Okay, can anyone not admittedly obsessed with the genre do that? Do you see what I mean? You're putting more cult into cultural touchstone than I would.

It was my impression (and those are being sore tested) that Clueless was a movie that got talked about, that gave Alicia Silverstone a big leg up, spawned a TV show -- that sort of touching the stone of culture. Which makes me now realise, that when I hear "as if!" in my head, it's her voice (much like "Ew!" has been coopted by Rachel Bilson).

I think I might consider it a cultural touchstone if for no other reason than so many movies with nearly the exact same plotline have been worse (see: "Never Been Kissed") and still made money.

I think that makes Pygmalion a cultural touchstone, not She's All That.

I think that makes Pygmalion a cultural touchstone, not She's All That.

Haha. Good point.

I'm actually kind of worried that I remember so many bits from She's All That. Considering I've really only seen it once and was not that impressed. And I saw it during a week of obsessive watching of movies from that period, so I saw all kinds of other movies, some much better (Ten Things I Hate About You) and some much worse (Drive me Crazy) and don't think I have as clear a memory of the scenes in ANY of the movies as I do for that one. At least not of any of them that I haven't watched many times since.

Frankly, I don't think any movie of this genre can possibly qualify as a cultural touchstone in any outside-of-its-own-little-world sort of way. The vast majority of the audience for these movies is purely an "entertain me once and I'll forget about it" audience, not one that uses it to define their worlds.

For the people in their target demographic, I'd say the cultural touchstones for the population at large are Austin Powers, for example. And Lord of the Rings (which is one for everybody), and maybe American Pie a little. The Teen Movies that get the credit and get quoted and remembered are the gross funny ones, not the sappy cute ones. At least so far.

Sappy and cute teen movies havn't really owned an era since Molly Ringwald stopped working.

Sappy and cute teen movies havn't really owned an era since Molly Ringwald stopped working.

Hey there was plenty of gross in those movie, from the Donger in the tree, to Anthony Michael Hall's underwear hunt. Besides which American Pie (the first one anyway) is a pretty sweet movie.

I think Austin Powers pokes outside its demographic. American Pie a little, but not so much. I have absolutely no Ring-related perspective, but at the very least, everyone and their mother must have heard of it now. Hell, my father has, and Trek was a recent discovery for him.

Lessee. Thinking of teen movies -- I do wonder which ones affected people not actually teen at the time. Or sufficiently shaped the teens of the time to percolate into their adulthood (which makes most 90s movies too recent for me to really consider). I'm gonna have to go with Ferris Bueller's Day Off (which I hated) and Risky Business. I know I'm leaving out some obvious movies, but ... I haven't seen them. And I never felt the same sort of gap that not having seen, say, The Godfather had given me.

Oh. Grease. Can't forget that.

And I never felt the same sort of gap that not having seen, say, The Godfather had given me.

Oh thank God there's someone else.

Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles are major touchstones.

Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles are major touchstones.

Those, and Pretty In Pink were the very ones I was thinking of. Their effect must be more subtle than, say, Star Wars or even Gilligan's Island (P-C, I did eventually see Godfather, so you're flying solo) because I don't feel a blankness resulting (in fact or theory) from not having seen them.

I had them in my head in places more like Princess Bride, where the people that know, REALLY know, and really love, but isn't quite the badge of acceptance to general pop culture and beyond.

I still haven't seen any of the Godfather movies, but I still get what the references are. I don't care that I haven't actually seen the scene or whatever.

And I have no idea about the broader cultural relevance of the Molly RIngwald oevre, just because most of my friends have seen them as many times as I have.

Is Dirty Dancing a teen movie? I would say it is definitely a touchstone, and it has the teen movie plot of geeky girl gets sexy gets guy, plus dancing.

I don't care that I haven't actually seen the scene or whatever.

That's how I feel about Gilligan's Island. I know when something's a reference -- I filled all that in because my friends were very boring that way. So I can act like I've seen it.

I can't act like I've seen the aforementioned teen movies, because aside from putting lipstick on with cleavage (am I remembering that right?) which I can't actually do -- never felt the touchstonal loss of them.

In fact, I didn't watch teen movies in the 80s, really. I wasn't in the US, it wasn't so much of a big deal. It wasn't until I got to college in Canada when I realised everyone else had. I fell in love with John Cusack, saw most of his, and felt sufficiently up to date. Would that Dobler were a touchstone.