The coming-of-age story has been a mainstay of popular films, books and television shows for years. Whether it follows teenagers at a high school or a young person coming to terms with what it means to become an adult, the universal themes in coming-of-age films often make them popular with the masses.
The problems faced by the young people in these films may have changed over the years, but many of the tropes remain the same. In fact, some of the most successful films of the noughties can be described as coming-of-age films and much-loved flicks of the 80s and 90s like Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting feature themes of dealing with adulthood and change.
We revisit our favourites in this list, from the tear-jerking to the hilarious.
The best coming of age films, ever
Lady Bird
Greta Gerwig - who has seen each of her three films nominated for a Best Picture Oscar - made her directorial debut with a coming-of-age film starring Saoirse Ronan, a film which shared similarities with her sophomore feature. Partly based on her own life growing up in Sacramento in the early 2000s, Lady Bird’s titular character clashes with her family and learns plenty of life lessons in this heartwarming and affecting film.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Based on the novel of the same name, and written and directed by its author, Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a film about growing up, fitting in, and coming to terms with the past as well as the future. The adaptation starred Emma Watson, Ezra Miller and Logan Lerman as Charlie, the quiet and studious teenager who befriends two older, quirky step-siblings and their wider group of friends.
Dead Poets Society
Starring Robin Williams and a young Ethan Hawke, Dead Poets Society has become so culturally ubiquitous that by just uttering the phrase “Oh Captain, my Captain”, the film will immediately come to mind. After a group of boys at a strict boarding school start studying English with a professor who encourages them to embrace their individuality and see life differently, the lives of all the students are changed, in equally heartbreaking and heartwarming ways.
Mean Girls
Created by Tina Fey and produced by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, 2003’s Mean Girls was a huge hit and went on to become one of the most iconic and well-known teen movies of all time. Following Lindsay Lohan’s Cady Heron as she joins a new high school and becomes embroiled with the popular clique of the school, Mean Girls resulted in several much-quoted lines and also offered an important message about staying true to yourself.
Stand by Me
Plenty of Stephen King novels can be described as coming-of-age stories, so it’s no surprise that his 1982 novella The Body was adapted for the big screen in the form of 1986’s Stand By Me. Featuring a cast who would go on to become hugely successful in their own right (including Will Wheaton and the late River Phoenix), the film focuses on a group of young boys who discover a dead body. Stephen King considered it the first successful adaptation of one of his books, and its influence on coming-of-age films and TV shows can still be seen today: supposedly the actors who auditioned for Stranger Things, which also features four young boys in the lead roles, were asked to read lines from Stand by Me.
Juno
Jason Reitman’s 2007 film Juno, written by Diablo Cody, features an all-star comedy cast and sees a teenage girl, Juno, dealing with an unwanted pregnancy and deciding to find a family to adopt her baby. While Juno’s circumstances may be extreme, the lessons she learns throughout the film are universal, as we see her struggling to deal with the decisions she is forced to make in adulthood.
The Breakfast Club
Perhaps the most well-known teen movie and coming-of-age film, John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club was one of the films, along with St Elmo’s Fire, which inspired the term ‘Brat Pack’ as a way to describe the new group of up-and-coming actors from the 80s who starred in one, or both, of the films. Taking place during a Saturday detention, the film features several stereotypes of high school students - the jock, the goth, the popular girl, the bully and the nerd - and eventually deconstructs each one by proving there is always more to people than meets the eye.
About a Boy
Starring a young Nicholas Hoult, About a Boy is a coming-of-age film which tracks the maturation of a young boy, Hoult’s character, as much as it does the maturation of the ladies-man-turned-father-figure Will, played by Hugh Grant. Playing on Grant’s ‘bad boy’ image and following in the trend of British romantic comedies of the noughties, the film was a huge success and launched Hoult’s career.
Booksmart
Often described as ‘the female Superbad’, Booksmart follows two high-achieving best friends who decide to party for the first time in their lives, on the last night before high school graduation. While it’s not easy to fit a coming-of-age narrative into just one night, Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut takes on the essential themes of the genre, with a hilarious ensemble cast and two incredibly likeable protagonists.
