10 coming-of-age movies that aren't just for teens

1. Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society

• USA, 1989
• Comedy drama.
• Duration: 128 minutes.
• IMDb: 8.1.

A young and highly ambitious literature teacher, John Keating, appears at a conservative all-boys college and immediately attracts everyone's attention. Keating introduces the children to the world of English poetry, shares worldly wisdom, and also instills in them the spirit of the good old rebellion. Alas, some boys take Keating's lessons the wrong way. And this leads to tragedy.

The intergenerational drama by Peter Weir, which turned 33 this year, has some completely unique immortal wisdom that is relevant and understandable to the viewer of absolutely any age. In addition to the eternal conflict of fathers and children, the film raises questions of confrontation between a person and a system, an individual and society. And while Keating teaches students to "seize the moment" and "think freely," Weir urges viewers not to treat life like a sentimental novel.

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2. Stay with me

stand by me

• USA, 1986.
• Drama, adventure.
• Duration: 89 minutes.
• IMDb: 8.1.

Summer 50s. Four teenage friends go looking for the corpse of a boy who is rumored to have been hit by a freight train. As is often the case in childhood, a walk along the railroad tracks turns into an exciting adventure: with swimming in the lake, escaping from bullies and scary stories around the campfire.

At "Stay with me", like many other film adaptations of works Stephen Kingrather dark atmosphere. However, here, fortunately, there were no monsters under the bed. Rob Reiner's nostalgic film is much more like an ode to lost youth: the time when everything happens for the first time, and happiness seems endless. The main characters make the first big journey into adulthood, which forever changes their worldview.

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3. Spirited Away

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi

• Japan, 2001
• Anime, cartoon, fantasy, adventure.
• Duration: 125 minutes.
• IMDb: 8.6.

The girl Chihiro and her family move to a new house. Getting lost in an unfamiliar area, they find themselves at a strange, but terribly seductive feast, which, of course, does not end well. After tasting the enchanted food, the heroine's parents turn into pigs - now they are obedient slaves of the evil sorceress Yubaba. And only Chihiro can save them.

Japanese Animation Master Hayao Miyazaki loves to endow female characters with powerful heroic potential - and Chihiro is no exception in this regard. And if for children "Spirited Away" works as a piercing story of growing up, then for adults it is a cartoon about finding inner strength and fighting your own fears.

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4. Aquarium

fish tanks

• Netherlands, UK, 2009.
• Drama.
• Duration: 123 minutes.
• IMDb: 7.3.

Fifteen-year-old Mia is not going through the best period in her life: relations with classmates are not going well, and the atmosphere in the family is no less tense. The situation suddenly changes when a mysterious man appears in Mia's house - a young friend of her mother, who suddenly takes on the role of the new owner of the house.

"Aquarium" by Andrea Arnold is a melancholy portrait of a girl on the verge of a catastrophe - coming of age. It, along with a sense of self-sufficiency, brings a feeling of all-consuming loneliness, well known to every second person on earth. The theme of sexual harassment stands apart in the film, which, according to frightening statistics, is also close to the vast majority of women.

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5. Sense education

An education

• UK, USA, 2009.
• Drama.
• Duration: 100 minutes.
• IMDb: 7.3.

Britain in the 60s. Sixteen-year-old Jenny Mellor dreams of a career cellists and entering Oxford, until one day he accidentally meets David. He is twice her age. He has a beautiful car, an attractive smile and an affable gentlemanly manner.

The Oscar-winning film by Lone Scherfig, based on the memoirs of British journalist Lynn Barber, is a sensual but rather bleak tale of idealization, disappointment and harsh realities adult life. In the naive Jenny, it is easy to recognize yourself even for those whose youth has long been out of circulation. For the rest, the story of the growing up of a British cellist can be an excellent lesson about how deceptive that first, brightest feeling can actually be.

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6. Sweet Frances

Frances Ha

• USA, Brazil, 2012.
• Drama, melodrama, comedy.
• Duration: 86 minutes.
• IMDb: 7.4.

