12 Best Movies Like American Pie

In 1999, "Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace" and "The Sixth Sense" dominated movie theaters, but for high school and college kids there was something else going on. While "American Pie" was a box office hit in its own right, it was a revelation for those of a certain age — similar to what many high school and college kids had experienced before with films like "Animal House," "Porky's," and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." 

Like those movies, "American Pie" was a film with mostly sex, drinking, and partying on its mind, despite the high school setting. High school and college kids loved it, and the scene in which Jason Biggs' Jim has relations with a warm apple pie — just to find out what it feels like — entered the cultural zeitgeist.

The stars of the movie became overnight celebrities, and the film ushered in a new era of raunchy but heartfelt coming-of-age comedies about teenagers or early 20-somethings. In fact, "American Pie" even spawned a franchise of its own. But there have been a lot of other movies like it both before and since "American Pie," and we've gathered the finest of them — the 12 best movies like "American Pie" — right here.

2019's "Booksmart" is part of a new wave of comedies about partying, drinking, and sex that feature females in the driver's seat. Beanie Feldstein's Molly and Kaitlyn Dever's Amy are two straight-A students who haven't done anything wild in high school, figuring that they needed to buckle down in order to get into the colleges of their choice. But on the day before graduation, Molly boasts that she got into Yale and is surprised to discover her partying classmate did too. As a result, an angry Molly tells Amy that they're going to a graduation party that night, beginning an odyssey through three such parties and a lot of drinking, drug trips, sex, and debauchery.

In the end, they come out on the other side of their night of excess wiser for the experience, just like Jim and his friends in "American Pie" after their prom. In particular, Molly and Amy now know that the other kids in school aren't so different from them. "Booksmart" was the first film directed by Olivia Wilde and was lauded critically, although it turned out to be a box office disappointment.

A seminal example of the genre exemplified by "American Pie" is 1978's "National Lampoon's Animal House," helmed by John Landis, director of such comedy classics as "Trading Places" and "Coming to America," and co-written by future "Ghostbusters" star Harold Ramis. This film largely launched the gross-out comedy, and like many of the films on this list, it's a period piece. In this case it takes place in 1962 at the fictional Faber College, a time before birth control and AIDS existed, and — according to the film — everyone was just as horny as ever.

"Animal House" starts with freshman Larry Kroger, eventually known as "Pinto" (Thomas Hulce), and Kent Dorfman, eventually known as "Flounder" (Stephen Furst), looking for a fraternity to join. Luckily the two find Delta Tau Chi, the fraternity that has the most fun. Except that the Deltas are on probation due to poor academic performance and misconduct — including Delta member Bluto's (John Belushi) antics at lunch and an out-of-control toga party — and are fighting to avoid expulsion.

"Animal House" had only one major star, John Belushi — famous at the time for being on "Saturday Night Live" — yet it has still managed to stay relevant for almost 50 years, even though some of its humor is now dated. The movie was No. 36 on the American Film Institute's list of the best American comedies and was preserved in 2001 by the Library of Congress as a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" movie.

"Superbad" is a bawdy 2007 teen comedy that's become a cult classic, starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as Seth and Evan, respectively, two high school seniors about to graduate. The movie was written by a real Seth and Evan — Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg — with Rogen also co-starring as Officer Michaels, a cop who befriends Seth and Evans' friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), or as the name on his fake ID says, McLovin. 

Inspired at least partially by their own youthful (and, it seems, unsuccessful) attempts at partying and hooking up with girls, Rogen and Goldberg started writing "Superbad" as far back as their sophomore year at a Vancouver high school. Judging by the finished product, they were both desperate to have sex for the first time — as it seems all teenagers are, if you believe these movies.

Like "American Pie," this movie is endearing even with its foul language and gross behavior. The entire ensemble, which included Emma Stone and Bill Hader, was so good they've all gone on to have spectacular Hollywood careers. The movie is a standard story of underage guys trying to buy booze to impress the girls they like, but with so many jokes and silly antics, this movie is often hailed as one of the best comedies of the 2000s.