Good Will Hunting
Along with Dead Poets Society, in which he also played an esoteric, caring professor, Good Will Hunting solidified Robin Williams’ star image as one of the nicest people in Hollywood. The film is another classic coming-of-age tale and was written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the latter of which also stars in the lead role. They were just 22 and 20, respectively.
Heathers
Starring a young Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, Heathers is a dark comedy coming-of-age film which takes the themes of a typical teen movie and flips them on their head. The 80s classic is closely associated with Ryder and her penchant for playing ‘outsiders’, and later influenced a musical on Broadway of the same name.
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott’s highly influential 1868 novel is one of the most important coming-of-age narratives in the canon, and though there have been plenty of on-screen adaptations of the source material, Greta Gerwig’s 2019 interpretation is a favourite among many fans of the novel. Starring Saoirse Ronan as the ambitious writer Jo, and Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen and Emma Watson as her sisters Amy, Beth and Meg respectively, Gerwig’s Little Women takes a non-linear approach to the epic story, bathing the scenes from the March family’s younger years in a nostalgic, warm sepia tone.
13 Going on 30
The iconic dress, Jennifer Garner's youthful performance, and the sugary-sweet ending; 13 Going on 30 remains a classic for a reason. Its plot is the most obvious of the coming-of-age plots, as it involves Garner's Jenna literally growing older in one day, as the 13-year-old finds her wish of becoming a 30-year-old woman becoming true, soon realising that with adulthood comes plenty of difficult decisions.
Call Me By Your Name
The coming-of-age narrative in Call Me By Your Name presents itself most obviously in a much-loved scene between Timothee Chalamet's Elio and his supportive father, who reveals that he knows about Elio's sexuality - another focus of the film - and advises him on first love and first heartbreak. Though not Luca Guadagnino's debut feature, the film was his breakout, as well as solidifying Chalamet as the actor of a generation.
Bend it like Beckham
Gurinder Chadha's joyous Bend it Like Beckham follows Kiera Knightley's Juliette and her best friend Jess as they discover their passion for football. The film blends themes of cultural identity, family expectations and self-discovery, the film is a heartwarming watch that's rightly become a favourite of many within British cinema.
Moonrise Kingdom
As well as their incredibly distinctive style, Wes Anderson's films are also known for often focusing on childhood, family and the perils of growing up. No more is this true than in 2012's Moonrise Kingdom, a coming-of-age film that tells the story of two 12-year-olds, Sam and Suzy, who run away together in the 1960s, sparking a search party of adults. The film explores the innocence and intensity of first love, as well as the longing for escape and connection that often comes with adolescence.
Almost Famous
Based on the stranger-than-fiction real life teen years of director Cameron Crowe, who wrote for Rolling Stone magazine and went on tour with bands like Led Zeppelin, Almost Famous is an iconic coming-of-age tale that follows 15-year-old William Miller, an aspiring music journalist, as he tours with an up-and-coming rock band in the 1970s. Kate Hudson’s role as the free-spirited groupie Penny Lane is considered her breakthrough and one of her most well-known and loved roles.
Eighth Grade
Directed by Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade is a raw and authentic coming-of-age film that captures the awkwardness and anxiety of being a teenager in the digital age. It follows 13-year-old Kayla as she navigates her final week of middle school, struggling with self-esteem, social media pressure, and the desire to fit in. Unlike many coming-of-age films that focus on big life moments, Eighth Grade zooms in on the subtle yet deeply impactful experiences of early adolescence, such as grappling with identity, loneliness, and the fear of not being seen.
Moonlight
One of the best films about growing old, Moonlight is a tender portrait of a young Black boy growing up with the odds stacked against him, and learning about love, family and identity in the process. Released in 2016 and made even more famous by the iconic Oscars mix-up of 2017 - the film ultimately won Best Picture - Barry Jenkins' beautiful film helped put the independently-owned distribution company A24 on the cultural map.
Boyhood
Richard Linklater’s innovative 2014 film Boyhood features the literal coming-of-age of its protagonist Mason, as it was filmed over a period of 11 years, capturing Mason as he naturally grew up, as well as the complicated lives of his family members. Linklater was inspired to write a film about growing older, and each year he wrote and adapted the rest of the script after shooting small portions, considering how the world and his actors had changed.
