The Sandlot
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So many of the best coming-of-age films, particularly those about boys that are also set in that boomer sweet period between the 50s and 70s, focus on those liminal pre-teen years between childhood and what comes next.
The Sandlot, set in 1962, is a prime example. New kid Smalls and the group of boys who would become his friends during that one special summer learn lessons about life, friendship, and the mercurial nature of boyhood dreams. The game of baseball functions, as it so often does in American cinema, as a way to span the generation gap and universalize the nostalgia for boys born in any decade.
Dead Poets Society
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Dead Poets Society is one of those movies that is an entirely original creation yet you’d swear was adapted from a novel. Maybe it’s the Mandela effect?
The film explores the kind of big ideas that tend to drift away as we march toward adulthood and have to find our place in society. “Carpe Diem” yes, but also the importance of being true to oneself, of the tension between conformity and passion, of structure and authenticity.
Robin Williams is rightfully singled out as the best performance, but the young cast hold their own. You can instantly clock Robert Sean Leonard, Josh Charles, and Ethan Hawke as future stars.
Lady Bird
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Barbie proved to be a massive hit and has made writer/director Greta Gerwig into a household name, but her debut directorial effort Lady Bird remains her best movie and stands as one of the great coming-of-age films ever made. She and her star Saoirse Ronan perfectly capture that specific angst and restlessness of the overly smart underachiever who is about to take those first big steps into adulthood.
Actors Laurie Metcalf and Tracy Letts do a ton of heavy lifting as well as Lady Bird’s struggling parents just trying to give their daughter a better life than they had. Their performances ensure this film will continue to resonate with audiences through many stages of life.
Moonrise Kingdom
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Would it surprise you to learn that Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is a whimsical and eccentric take on the coming-of-age story? The movie tells a story about young love and budding sexuality, of innocence lost and regained again.
One summer on an island in New England an orphan from a scouting camp and his romantic penpal decide to run away together, sparking a search from the emotionally stunted adults in their lives.
The all-star cast is phenomenal and Wes Anderson is at his quirky best. He does not get nearly enough credit for his uncanny ability to find and guide young actors toward remarkable performances.
The Breakfast Club
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Time works differently when you’re younger. Which makes sense, since you’ve experienced a lot less of it. The Breakfast Club perfectly captures those moments in youth that, for whatever reason, completely change our lives. This Saturday detention seems to stretch on for eternity or at the very least long enough for this disparate group of people to cut through their defined social roles. They also break down their walls and have come to define them and learn that they have more in common than not.
John Hughes was always adept at authentically showing these slices of teen life in the 80s, and The Breakfast Club might be his best work in that mode
Boyhood
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Richard Linklater has played with the coming-of-age story several times — Dazed and Confused and School of Rock — but it wasn’t until his ambitious Boyhood that the director completely changed the genre. Part slice of life, part epic, the process behind Boyhood’s production is as impressive as the film itself.
They shot from 2002 to 2013 and began without a completed script. Scenes were shot intermittently over the years. This allowed actor Ellar Coltrane to age in real-time. The story of the film was revised by Linklater to reflect the real-life growth of his actors — and in reaction to things they had previously shot.
Boyhood is a technical and storytelling triumph.
Juno
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Like many movies from this era (we’re looking at you, Garden State) Juno gets a lot of negative attention for its script — specifically writer Diablo Cody’s quirky, stylized dialogue. A character earnestly says “This is one doodle that can’t be undid home-skillet” so there’s some merit to those complaints.
Still, the movie also captures something about the state of being a teen in the late aughts and explores subject matter that doesn’t get nearly enough attention, particularly for movies with a younger intended audience.
On top of it all, Elliot Page’s performance as Juno, the ironically detached teen who has suddenly had adulthood thrust upon them, is superlative
Almost Famous
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Is it possible to tell a coming-of-age story where the main protagonist has to come to grips with what it means to be an adult in an industry full of people who never have to grow up?
Writer/director Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical saga about a young journalist who goes on tour with a rock band to write his first cover story does just that and does so in a film that captures the energy of the 70s rock & roll scene even if it’s a bit sanitized.
If you’re revisiting, be sure to watch the extended version. There are a few scenes added that are among the best the film has to offer, even if it muddies up the pacing.
Boyz N The Hood
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Boyz n the Hood writer/director John Singleton’s debut film is a story that he had been developing since before he enrolled in film school. The plot follows a group of childhood friends in the early 1990s growing up in South Central Los Angeles, navigating gang culture, their community’s relationship with the police, and growing racial tensions in the city. Singleton’s direction is refreshingly confident in his first effort, and his already sharp, thoughtful writing is elevated by an amazing cast that includes Cuba Gooding Jr, Lawrence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, and Regina King. The film also famously launched the acting career of Ice Cube. It’s one of the best films of the 1990s.
Stand By Me
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Based on the Stephen King short story “The Body” Stand By Me remains one of the most influential coming-of-age films ever produced. Set in 1959, the story follows four friends with very different home lives and personal issues as they go on a journey to find a dead body in hopes that they might become local heroes.
The movie hones in on that special bond that’s shared between friends of a certain age, when we navigate that transition from adolescence to adulthood. The movie drips with nostalgia without collapsing into saccharine melodrama and continues to resonate with audiences 40 years after its release.