"Bottoms" is the story of two girls who just want to have sex, not with just anyone but with their hot cheerleader crushes. PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are high school best friends. They're unpopular, not because they're lesbians, but because they're considered ugly and untalented; even their principal thinks so. But then they make a joke about having gone to juvie for the summer to their friend Hazel (Ruby Cruz) and suddenly they have a reputation. So when they're hauled into the principal's office for hurting the quarterback Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine) — which really involved lightly tapping him with their car and Jeff completely overreacting — they say they were practicing for their self-defense class. 

PJ takes the idea and runs with it, starting a fight club on campus as a way to get her and Josie's crushes, Brittany (Kaia Gerber) and Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), to make out with them. Soon, though, the club becomes a legitimate force for female empowerment, even as PJ and Josie grow closer to Brittany and Isabel.

This is a hilarious satirical comedy directed by Emma Seligman, making her second feature after the equally funny but very different "Shiva Baby." "Bottoms" is what might happen if the four guys at the center of "American Pie" were female and equally horny. There's a lot of questionable behavior in "Bottoms" but it's all in the name of female empowerment ... well, mostly.

When it comes to coming-of-age comedies, "Dazed and Confused" is one of the best. Directed by Richard Linklater, the 1993 movie stars a cadre of now-famous actors, including Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, and Matthew McConaughey. In fact, this was the movie that introduced McConaughey's signature catchphrase, "All right, all right, all right," to the world. Instead of sex, though, these kids are more concerned about partying and drugs — and, for Ben Affleck's character O'Bannion and his ilk, paddling the butts of incoming freshmen.

The movie doesn't have a central character or much of a plot. Instead, it takes its cues from life, showing how things are on the last day of school for a group of teens in 1976. The kids are all from different cliques, but they eventually come together to throw a giant impromptu party in a field.

This film has some great quotes, especially those delivered by McConaughey, such as "Keep living," his advice to the teens to do what they want without concern for what's expected of them. Though it's different from the focus in "American Pie" on sex, it has a similar vibe, with kids hanging out, getting drunk and high, and just whiling away their time as they cruise around town with their friends.

Like "Animal House," "Old School" takes place at a fraternity. Unlike "Animal House," "Old School" does not involve men of college age. In fact, the men at the center of "Old School" — Mitch (Luke Wilson), Frank (Will Ferrell), and Bernard (Vince Vaughn) — are all 30-somethings, well past their time in college. However, when the dean (Jeremy Piven) of the nearby university comes by to tell them he's rezoning one of their homes so it will now be university housing, they figure they have nothing to lose by turning it into a fraternity open to anyone. Besides, it'll give them a chance to relive their glory days on campus, even if their wives disapprove.

This 2003 movie has all the festivities of movies like "American Pie," but the guys involved have already had sex at this point in their lives, and some of them want to stay in the relationships they're already in. Still, that doesn't stop them from streaking, lubing people up for fights with K-Y jelly, and generally making themselves the butt of many a campus joke. Plus the casting is brilliant, with Ferrell, Wilson, and Vaughn all at the top of their games. "Old School," directed by a pre-"The Hangover" Todd Phillips, is raunchy and rebellious, even if no one is breaking curfew to have the night of their lives.

"The Girl Next Door" focuses on Georgetown-bound Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch), who doesn't seem to want to have sex or party, even though it's toward the end of his high school career. That is, until he meets Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), his next door neighbor, who breaks him out of his shell and makes him take risks. There's got to be a catch, and there is: Danielle was a porn star, and she has her manager, Kelly (Timothy Olyphant), breathing down her neck to get her to return to the adult film industry. But in the throes of young love, Matthew is willing to do what it takes to make sure Danielle doesn't ever have to do porn again, no matter what it takes.

"The Girl Next Door" is similar to "American Pie," but with a lot more romance. It combines a sweet premise with risqué elements that together create a heartfelt but at times bawdy film. In certain ways, though, 2004's "The Girl Next Door" is even racier than "American Pie" because it relies on Danielle's friends, who are all porn stars, for a lot of its laughs.

In 2023's "No Hard Feelings," 32-year-old Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) — who waits tables and drives an Uber to pay the bills — faces a repossessed car due to unpaid property taxes on the house her mom left her. Looking for another way to earn enough money to get out of debt, she answers an unusual ad from a wealthy couple that says they need a girl to date their son, 19-year-old Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), before he starts at Princeton in the fall. In exchange, they will give her a Buick Regal. 

