Most movies are predicated on some kind of character arc. The protagonist starts their journey and, by the end, the experience alters who they are. However, we wouldn’t call all films “coming-of-age” stories simply because the main character matures. The genre has certain hallmarks denoting not just change, but the loss of innocence in the transition. To put it another way, childhood must be left behind and the lessons of adulthood will be complex, ambiguous, and arduous. That’s not to say that every coming-of-age story is a downer, but there is a realization that the past is lost and gone forever, so there is a bittersweet element at play.
What makes these 13 films in particular vital is the way they remain clear-eyed about adolescence, pushing back against nostalgia and never forgetting the emotional complexity of youth. They’re movies that respect their young characters rather than fearing them or dismissing their concerns. While there are plenty of great coming-of-age tales out there, these examples will shape a clear understanding of the genre.
“The 400 Blows” (1959)
Not just an essential work of the French New Wave, François Truffaut’s debut feature is also a riveting tale based on the director’s youth. “The 400 Blows” is the first of five movies to feature the character Antoine Doinel, played by Jean-Pierre Léaud. Here, he’s a wild adolescent constantly making trouble, but also cast aside and misunderstood by both parents and teachers. While other coming-of-age movies provide a nurturing figure who helps guide the youth to maturity, there’s no solace for young Antoine. His story is one of harsh lessons, inflicted by a tough world that refuses to see the fullness of his humanity.
“The Graduate” (1967)
Throughout “The Graduate,” Mike Nichols uses imagery of submersion, symbolizing the womb. That’s because Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) may be a college graduate, but he’s still a boy. His parents parade him in front of their friends (Benjamin doesn’t seem to have any of his own), and his stumbling pursuit of maturity leads him to fall into bed with the neighbor’s wife, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). What this groundbreaking feature gets to with a slicing comic wit is that Benjamin’s desire for adulthood won’t offer him any answers. He’s lived his life doing what everyone told him to do, and he’s not happy. His staid rebellions (Mrs. Robinson comes on to him, so he’s yet again doing what he’s told) only lead him back to where he started: uncertainty about his future. His coming-of-age is the slow realization that every action to define his future only leads his outlook to be more unsettled than before.
“American Graffiti” (1973)
Before he took audiences to a galaxy far, far away, director George Lucas cruised around 1962 Modesto, California. “American Graffiti” follows friends Curt (Richard Dreyfuss), Steve (Ron Howard), Milner (Paul Le Mat), and Toad (Charles Martin Smith) on a restless evening before Curt and Steve leave for college the following day. Shot almost entirely at night through car windows, there’s a constant sense of motion and possibility as the guys think about both long-term prospects and something as immediate as trying to get laid. Where Lucas gets sneaky and brilliant is in the postscript, which reveals the film’s nostalgia to be a bittersweet cocoon. It’s a loving memory, but one, like all youthful exuberance, that is inevitably lost.
Cooley High (1975)
Best friends Preach (Glynn Turman) and Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) are in the last weeks of their senior year of high school. They decide to sneak out to hang with friends and enjoy the city. What comes across in Michael Schultz’s terrific coming-of-age movie is a sense of joy and rambunctiousness. While white filmmakers making stories about Black youth tend to patronize their subjects and see them as inevitably put-upon, Schultz simply lets his characters have fun and be young while never losing any of their shading. Even when it comes to a melancholy conclusion, the turn of events feels earned and worth exploring rather than forcing a tragedy.
“The Breakfast Club” (1985)
No list of coming-of-age movies would be complete without at least one John Hughes movie. While films like “Pretty in Pink,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and “Sixteen Candles” are worth checking out, “The Breakfast Club” is arguably Hughes’ high point. It conveys the growth that comes from realizing the arbitrary limits of young life. The film’s core tenet is that there’s far more that unites us than divides us. Growing up shouldn’t be about clinging to cliques and what your parents prescribe. It’s reaching out to your peers to see that both you and they are far more than the world would have you believe.
“Stand By Me” (1986)
The tale of four 12-year-old boys looking to find a dead body may not seem like great material for a classic coming-of-age drama. But Rob Reiner’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella “The Body” absolutely sings. The film features four of the big screen’s greatest kid performances. Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell put the entire narrative on their shoulders to sell the reality of moving from innocence to experience as they confront darkness and danger together. And yet there’s also lighter moments to be had (who doesn’t love a scene where everyone starts vomiting?) that show childhood not as a grind but as a series of odd events, tangents, and emotions you only start to unpack when you’re an adult.
