7  Coming of Age Movies Every Teenager Should Watch

7 Coming of Age Movies Every Teenager Should Watch

Pop Culture

June 07, 2020

Growing up is a part of life, it is like a package deal. Teenage years are a part of growing up. We make friends, memories and before we know it, life happens. Cinema has always been an important part of our lives, we have grown watching movies and there are certain movies which have helped us through our tough times.

Coming of the age movies are very important because they help us shape our minds. They give us an idea of how our life might turn out and how everything doesn’t turn out the way we want. I have put together a list of a few coming of the age movies that are my personal favorite.

I have grown watching these movies, crushed on the actors, and cried at the endings. The list is in no particular order. So let’s get started!

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

With an amazing star cast including Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd, and Nina Dobrev, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a movie about a freshman named Charlie (Logan Lerman) who is an introvert and has a very unfortunate past. When he enters high school and makes friends with a couple of seniors, he learns to deal with his friend’s suicide and unfortunate past.

Some of the remarkable lines from the movie:

  • “ We accept the love we think we deserve.”
  • “ And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.”

2. Lady Bird

Starring Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, and Laurie Metcalf, Greta Gerwig’s ‘Lady Bird’ talks about every aspect of high school. Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) is a senior in high school who has a strained relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf). This movie is set in 2002-2003 in Sacramento, California.

This movie talks about friendship, relationships, college, love, homecoming dance, and prom. It shows the curiosity, wittiness, and selfishness of seventeen years old. It is a beautiful movie that everyone should watch.

Some of the remarkable lines from the movie:

  • “Don’t you think maybe they are the same thing? Love and attention?”
  • “ I want you to be the very best version of yourself that you can be.” “What if this is the best version?”
  • “The government didn’t have to put tracking devices on us. We bought them and put them on ourselves.”

3. Call Me by Your Name

Based in the summer of 1983 in Northern Italy, Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Call me by your name’ is my favorite movie of all time. It is a love story of a seventeen-year-old Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet) and Elio’s father’s grad student Oliver (Armie Hammer). This movie is about a boy who is experimenting with his sexuality when he meets Oliver who he falls in love with.

This movie talks about love and heartbreak. This movie has the finest actors, a beautiful location, a wonderful direction, and an amazing story. It is a must-watch.

Some of the remarkable lines from the movie:

  • “Call me by your name and I’ll call you by mine.”
  • “ Is it better to speak or die?”
  • “Nature has cunning ways to find our weakest spots.”

4. The Edge of Seventeen

The Edge of Seventeen revolves around Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), a high school junior who has a strained relationship with her mother and brother. She feels betrayed and more lonely when her best friend and only friend (Haley Lu Richardson) starts dating her brother. According to Nadine, growing up is hard, and life is no easier for high school junior.

She confines in her history teacher, Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson) when she has some problems.

Some of the remarkable lines from the movie:

  • “There are two types of people in the world: The people who naturally excel at life. And the people who hope all those people die in a big explosion.”
  • “I had the worst thought: I've got to spend the rest of my life with myself.”

5. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Directed and written for the screen by John Hughes, Ferris Bueller’s day is a fun-tastic movie. Starring Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller, a high school senior who has the entire city of Chicago convinced that he is on his death bed just to skip school for the 9th time in one semester. He is adored by everyone but is hated by the dean of the school (Jeffrey Jones) and his sister (Jennifer Grey).

He wants to show his best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck), a good day before they go off to college so he sneaks his girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara) out of school to roam around the city of Chicago. Cameron’s parents hate each other, he is afraid of his father and he feels better when he is sick but Cameron finally decides to stand up to his father after he wrecks his father’s Ferrari.

Charlie Sheen also makes a cameo in this movie.

Some of the remarkable lines from the movie:

  • “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
  • “It's not that I support fascism or any ism for that matter. Isms in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." Not bad, but then again he was the walrus.”

6. The Breakfast Club

When I think about this movie, I can hear ‘Don’t you forget about me’ by Simple Minds playing in the background. John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club has five high school students, having different perspectives of life, sitting in one room because of Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal.

The students are told to write an essay on ‘what do you think you are’ as a punishment and we can see five different people- a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal bonding no matter what their background. When the day ends, they question whether the school will ever be the same.

The movie is an engaging attempt at portraying teenage problems.

Some of the remarkable lines from the movie:

  • “We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all.”
  • Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, ….and an athlete..., ...and a basket case..., ...a princess..., ...and a criminal...

Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

7. Booksmart

Olivia Wilde’s booksmart starring Beanie Feldstein, Kaitlyn Denver, Diana Silvers, Billie Lourd, Jessica Williams, Jason Sudeikis, and Lisa Kudrow is hilarious, coming of the age movie. The movie is about two nerdy best friends who gave up everything that is fun according to high school kids just to get through high school without getting any trouble and to get into Ivy League Colleges.

They later realize that their peers got into the same schools as them without giving up a happening high school experience. So they decide to have fun by going to high school parties to compensate for 4 years in one night before graduating. It is a heartfelt, funny, and wonderful movie that every teenager must watch.

Some of the remarkable lines from the movie:

  • "There's nothing more exciting and daunting than the blank page. Oh, that's good. Maybe I'll do a book of quotes."
  • “What took them four years, we are doing in one night!”

I would like to rest my case here. I hope you enjoy these amazing movies!

Simran Tuteja
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Writer since Jun, 2020 · 7 published articles

Simran Tuteja is 21 year old student who majored in Mathematics from the University of Delhi. She started writing when she was clinically depressed and dealing with anxiety and she wants to become a successful writer. Simran enjoys writing short stories, poems and articles. Her poem ‘Little do they know’ got published in ‘In Real Life’, an anthology by Himanshu Goel. She was the Editor-in-Chief of Ananta, the Science Society of Indraprastha College for Women and the Managing Editor of Trijya, the Mathematics Academic Society of IPCW.

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