It’s a late Tuesday afternoon, and the sun shines through your dorm window. The golden light hits your face just like the sound of your favorite song pulls at your heartstrings. All of a sudden, you get this feeling of yearning. Yearning for something bigger than some trivial school assignment. Yearning for something worth more. This list of movies takes this exact feeling and puts it in a bottle. So if you’re looking for some movies to help you through your quarter-life crisis, this is the place to be. This list is in no particular order
1. Lady Bird
Let’s start off with the casting for this movie. Per-fec-tion. Timothee Chalomet AND Sairose Ronan? It can’t get better than that. Saoirse Ronan does an amazing job of encapsulating what it feels like to be a senioritis-ridden teen stuck in their hometown. Her character, Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, has only known what life is like in her small town, and college seems to be the only way to live the life she wants. However, due to her family’s financial situation, she cannot live her life fully. This movie follows her as she makes tough decisions, where she has to decide whether or not to sacrifice her family or personal values. As someone who didn’t know what they wanted from a college after living in the same town their entire life, this movie hits every time. No matter where you are in life, you may have to make similar sacrifices along the way, too, and this movie shows the reality of life and how it may suck sometimes.
2. Perks of Being a Wallflower
You’ve probably seen the tunnel scene before where Sam, played by Emma Watson, stands up in the bed of her stepbrother’s truck and truly feels free for the first time in her life. This movie follows the main character, Charlie, played by Logan Lerman, as he navigates a new chapter in his life. Charlie discovers the joys of friendship and music and even sparks an interest in becoming a writer with the help of his teacher. Full of emotion and plot twists, this movie is perfect for when you need your main character moment. I love this movie; it gets better each time I watch it.
3. Coda
CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults. This movie follows the life of a hearing girl, played by Emilia Jones, in a deaf community. As the only hearing member of her family, she is forced to make tough decisions where she may have to sacrifice her own well-being for her family’s. This movie does a great job of showing the struggles that the deaf community goes through and just how strong their sense of community can be in times of struggle. In addition to winning an Academy Award for Best Picture, among other awards, Daniel Durant, a star in this movie, was a celebrity on the most recent season of Dancing With the Stars. Through his work on Dancing With the Stars, he spread great awareness about the deaf community by showing their struggles and triumphs.
4. Sing street
The soundtrack in this movie is immaculate. So nostalgic and so heart-warming. Conor, played by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, as he attempts to adjust to a new life, finds his place in this world by forming a band. Through their collaboration, they are able to find commonalities in their struggles during the recession that took place during the 1980s in Dublin. One of the main themes of this movie is self-exploration and self-expression, as Conor learns the pains of growing up. This movie also goes to show that music really is one of the best forms of therapy and it can bring unlikely groups of people together.
5. The Breakfast Club
This is probably one of your dad’s favorite movies. But maybe your dad has good taste because this movie is undoubtedly a classic coming-of-age movie that shows the struggles of high school. This movie shows how you will meet many people in your life, and most of them will be nothing like you. Although it can sometimes be a struggle, getting to know and understand these differences is one of the most rewarding experiences. As the students in this movie, from all different backgrounds and walks of life, get to know each other better during their detention, they start questioning their biases and how they perceive the world around them. They would never perceive the world in the same way that they had before this detention. One takeaway from this movie is that you should never judge a book by its cover. Although it is a cliche message, it is one that many people take for granted.
6. The Edge of Seventeen
High school can be a lonely period for us all. Nadine, played by Hailee Steinfeld, really puts us back in the halls of high school. Nadine believes that all hope is lost for her and is about to accept her destiny as the sister of the popular boy. She soon finds friendship where she least expects it. She starts to find hope in a world that was not so long ago, dark and gloomy for her. With little moments of comedy and glamour, this movie still does a great job of showing the world the life of a modern teen through their eyes. Mr. Bruner, played by Woody Harrelson, shows Nadine how to break out of her shell in ways she would never have imagined. Growing up as a shy kid, this movie really hits home because it showed me how to take more risks in life.
7. 10 Things I Hate About You
Again, this is one of those movies with incredible casting: Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Julia Stiles, and Gabrielle Union. Although some may say this movie is more of a rom-com, I think it still has many aspects of a good coming-of-age movie. Kat Stratford, played by Julia Stiles, has always been known as a feminist icon who would rather slam her head in a car door than date someone. However, as time goes on, she falls for the guy she would never have thought she would fall for. With ups and downs, this movie documents the cutest enemies to lovers trope as the main characters must also deal with the trials and tribulations of life in high school. This movie is for all those hopeless romantics out there. Love will find you when you least expect it.
8. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
As Dolly Parton once said: “Workin’ 9 to 5. What a way to make a living.” Walter Mitty, played by Ben Stiller, takes this and runs with it. He worked at LIFE Magazine as the director of negative assets for 16 years. Basically, he developed all the photos the company received so they could analyze them and decide which photos to make the cover every day for the past 16 years of his life. His day-to-day life seemed to blur together. On a journey to find a photo he allegedly misplaced, he travels all around the world, from Greenland to Iceland and back, and finds his true self along the way. This movie is a perfect mix of comedy and self-discovery. This movie explains how we should take risks because the outcome may work out for the better in the end, and we don’t know if we don’t try. Nothing in life is forever, for better or worse.
Those are my top eight coming-of-age movies, perfect for navigating high school, college, and post-grad life. Happy watching!