HBO Max Has an Impressive Selection of Teen Movies — These Are Our Favorites

Fake-dating has been a popular teen movie trope for decades, and Can't Buy Me Love is one of the all-time classics. When a nerdy teenager wants to improve his reputation, he pays a pretty, popular classmate to pretend to be his girlfriend. Along the way, they begin to form a real connection and have to reconsider everything they thought about high school social rules.

Watch Can't Buy Me Love on HBO Max.

It's hard enough being a young woman — but it's even harder to be the First Daughter. When Anna's father goes back on his promise to cut back on her protection detail, she sneaks away and goes on the run with the help of a charming British photographer, finally getting the chance to explore in a way she never could before.

Watch Chasing Liberty on HBO Max.

The ultimate guilty-pleasure teen movie is this dark and twisty '90s drama. At a wealthy Manhattan prep school, a pair of spoiled, self-centered stepsiblings manipulate everyone around them in a twisted, ongoing bet that escalates quickly and dangerously.

Watch Cruel Intentions on HBO Max.

Teenager Frances is growing tired of her childhood nickname "Baby" as well as her family's annual trips to a wealthy Catskills resort every summer. This year, however, turns out to be a very different experience, when she meets dance instructor Johnny and begins taking lessons to join him in a dance contest, falling in love and figuring herself out along the way.

Watch Dirty Dancing on HBO Max.

A dance contest plays a big role in this Dirty Dancing spinoff, but the setting is a little different this time around. When an American teenager moves to Cuba with her family, she's less than thrilled at being uprooted, especially given the turmoil in Cuba in the late 1950s. While there, she befriends a local boy and begins taking dance lessons from him, but the looming threat of revolution puts their relationship in jeopardy.

Watch Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights on HBO Max.

Based on a bestselling series of YA fantasy novels, Eragon follows a teenager in a magical, medieval land who accidentally hatches a dragon egg and learns that he's the last of an ancient order of dragon riders. To save his kingdom from its powerful, evil ruler, he leaves his family's farm and sets out to rescue an elf warrior and join a group of rebel freedom fighters.

Watch Eragon on HBO Max.

In 1960s Baltimore, Tracy Turnblad just wants two things: to dance on the local teen dance TV show, and to catch the eye of heartthrob Link Larkin. It's like a dream come true when both of those things happen, but when she befriends a group of Black dancers, Tracy reconsiders what's really important and takes a stand for what's right.

Watch Hairspray on HBO Max.

It's one of the all-time classic tearjerker romances. A preppy, wealthy boy and a working-class girl fall madly in love, but the differences between them continually threaten to tear them apart, no matter how much they try not to let it happen.

Watch Love Story on HBO Max.

It's up to teenagers to save the world (again) in Ready Player One. When a teenager joins a virtual reality contest to win the fortune of its recently deceased creator, he winds up getting pulled into a dangerous mystery that has much more at stake than just points in a video game.

Watch Ready Player One on HBO Max.

Four teenage best friends face the prospect of a summer apart, but they find a way to stick together: a magic pair of jeans that somehow fits all four of them. Over the course of the summer, they do their best to help each other through all their challenges: a terrible summer job and an unexpected friendship, a soccer camp and a forbidden love, a newly-blended family, and a Greek vacation that sparks a secret relationship.

Watch The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants on HBO Max.

Carmen, Bridget, Lena, and Tibby reunite for a second summer of long-distance friendship and unexpected obstacles after their freshman year at college. As they each struggle with their own frustrations, they find it harder and harder to keep in touch and keep their beloved sisterhood together.

Watch The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 on HBO Max.

X-Men: First Class is one part superhero origin story, one part teenage drama. As a young Professor X and Magneto form the conflicted friendship that will come to define them both, they work together to recruit a group of young mutants to fight off a powerful threat that could change the course of human (and mutant) history forever.

Watch X-Men: First Class on HBO Max.

If Riverdale's high drama isn't quite your thing, the perky, campy teen comedy Josie and the Pussycats is the perfect choice! It's the epitome of early-2000s teen comedies, as the titular girl group try to stay grounded as they learn their sudden rise to fame has more complications than they ever could have imagined.

Watch Josie and the Pussycats on HBO Max.

While the Lindsay Lohan/Chris Pine rom-com is technically about young adults, it was released in 2006, at the peak of both stars' teen-dream fame, appealing perfect to teenagers. It's the story of Ashley, a young professional who's always been luckier than most, who kisses an accident-prone stranger at a party, only to discover that their luck has magically reversed.

Watch Just My Luck on HBO Max.