If you haven’t seen High School Musical, you absolutely need to get your head in the game. This 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie garnered immediate success with general audiences, and its legacy continues to live on for all the best reasons.

For a modern, more lighthearted retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, High School Musical is a wonderful snapshot of young love in an American high school setting. Our star crossed lovers Troy and Gabriella, played by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, fall in love under a karaoke night’s spotlight, only to be torn apart by the demands of their separate school cliques.

The older looking aesthetic of the film captures a certain magic of the 2000s that I feel is sometimes lost in the more high definition quality of more recent filmmaking. While progress and development is praiseworthy and wonderful to watch, there’s a certain comfort to this older appearance. Furthermore, it creates a deeper nostalgia upon recent watches, as I realise that this movie is now twenty years old. It’s especially remarkable to me that High School Musical seems to have taken the entirety of Gen Z by storm. In our current era of nonstop content, one singular piece of media doesn’t always come out on top with well rounded popularity/recognizability, and yet High School Musical has done just that.

I hope this doesn’t read as a criticism, so bear with me. I used to think the acting in this movie was bad. However, I’ll say on my most recent rewatch in preparation for this review, my opinion has changed. It’s not bad acting — it’s horrifyingly accurate. Teenagers are so deeply awkward and dramatic and cringe, and those layers to teenage behavior simply radiate off the screen. Given that the core of the film is the struggle to define yourself in more than one way (through more than one hobby), the instance of teenagers to conform to the cliques they’ve created within their school is portrayed with brutal accuracy.

Troy and Gabriella are awkward and they’re in love. Troy is trying to find the balance between appeasing his friends and his dad’s basketball related demands off him, whilst also pursuing his newfound love of singing and performing. Gabriella is trying to fit into her new school without making too much of a social splash, whilst also feeling this unbelievable pull to Troy and the way she feels when she sings with him. It’s ridiculous – it’s captivating – it’s so innocent and wondrous and I cannot get enough of it.

Songs like “Stick to the Status Quo” and “Breaking Free” are standout musical numbers within the film.

“Stick to the Status Quo” involves the entire cast of the film, as they react to the news that Troy and Gabriella got a callback for the upcoming musical. This particular performance is a perfect accompaniment to the rising action of the story, as other characters divulge their personal interests that are considered outliers to their expected hobby associations.

“Breaking Free” is a beautiful duet that we get teases of throughout the film, as it’s the song that Troy and Gabriella rehearse and sing at their callback. The moment we finally see the song performed is such a unifying and gratifying moment in the film, given the rising tensions and resistance to this outcome.

Every time I watch this movie, I get goosebumps. Yes, it’s cheesy, but it’s fun. The characters treat the premise of the story like it’s the end of the world. Troy and Gabriella auditioning for the school musical isn’t detrimental, but to the students at East High School, it’s catastrophic. I love the drama, the tension, and the slow burn to a beautiful sentiment about the importance of being yourself and looking at the people around you as a team, rather than people to compete with or disregard.

Published on 14th September, 2026.