Desperate, Maddie decides to take on the challenge and agrees to have sex with Percy to boot because his parents want him to experience all the joys of dating. But things don't go quite as planned, with Maddie enduring, among other things, a face full of pepper spray and having to defend herself and Percy against teenage thieves at the beach while they're skinny dipping.

The surprisingly melancholy "No Hard Feelings" represents a slightly older demographic in the sex comedy genre, since Jennifer Lawrence gets to do most of the ribald stuff in the movie, including a number of near-misses on the sex front. While the movie is as explicit and hilarious as "American Pie," Maddie and Percy actually form a cute friendship that makes this comedy all the more endearing.

"Wet Hot American Summer," directed by David Wain and written by Wain and Michael Showalter, is a 2001 parody of camp comedies from the late '70s and early '80s, but also serves as a satire of all the teen sex comedies that came out after it as well, including "American Pie." It takes place during the last full day at summer camp in 1981, and that loose structure serves as its jumping-off point for all manner of shenanigans for the campers and especially the counselors. In fact, the counselors appear to need adult supervision as much as the kids as they deal with sexual tension, summer romances, a talent show, and a scare involving their camp blowing up.

Though the movie did terribly at the box office and still only has a 39% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it has since attained cult status. Plus, the "Wet Hot American Summer" cast is one of the best ever, with many now-famous actors including Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni, Elizabeth Banks, Molly Shannon, and Bradley Cooper in his first film. The movie is scattershot in its approach, and people seem to either love it or hate it, but it has nevertheless spawned both a prequel series and sequel series on Netflix.

2008's "The House Bunny" stars Anna Faris as Shelley Darlington, the Playboy Bunny of the title. Shelley loves living in the Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner (who actually gets to do some acting), but on the day after her 27th birthday, she awakens to find a letter kicking her out immediately. She doesn't realize the note is from her jealous rival Cassandra (Monet Mazur), so she finds herself homeless and sleeping in her car. But when she notices some attractive girls and follows them home to their sorority, she learns she could be a housemother. 

While that first sorority won't accept her, the girls at the Zeta Alpha Zeta house — a socially awkward group in desperate need of training to talk to boys — welcome her. It turns out that Shelley may be exactly what the Zeta Alpha Zetas need to save their sorority which, like the fraternities in "Animal House" and "Old School," is in danger of being shut down.

A comedy about learning to be true to yourself, "The House Bunny" has all the raunch and heart of "American Pie," but with a mildly older female lead who needs to learn almost as much as the girls in the sorority. Anna Faris is great in this movie and manages to be both sympathetic and hot all at the same time.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Teens make a sex pact to lose their virginity on prom night. Yes, that is the premise of "American Pie" — and 2018's "Blockers" too, except in "Blockers" the pact is forged by three girls, and the comedy largely focuses on their parents, not the teens. 

The girls' parents — single mom Julie (Leslie Mann), divorced dad Hunter (Ike Barinholtz), and married father Mitchell (John Cena) — see the girls' text messages and decipher the emojis enough to understand what their daughters have agreed to do, and they are not happy. They set out to ensure that their daughters remain virgins, and end up flipping their car, butt-chugging beer, throwing one of the girls' boyfriends against a wall, and sneaking into one of their daughter's hotel rooms to make sure of it.

This comedy is not only extremely funny, but it's also smart in its approach to female sexuality, voicing an ultimately empowering message about not policing women and their preferences when it comes to sex. Plus the film is a racy delight, with both the teenagers and their parents engaging in all manner of silly hijinks.

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" is a classic coming-of-age movie, and it presaged "American Pie" in many ways. First of all, it features a decent amount of sex, especially on the part of Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a freshman who wants to be seen as sophisticated. Then there are the wild antics of everyone in the cast, especially Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn), a perpetually stoned surfer dude who brings the party with him everywhere he goes.

Directed by Amy Heckerling from a screenplay by Cameron Crowe, the 1982 movie portrays a year in the life of several key students of Ridgemont High. The ensemble cast represents all sorts of teenagers as they navigate the ins and outs of high school, including their relationships, romances, and grades. In the end, everyone learns something valuable about what they want from life, even Spicoli ... sort of. The cast includes several people that went on to have long, successful careers, none more surprising than Sean Penn, who is so good as the irreverent Spicoli that you almost forget about the super-serious actor he's become.