Painfully shy Todd Anderson has been sent to the school where his popular older brother was valedictorian. His room-mate, Neil, although exceedingly bright and popular, is very much under the thumb of his overbearing father. The two, along with their other friends, meet Professor Keating, their new English teacher, who tells them of the Dead Poets Society, and encourages them to go against the status quo. Each, in their own way, does this, and are changed for life.

Shakespeare’s classic tale of romance and tragedy. Two families of Verona, the Montagues and the Capulets, have been feuding with each other for years. Young Romeo Montague goes out with his friends to make trouble at a party the Capulets are hosting, but while there he spies the Capulet’s daughter Juliet, and falls hopelessly in love with her. She returns his affections, but they both know that their families will never allow them to follow their hearts.

Dear Diary: Veronica Sawyer is sick of being part of the Heathers, the most powerful clic of Westerberg High; making fun of Martha Dunnstock (”Dumptruck”), the fat girl, or doing some stupid polls is something she’ll never get used to. Meanwhile she meets JD, a cool rebel guy who wouldn’t mind shooting a gun at school just to make his point. Remington University’s party is where Veronica has to go as a Heather, and there’s where she gets her ultimatum as a Heather from Heather Chandler, the head of the Heathers. So Veronica and her lover JD “accidentally” kill Heather Chandler and manage to cover it up by making a suicide note. Will this be just the beginning of the assasination-turned-suicide serie of Westerberg High which nor the FBI, the CIA or the PTA would be able to stop? Or will Veronica be able to pull herself together and stop her psychotic lover from killing absolutely EVERYONE at school?

Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They’re all rather tight, or so they claim. But they spend precious little time together and none of them seems to know much about one another’s family lives. This bizarre dichotomy underscores their alienation # the result of suburban ennui, a teenager’s inherent sense of melodrama, and the disturbing nature of their home environments.