Top 10 Coming-Of-Age Films

I thought I’d begin my blog with something that says quite a bit about my interests, values, music tastes and personality.

Lists + Movies + Dramedy + Youth + Mad as soundtracks + Soul-searching + Nostalgia + addition signs

Yes, it’s a compilation of the best (ie. my favourite) coming-of-age films. These are the movies centring on young, relatable and endlessly charming characters finding their place in high school, society and the world at large. We're looking at themes like identity, responsiblity, disillusionment and growing up in general. There’s a swag to choose from and as it may be expected Michael Cera makes repeat appearances as does the late director and 80s’ Nostalgia-King, John Hughes. All the same I think there’s something for everyone- old souls, indies, gals, guys, cynics and romantics.

Here they are:

              1.  Stand By Me (1986)
               Dir. Rob Reiner; Starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman & Jerry O’Connell

              1950s school boys + Huck Finn adventure + gun appearing in Act 1 + everyone cries +
              camp fires + cast singalong + dreamy Oregon landscapes + Cherry flavoured Pez + Ben E. King
              + gun reappearing in Act 3

        "Suck my fat one, you cheap dime-store hood"

2. Almost Famous (1999)
Dir. Cameron Crowe; Starring Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson & Billy Crudup

1970s unassuming school boy + rock & roll + touring with musicians + Kate Hudson’s curls + groupie culture + cast singlalong + Philip Seymour Hoffman’s beard + confessions on a plummeting plane

"I am a Golden GOD!!!!!!!!!!!"

  

       3. Juno (2008)
       Dir. Jason Reitman; Starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman & JK Simmons

2000s “artfully bedgraggled burnout kid” + the screenplay + indie colours and fashions + irreverent characters + old school punk music + Kimya Dawson + cast singalong + racing Bleaker’s mum upstairs

 

"You pay for that pee stick when you're done!

Don't think it's yours just cuz ya marked it with your urine!"



4.  Dazed and Confused (1993)

Dir. Richard Linklater; Starring Wiley Wiggins, Christin Hinojosa & Jason London

1980s summer break + glimpses of all high school cliques + freshmen’s hazing + sticking 
it to authority figures + kegger in the forest + Ben Affleck raging out + sleazy Matthew  
McConaughey + driving around

"You know I only came here to do two things, kick some ass and drink some beer. Looks like we're almost outta beer."

       5.  The Squid and the Whale (2007)
       Dir. Noah Baumbach; Starring Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg & Anna Paquin

1980s New York family + parents’ divorce + parents' newly dating + Jeff Daniels vs Billy Baldwin at tennis + teenage hormones + pretentious literary types + Kafka being Kafka-esque + Pink Floyd plagarism + A bout de souffle homage + Walt in therapy

     Principal: I suppose it's possible other kids are masturbating

                and spreading their semen around the school...

     Bernard: Oh it happens, I'm sure, much more than we know.

     Joan: Bernard, have you ever done anything like this?

     Bernard: I'm not going to answer that.

 

       6. The Breakfast Club (1985)
       Dir. John Hughes, Starring Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez & Anthony Michael Hall

       1980s high school + representing all the cliques + detention on a Saturday + all the angst in the
       world + secrets + come + out + unlikely friendships + voluntary detention + funky dance moves

 Bender: Does Barry Manilowe know you raid his wardrobe?

 Vernon: You'll get the answer to that question, Mr Bender, next

 Saturday. Don't mess with the bull, young man. You'll get the horns.

              7.  Into The Wild (2008)

       Dir. Sean Penn; Starring Emile Hirsch, Catherine Keener & Hal Holbrook

1990s college graduate + burns money + lives off the land + gorgeous American wildernesses + Eddie Vedder soundtrack + meeting new people + kayaks, trains and automobiles + the upkeep in slaughtering a moose

"Mr Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one"

8.  Superbad (2007)

Dir. Greg Motolla, Starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera & Christopher Mintz-Plasse

     
2000s school boys + best friends + impressing girls + the party + McLovin + Seth’s liquor       
store dream sequences + Officers Slater and Michaels + coke-period party + Seth and Evan in
sleeping bags

"So we've got an African Jew wearing a hoodie..."

9.  Pretty in Pink (1986)

Dir. Howard Deutch; Starring Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy & Jon Cryer

1980s high school + John Hughes screenplay + beautiful yet unpopular female protagonist +
adoring best friend + falls for dreamy douche + class issues + ungodly fashion + “Try A Little
Tenderness” record store scene + Harry Dean Stanton

"I just want them to know they didn't break me."

 10.  Ghost World (2001)

 Dir. Terry Zwigoff; Starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johannsen & Steve Buscemi

 1990s high school graduates + small town + Daniel Clowes’ comic + hair dye + best friends +
  love triangle with Brad Renfro + lonely jazz aficionados at garage sales + summer school +
  spoilt plans + joining the real world + bus stop



Enid: Oh my god, it's him! He's insane.
Rebecca: We should follow him home.

A notable mention to The Wackness (2008, dir. Jonathan Levine) which was on SBS the other week. It wasn’t just the script and performances I admired, but also the control in directing and cinematography.

You walk away with that independent movie feel without the stinging red of its artiness slapped across your face. Check out this framing! It means he's feeling trapped, and this shot of the boy, the butterfly and the lens flare is very pretty. Try to escape it mwahahah!!! I don't mean to disrespect the form, especially when it's used to advance a theme or character. It's a pretty expert thing to do and I am a bit of a that dolly shot! *faint* kinda girl. What I mean to do is complement these filmmakers- in this day and age, for an independent film looking at issues like identity, psychology, first love and drugs, it was so welcome and refreshing that it let the audience just experience the story and the characters' journeys. The movie was still technically beautiful but it didn't allow the form to detract any realism. The drug-binge towards the end was a pretty opportune scene for some wanky kaleidoscope effects, throbbing heartbeats and wildly skewed angles. They instead favoured subtle approaches to focus, movement and the soundscape :)

The Wackness had a killer hip-hop soundtrack with 90s favourites A Tribe Called Quest, Nas and Notorious B.I.G.  Unfortunately, there was too high a quota of "heartbreakingly sweet gestures by awkward boys" for The Wackness to crack the top ten films.

I don’t think Ordinary People (1980, dir. Robert Redford) can be classed as a coming-of-age film, but I wanted to mention on a related subject of teenage actors, Timothy Hutton’s performance as the guilt-ridden and suicidal Conrad is just about the best in the history of adolescent cinema. And yes, that is counting Leon DiCaprio in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?  And no, it’s not counting the collected works of the Two Coreys. Geeeeeez I’m not an idiot.  

So did I pick your favourites??????