X
  • 1975
  • PG
  • American International Pictures (AIP)
  • 1 h 47 m
  • 1975
  • PG
  • American International Pictures (AIP)
  • 1 h 47 m
Cooley High

Summary In 1964, a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the guys when they meet a pair of career criminals and get falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We follow their lives through the end of...

Directed By: Michael Schultz

Written By: Eric Monte

  • 1975
  • PG
  • American International Pictures (AIP)
  • 1 h 47 m
  • 1975
  • PG
  • American International Pictures (AIP)
  • 1 h 47 m

Cooley High

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 8 Critic Reviews
72
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary In 1964, a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the guys when they meet a pair of career criminals and get falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We follow their lives through the end of...

Directed By: Michael Schultz

Written By: Eric Monte

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 8 Critic Reviews
72
88% Positive
7 Reviews
13% Mixed
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews

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  • Positive Reviews
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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 8 Critic Reviews
72
88% Positive
7 Reviews
13% Mixed
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
83
With its sprawling cast of characters, digressive plot, and hit soundtrack (in this case, a boisterous Motown primer), Cooley High has been compared to another last-days-of-youth movie that came out just two years earlier, American Graffiti. Both films inevitably lace their fun with melancholy, chasing a long, wild coming-of-age bacchanal with the impending hangover of adult life. Difference is, Cooley High’s eulogy for childhood turns out to be much more sadly literal.
By A.A. Dowd FULL REVIEW
80
Cooley High is a less artfully arranged film than American Graffiti. But it has the same cultural exactness - without the smug assumption of shared nostalgia. It is a smart, very affecting movie. [21 July 1975, p.64]
FULL REVIEW
80
Cooley High is pitched as a black American Graffiti, and the description is apt. Furthermore, you don't have to be black to enjoy it immensely. The Steve Krantz production is a heartening comedy-drama about urban Chicago high school youths, written by Eric Monte.
FULL REVIEW
75
It has heart and warmth in the American Graffiti vein, with everything carried out top-notch in a sociological study of black youths.
FULL REVIEW
75
Cooley High has the same youth-movie energy that defines some of the genre’s greats: American Graffiti, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. All of these films run on the mischievous, unfounded optimism that characterizes our teenage years. They make you nostalgic for naivete.
By Josh Larsen FULL REVIEW
63
Uneven but generally funny.
By Jonathan Rosenbaum FULL REVIEW
60
Streets ahead of the average blaxploitation effort, yet is still something of a disappointment. Partly the fault lies with the script, and partly with a certain commercial gloss; one or two of the characters nevertheless do come over with some distinctiveness, thanks to OK performances.
FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company American International Pictures (AIP), Cooley High Services Company, Steve Krantz Productions
Release Date Jun 25, 1975
Duration 1 h 47 m
Rating PG
Genres
Tagline The Real Cool School!
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Awards

National Film Preservation Board, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination

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