A coming-of-age story can be about rebellion, finding love, running away from home, starting a band, or even battling your Technicolor-haired girlfriend’s seven exes to the death. But the one thing that defines a coming of age story is the change, or growing up. Periods of transition are often uncomfortable and awkward, like a shoe that hasn’t been broken in yet. So we often turn to movies in search of answers to our befuddlements. We find comfort in watching someone else embark on a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment, in hopes that we may someday emerge from the fog of adolescence too.
The best coming-of-age movies are profound and poignant and often filled with the teenage angst that we’ve all felt at some point. Perhaps the element of nostalgia that is folded through is what makes films of its kind so powerful and stirring. Here are a few of my all-time favourites of the genre.
Moonrise Kingdom follows capricious 13 year olds Sam and Suzy, who have abandoned their responsibilities and decided to run away together, driven by pure unadulterated love. Naturally, chaos ensues and a string of wild-goose chases, search parties, and impromptu weddings follow in their wake.
Wes Anderson has a penchant for making the children in his movies behave like adults and the adults behave like children, and this is where most of the film’s piquant satire stems from. The film is seemingly whimsical, but speaks volumes if you pay close enough attention. The wonderfully sculpted characters and the biting dialogue elevate the movie from childhood hijinks to a true classic of the genre.
Lady Bird, Greta Garwig’s directorial debut, is a whirlwind of emotions wrapped in jarringly real storytelling. The film stands out because it captures the nitty-gritty of an unwelcome coming-of-age; the strained relationship with family, the pining to escape a small town, the relentless internal conflict, and the discovery and loss of love. The journey she takes within herself is profound and leads her to embrace her metamorphosis. A coming-of-age in its rawest form, Lady Bird is poignant, mature, and enlightening.
Dazed and Confused, originally intended by Richard Linklater to be an anti-nostalgic movie, is in fact copiously so. It is, in essence, a seventies American teen movie about a high school rave on the last day of school. Abundant with bell-bottoms, hilariously incomprehensible lingo, and a blonde-mustached Matthew McConaughey, it hits all the right notes.
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