The UK government is proposing that we be allowed to delete on-line evidence of adolescent shenanegans to save us future embarrassment. How sweet of them; it’s good to know they care…not enough to provide sufficient funds for education and mental health care, obviously, but enough to make it seem like they have some control over the tech companies we blithely give our personal secrets to.
But adolescent shenanegans are part of growing up, surely? Maybe you don’t need the video record of them plastered on the walls of time forever but they are part of the adult you become. Please feel free to recount your (embarrassing) youthful escapades but I’m more interested in films about such episodes, in the context of growing up and becoming an ‘adult’. I’m picking an Austrian film I raved about in 2011, Atmen (Breathing), about a troubled teen who finds a sense of purpose through a work-experience job at a morgue. You see him mature in front of your eyes.
What coming-of-age films would you recommend?
The 'Spill 
Moonlight. “At some point, you got to decide for yourself who you’re gonna be – can’t let nobody make that decision for you”
If I go back in time, I think it has to be Gregory’s Girl.
I’m still coming of age. And I know that because I watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower and it mattered.
Really? Is it worth a watch? Almost bought it for my 14 yr old to read on hols… but didn’t in the end 😞
It is worth a watch. All the classic elements of repressed feelings and experiences; outsider versus insider youths / trad vs radical youths; tumbling and fumbling loves and crushes; concened but unaware parents; stumbling towards identity and future paths; missteps and mistakes; experimentation and testing boundaries; friendship and betrayal. It’s very normal and everyday in its portrayal of coming of age but that works in its favour. Plus, I watched it with a Bowie fan and we didn’t know Heroes would be used in the film – we melted when it came on – twice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02ZT8WaTVWg
Meant to say, he’s reading Submarine, which is also a coming of age film directed by Richard Ayoade. Not too shabby either.
Submarine is on my list of films to see. My friend did the subtitles for Finnish TV and loved it. To my shame, I missed it.
Submarine is ace.
For me it probably has to be the early eighties films by John Hughes – Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink
Here’s The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty In Pink
John Hughes’ 80s films were the first things that I thought of. Have a dond.
And another…
I’m with Fuel – still working things out. So many classics – The Graduate; Educating Rita (I know she’s older but that doesn’t matter); – but I’ll go for “Empire of the Sun”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Sun_(film)
I will nom the 2009 film, An Education, starring the wonderful Carey Mulligan, and based upon the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber. Set in the early 60s, Carey Mulligan’s character is a teenage schoolgirl who gets picked up, romanced and seduced by an older man, who introduces her to an adult life way beyond her years. She discovers that he is a con artist, but when he proposes marriage she leaves school, only to find out that he is already married.
Well, Americans are pretty good at this sort of thing. I have never seen the John Hughes films. Otherwise still spoiled rotten for choice, and sticking to the teen years, I’ll go for Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
I have to say that Dazed and Confused was an awful lot like my own high school years.
Beat me to it … that would have been my first recommendation. Did you watch Everybody Wants Some, Linklater’s sort of university days version of D&C? I quite enjoyed it (although all the students looked about 25-30).
No i didn’t, but it looked like a goodhearted film.
Did you have after school specials in the UK? I may be way off base here because i had never seen any of them, but i always had the impression that John Hughes films were like after school specials. Which is probably why i couldn’t be arsed to see any of them. I saw Eminem’s 8 Mile and afterwards i thought it seemed like one of those too.
Oh my. I totally love that film (& soundtrack) so double donds from me. Remember going with some friends to the cinema to see it. They really didn’t get it. Came out saying “what was that about? Nothing happened” it was then I realised I actually had v little in common with them…. Great film
Oh and Matthew McConaughey was brilliant in it even tho he had such a small part. Casey Affleck was also great as the uber bully.
Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy. The first, Pather Panchali, is still my favourite of the three.
Dond for Pather Panchali, marvellous !
Several great films would qualify –
1) Kes – directed by Ken Loach in 1969 this is a one-off classic about Billy Caspar, a working class boy from Barnsley who has nothing in his life other than his “pet” kestrel which he trains up to fly to a lure. Unfortunately his elder brother, who is a complete bastard, doesn’t share Billy’s love of kestrels and Billy learns a hard truth about life !
2) Diner – a 1982 film by Barry Levinson that follows the adventures of a group of twenty something schoolfriends in Baltimore in 1959 just as one of them is about to get married. This is a brilliant ensemble comedy that launched the careers of Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon and Ellen Barkin ! The scenes set in the diner are particularly brilliant.
3) The Four Hundred Blows – Truffaut’s first film is a wonderful evocation of what it was like growing up in the Paris of the 1950s. Antoine is a troubled boy, unpopular both with his parents and teachers, he plays truant a lot and eventually drifts into a life of petty crime ending up in borstal from where he escapes at the end of the film. The street scenes shot in Paris are superb, giving a real feel for the times
That’s an outstanding triple bill. And I like all the films recommended so far, even the one I don’t know.
Cheers Fuel
I’ll go for Juno. A great film starring Ellen Page and Michael Cera about a geeky pair who end up growing up quickly when she gets pregnant. The sound track is amazing. Her parents in it are awesome – I wish I was that cool. It’s available real fav that I’m happy to watch whenever it’s on no matter that I’ve seen it several times
Spring (2014). American boy meets Italian girl – who turns out to be an immortal sea creature.
coming of age eh: blood and wolves; abandonment and pain
1 – In the company of wolves
2 – Walkabout
3 – Valerie and her week of wonders [VALERIE A TÝDEN DIVŮ]
4 – Ginger Snaps
Oh god, Ginger Snaps was……. incredible.
Most films that I thought of are taken but maybe 2015’s Mustang would count. About orphaned sisters in Turkey who are kept at home (and away from school) by their grandmother and uncle when accused of enjoying the company of boys too much.
Home is turned into a kind of “wife factory” against which the girls rebel in various, mostly secretive, ways.
MUSTANG
Fantastic! Just had a look.