zeitgeist. If any rom-com of the era could go toe-to-toe with American Pie’s cultural footprint, it’s this one.
5. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Gil Junger remixes Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew into high-school fireworks. Cameron wants Bianca. Bianca can’t date until her sister Kat does. Solution? Hire Patrick, the campus bad boy, to woo the one girl who can’t be bought with cafeteria charm.
The scheme detonates into genuine feelings, confessions, and one of the era’s best soundtracks. Kat’s poem still hits like a freight train. I challenge you to revisit 10 Things I Hate About You, because once you do – you’ll remember why it never left.
4. Booksmart (2019)
Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut takes the valedictorian energy and asks a simple question: what if the straight-A duo realised, on the eve of graduation, that they forgot to actually live? Amy and Molly decide to compress four years of missed mayhem into one night.
Booksmart is warm, riotous, and frighteningly relatable – proof that the American Pie DNA can evolve without losing its nerve. Same mission, new playbook.
3. Easy A (2010)
Emma Stone ascends with a scarlet-letter satire about rumours, reinvention, and weaponised reputation. Olive leans into the gossip economy, cashing in social currency until the bill comes due. Teachers side-eye, the guidance counsellor fumbles, and the hallways turn courtroom quick.
With the best cinematic parents this side of a sitcom fever dream, Olive pivots from scandal mascot to author of her own narrative. Easy A is smart, spiky, and endlessly quotable.
2. American Beauty (1999)
Different tone, same era, same suburban autopsy. Lester Burnham decides midlife mediocrity is a prison and jailbreaks into arrested adolescence – quitting his job, chasing freedom, and setting fire to the picket-fence myth.
It’s cynical, darkly funny, and ultimately tragic – a mirror held up to the façade of “having it all.” If American Pie laughs at the mess of becoming, American Beauty stares at the wreckage of forgetting who you were.
1. Cruel Intentions (1999)
Roger Kumble ships Les Liaisons Dangereuses to Manhattan Prep and unleashes step-siblings Kathryn and Sebastian – two beautiful monsters playing games with hearts they don’t believe in. The bet: Sebastian must seduce Annette, the headmaster’s daughter, before term starts.
Cruel Intentions is love, power, sex, manipulation, and privilege braided into a glossy cobra. The 90s were feral; you’ll catch yourself rooting for the wrong things on purpose. That’s the trick – and the trap.
Have you collided with any of these lately?
Which ones scratched your American Pie itch – made you laugh, cringe, and text an old friend you once swore secrecy with? Drop your favourites (and your most cursed high-school memories) in the comments.