The Virgin Suicides
Sofia Coppola stated that she didn’t know she wanted to be a director until she read Jeffrey Eugenides’ debut novel, The Virgin Suicides, and wrote a script for a film adaptation without much hope of getting it made. The film became her directorial debut, and, like the book, can be said to feature the coming-of-age of not only the Lisbon sisters at the centre of the story, but the group of teenage boys who narrate the novel and the film, too.
Grease
Starring John Travolta in one of his most well-known roles as leader of the greaser gang the T-Birds, Danny Zuko, Grease is a classic coming-of-age musical which follows a shy student called Sandy. The film is one of the most successful musicals of all time, and while the fact that the actors playing the teen roles were a fair bit older is something of a well-known joke now, the depiction of teen love, heartbreak and rivalry is still a joy to watch.
St Elmo's Fire
St Elmo’s Fire is another coming-of-age classic, which helped to coin the derogatory nickname ‘Brat Pack’ for its young cast as well as propelling stars Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald to fame. In keeping with many of the most well-known films of the Gen X era, it follows a group of recent graduates finding their feet in a post-university world.
Clueless
Coining much-quoted lines like “as if!” and “you’re a virgin who can’t drive”, 1995’s Clueless is a classic of teen 90s cinema and features a young Paul Rudd in his breakout role. Loosely based on Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma, the film follows Cher Horowitz as she goes on a journey to become a more mature and empathetic person.
The Graduate
One of the most well-known and iconic coming-of-age films, The Graduate was hugely successful after its 1967 release and has continued to inspire the coming-of-age genre. Following a listless recent graduate and his relationship with an older woman, the film became a symbol of its generation. The final scene, which is considered to be one of the most iconic scenes in cinema, was unscripted and resulted from the actors improvising as the camera rolled.
Say Anything
11 years before directing the semi-autobiographic coming-of-age film Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe made the classic Say Anything, which features John Cusack holding up a boombox in a now-iconic and much-parodied scene. The film centres on Cusack's Lloyd Dobler, a quirky, optimistic underachiever who pursues a relationship with Diane Court, a high-achieving valedictorian with a complicated home life. Through their relationship, the film explores the intricacies of young adulthood, ambition and family expectations.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Starring Bel Powley, Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skarsgard, The Diary of a Teenage Girl is a coming-of-age film that sees its protagonist, Minnie, begin to understand the world and her place in it while seeing a much older man. Set in the 1970s in San Francisco, the film’s costume and set design is gorgeous, and the performances are nuanced as well as being hilarious.
Aftersun
Aftersun is one of the saddest coming-of-age films in the genre, and holds true to the theme of growing up and realising life may not be what you had imagined. Paul Mescal plays a young father on holiday in Turkey with his 11-year-old daughter in the 90s, and a strong sense of nostalgia only adds to the devastation of the film’s twist.
The Edge of Seventeen
The Edge of Seventeen is a modern coming-of-age film that offers a candid and often hilarious look at the emotional turbulence of adolescence. The story follows Hailee Steinfeld's Nadine, a socially awkward and sarcastic high school junior, as she deals with the typical struggles of teenage life - family tensions, friendship conflicts, and romantic missteps - while also grappling with feelings of isolation and insecurity.
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
Marking the breakout of roles of both Blake Lively (pre-Gossip Girl) and America Ferrera (pre-Ugly Betty) - and featuring a young Alexis Bledel, AKA Rory Gilmore - The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants explores the bonds of friendship and personal growth during a transformative summer in the lives of four teenage girls. Linked by a pair of magical jeans that somehow fits each of the girls perfectly, the friends share their very different journeys through letters and the travelling pants.
Wild Child
Responsible for making a generation of fans romanticise the idea of boarding school, Wild Child is a coming-of-age story with a lot of heart, as well as a lot of iconic scenes. Starring Emma Roberts as a spoiled, rebellious teenager from Malibu who is sent to a very British boarding school to grow up and start to respect others, the film was written by Sophie Dahl, Roald Dahl’s daughter, and was based on her own experiences at school.
My Girl
My Girl is a poignant coming-of-age film that explores the emotional journey of 11-year-old Vada Sultenfuss as she confronts the complexities of life, death, and growing up. Through Vada's experiences, the film delves into the emotional intensity of childhood, offering a heartfelt look at the challenges of understanding life’s darker realities while still navigating the path to maturity.