“Dead Poets Society” (1989)
Another film that shows the importance of not letting your schooling interfere with your education. Set at an all-male boarding school in 1959 Vermont, Peter Weir’s Oscar-nominated drama follows a group of friends who become inspired by their new English teacher, Mr. Keating (Robin Williams). The terrific tension at the center is how Keating wants the boys to embrace their individuality while other authority figures are interested in creating carbon-copy molds of who they believe adults should be. What “Dead Poets Society” shows is maturity as an act of courage, one where a youth cannot become an adult until they discover for themselves what they believe, why they believe it, and why it’s worth fighting for.
“Almost Famous” (2000)
Sometimes becoming an adult means lying about your age to go on the road with a band coming to grips with its own fame. Based on writer-director Cameron Crowe’s experiences as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone, “Almost Famous” follows William Miller (Patrick Fugit) as he covers Stillwater, a rising rock band. With a mixture of intellect and emotional naiveté, William keeps crashing against the realities of adult life with idols who let him down and a crush who won't return his affections, all while having to grow up so fast that sometimes you just have to sit in a hotel hallway and cry. But these lessons are hard-won, and nothing sticks with you like the Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) maxim, “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (2012)
Writer-director Stephen Chbosky made the rare move of adapting his own book for the screen, and the even rarer move of turning it into a wonderful film. Both the novel and movie cut to the deep anxieties and depression of Charlie (Logan Lerman), a high school freshman who befriends two seniors and starts to experience the joys of life. What makes “Perks” stand apart is its willingness to go to dark places by exploring sexual abuse, suicide, and bigotry without ever playing like an after-school special. Twenty-first century coming-of-age movies improve the genre by not simply serving as a vehicle for adults to look back at childhood; instead, they tell stories, like “Perks of Being a Wallflower,” that meet young people where they are and respect their emotional reality.
“Boyhood” (2014)
Perhaps there’s no better way to show coming-of-age than to show people literally aging. Filmed over the course of 12 years, Richard Linklater’s movie may have Mason (Ellar Coltrane) play the eponymous boy, but the film’s original title, “12 Years,” does more to encapsulate how all four leads—Mason, his sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater), mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette), and father Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke)—grow over the course of more than a decade. What’s even more clever than the unusual production schedule is how Linklater captures the small, almost mundane moments that somehow become core memories. In another movie, kids whipping saw blades at a piece of wood would be a lead-in to a lost limb; in “Boyhood,” it’s just another fragment of growing up. Childhood is rarely a series of big, dramatic events. If anything, it’s the little moments of connection that make us.
“Moonlight” (2016)
Barry Jenkins’ beautiful, Oscar-winning triptych explores the questions of who we become and what the world will let us be. Based on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s semi-autobiographical play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” Jenkins’ film follows its protagonist in three distinct phases—his childhood, his adolescence, and his adulthood—and how his sexuality, loneliness, and search for love come to define him. In lesser hands, “Moonlight” would be an exploitative march of tragedy, but Jenkins handles the material with an empathetic touch. We can’t help but be drawn into the life of this boy, young adult, and man. The narrative may be split along distinct eras, but “Moonlight” shows the bonds that make a person whole.
“Eighth Grade” (2018)
There’s no shortage of material about how social media impacts teenagers. As a teenager who grew up (and found fame) on YouTube, writer-director Bo Burnham knows that better than most. But rather than delivering a pandering, trite warning about the dangers of technology, Burnham looks to the more universal story of teen insecurity. Anchored by a terrific performance from Elsie Fisher as Kayla, the film follows a young girl whose obsession with her social media following is an expression of her own loneliness and isolation. Instead of blaming the apps and calling it a day, “Eighth Grade” recognizes that middle school is probably the hardest time period for kids even before factoring in the pressures of social media. And while the technology can seem predatory, there’s also a way out that comes through human connection rather than Instagram likes.
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” (2023)
It took more than 50 years to get Judy Blume’s beloved novel to the big screen, but writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig managed it perfectly. Keeping the 1970 setting, the film follows 11-year-old Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson), who has to move from the city to the suburbs to attend a new school. The film’s genius is not only in pinpointing the arbitrary rules of maturity that kids make for themselves, but also in showing, like other films on this list, that getting older doesn’t mean you suddenly have things figured out. By making sure the narrative includes not only Margaret but also her mother (Rachel McAdams) and grandmother (Kathy Bates), Craig gives a fuller picture of womanhood and how there will always be new challenges even after you finally get your period.