Frances lives in New York and works in a dance group, but she still has not found her home and, despite her rather conscious age, still does not understand what she will become when she grows up. Every day, Francis' dreams seem more and more unrealizable, and life is less and less like a beautiful fairy tale. Hoping to deceive fate, the main character goes to Paris, where she discovers herself from a completely new side.

The black-and-white melodrama "Frances Sweet" is like a heart-to-heart talk. A therapy session, if you will, received from the most reverent psychologist of modern cinema - Greta Gerwig. Each film by Gerwig is filled with genuine sincerity, which in the most natural way sets the viewer up for a reciprocal revelation - at least in a dialogue with herself. In the end, each of us at least once in our lives has come a moment when we felt as lost as possible in the stormy ocean of life.

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7. God's hand

È stata la mano di Dio

• Italy, USA, 2021.
• Drama.
• Duration: 130 minutes.
• IMDb: 7.3.

Naples, 80s. Young Fabietto suffers from forced loneliness, watches Diego Maradona's football victories and dreams of studying philosophy in college. Fabietto is sincerely attached to his emotionally unstable aunt, but finds it difficult to find a common language with his mother and father. However, like all teenagers. The routine life of the hero is broken by a sudden tragedy, which forces him to grow up ahead of time and rethink his attitude to the world.

“The Hand of God” by Paolo Sorrentino is largely an autobiographical story, riddled with childhood memories of the director himself: like the main character, he spent his childhood in Naples. Using a kaleidoscope of real and fictional events, the film shows how a serious emotional a shock can affect a fragile teenage mind and leave an imprint on it forever. personality.

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8. very dark times

Super Dark Times

• USA, 2017.
• Horror, thriller, drama, crime.
• Duration: 103 minutes.
• IMDb: 6.6.

Two teenage best friends, Zack and Josh, face reality's darkest side when they decide to hide their involvement in the death of a troubled high schooler from the public. And while the police are looking for the alleged criminal, the main characters are left alone with their own conscience and soul-eating paranoid.

This is probably the scariest coming-of-age story on our list, which quite realistically demonstrates how violence can destroy the human psyche. “Very Dark Times” is the very “small” indie movie that, having a relatively small budget, creates a truly atmospheric story on the screen that you immerse yourself in.

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9. Four hundred blows

Les quadrants coups

• France, 1959
• Drama, crime.
• Duration: 98 minutes.
• IMDb: 8.1.

Twelve-year-old Antoine is a difficult teenager: his mother simply does not notice him, and his stepfather is too infantile to influence his wife or son. At school, Antoine also has a hard time: in the lessons he constantly gets from a cruel teachers, who seems to be completely incapable of empathy. In the end, the main character decides to run away from home.

The story of Antoine Doinel (aka the screen alter ego of the great French director François Truffaut) forever changed the idea of ​​teen cinema. Firstly, the main character was played not by an experienced actor, but by an ordinary child (Jean-Pierre Leo). Secondly, the plot of the film is partly based on the life of the director himself.

The 400 Blows was in many ways the beginning of the French New Wave, and this picture is extremely important for understanding the context of the development of modern cinema in general and the work of Francois Truffaut in particular.

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10. Diary of a Teenage Girl

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

• USA, 2015.
• Drama, melodrama, comedy.
• Duration: 102 minutes.
• IMDb: 6.8.

San Francisco, 70s. Fifteen-year-old Minnie lives in a small apartment with her younger sister Gretel, mother Charlotte and her visiting boyfriend Monroe. Minnie is actively going through puberty and even keeps an audio diary where she writes down all her most sensual and frank fantasies. One day, Monroe begins to show a not quite paternal interest in Minnie, and this turns her life upside down.

Mariel Heller's satirical debut is a confident and rather bold (even for today) story about teenage sexuality. The director is not afraid of talking about taboo topics, but at the same time he does not go into moralizing. This film has changed the rules of the game for teen movies in many ways - Heller openly impresses his characters, not wanting to turn Minnie into a victim, and Monroe into a villain. After all, when it comes to the emotional side of life, we are all imperfect in one way or another.

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