I saw this and thought it a little unique as a Gen Xer. Many of these are a mash-up of different characters from Coming of Age or Famous 80s/90s/2000s movies from back in the day.
I guess, by default, we’re talking about teen movies, pr those movies about being caught between childhood and adulthood and not all of them were comedies. A few of my favorites, growing up:
- The Breakfast Club – A John Hughes classic, and one of the most famous closing scenes with Bender walking off the field with arm held high, with “Don’t You Forget About Me” playing in the background. Great dialogue and interesting backstories for each of the characters, complete with a final essay to Principal Vernon as an eff-you sign off.
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
2. Stand By Me – Just a great movie with a great story, plus four unique young actors (RIP, River Phoenix), based on the novella The Body by Stephen King. When I first started to watch it I thought it’d be a snoozer, but the story just keeps developing and wrapping between kids navigating their confusing lives while also dealing with the power structure between older teen bullies and taking a stand for yourself and growing up, growing strong.
3. Napoleon Dynamite – I didn’t see this one coming when I saw it. It was bizarre, quirky, unique, funny, sweet. Watching Napoleon going from what appeared to be an oddball to realizing that his uniqueness is uniquely confident, while also standing up and banding with the geeks and outcasts of the school…to quietly achieve a place in the higher ranks of teen societal structures by getting everyone to vote for Pedro. It also serves as a reminder of just how damned goofy and insignificant high school could really be, and how I can’t believe I ever took any of it seriously.
4. Better Off Dead – A Savage Steve Holland film, this was one of my roommate, James’s, favorite films and we watched it too many times to count. The central theme is following Lane as he loses his cherished girlfriend, Beth, to the school hunk, who happens to be better a competitive skiing, and Lane goes into a depression while also trying to think how he can win Beth back. Enter a foreign exchange student, Monique, who rebuilds Lane’s confidence while also delivering the best line in the movie:
It also features Lane’s parents, who I can now better relate to, between David Ogden Stiers trying to connect with Lane – “mellow off, Lane!” – and his out to lunch mom, Kim Darby, who struggles with home meals, all the while his younger brother is literally winning at life, hosting models and building a spaceship in the house. And you also get Curtis Armstrong (think Booger, from the Revenge of the Nerds movies), who plays Charles De Mar, Lane’s advisor. “Lane, I’ve been going to this high school for seven and a half years…I’m no dummy”.
A few others I like a lot that fall into the category:
- The Goonies
- The Graduate
- Dead Poets Society
- Dazed and Confused
- Rushmore
- What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
- Sixteen Candles (yes, I said it again)
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High
- The Outsiders
So how about you? What coming of age movies do you like…did it give you pause and make you pivot in life, or do you enjoy them because they remind you so much of your own life?
Have at it Refugees, and have yourselves a great Thursday.
Fast Times At Ridgemont High…mainly because of Phoebe Cates. 😁
Daaaayyyyyuuuummmm
Every time I hear Moving in Stereo I think of that scene.
A couple worthy but not mentioned:
Vision Quest- commit to the goal.
Ferris Bueller- love the rebellion against authority of all types. And the message: Fuck ‘em and have a good time.
Bueller taught me just how much you can accomplish if you just act like you know what you’re doing.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a 1962 British coming-of-age film directed by Tony Richardson, one of the new young directors emerging from the English Stage Company at the Royal Court. The screenplay was written by Alan Sillitoe, based on his 1959 short story of the same title, and concerns a rebellious youth who has been sentenced to a borstal for burgling a bakery. He gains privileges in the institution through his prowess as a long-distance runner, but reveries of important events before his incarceration that he has during his solitary runs lead him to re-evaluate his status as the prize athlete of the Governor.
I’d forgotten about this, but yeah, it was a good one.
“Heathers” was hilarious and a great take on mean girls/high school.
Bueller, Bueller …
I would add Breaking Away and Weird Science. I realize Weird Science was a goofy comedy, but for some reason we used to quote that movie in High School quite a bit.
“You’re STEWED butt WAD!!”
Every damn night?!?! On the telephone?!?
I’m embarrassed (read: proud) to say that I can recite Weird Science w/o a script).
“Who is this GARY character?!”
Breaking Away should be on the list since it was filmed around Athens.
The movie was filmed in/near Bloomington, Indiana. The short-lived TV series was filmed in Athens.
Ahhh, thanks for that. Memory gets foggy with age.
I would add a movie called Secret Admirer, with C. Thomas Howell, Lori Loughlin, Kelly Preston, Fred Ward, and other greats. It’s the same “loser boy tries to get hot girl” premise and ridiculously funny – even the parents. It’s usually on the Tubi and Roku channels. I love it because it’s a quotable knee-slapper.
Those first four you listed are classics.
Goonies = Good Enuff!!
Interesting list
Wow, I was not a coming of age genre dude. I immediately thought what was a militarized Goonies and thought: “Red Dawn”! and then immediately turned on it due to pro Wolverine propaganda. Had that goof troop been Bulldogs the movie woulda been over in 5 seconds and all of Communism destroyed. However, on an 80’s Date Night with a purdy Southern Belle, we watched Goonies and it holds up! Also, Burial Brewing (second favorite Southern Brewery behind Creature Comforts, of course) in Asheville has a mural of Magnum PI & Chunk on the wall that I’ve always adored.
Taps
st elmo’s fire
Yep, good one.
Definitely a good one, very dark and still hard to watch to this day.
Back to the Future.
“Do you understand the street value of this mountain?!”
Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn!
Two dollars!!
Gee, I’m really sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.
Lane Meyer, the once great champion, now a vision of mopishness.
“No! I can’t swim!”
Save Ferris!
Okay alll you young bucks. Only one on that list l saw and remember is The Graduate. Y’all have at it!!!
Meant to say young pups!!
While I guess it’s technically “coming of age”, the Graduate rises above mere genres. It’s a wonderful movie.
How about “A Boy and his dog”?
Watched this on TV one night with my roommates. The final scene had us just howling.
American Graffiti
Millennial List:
-Super Bad
-Billy Madison
-Water Boy
-Accepted
-Road Trip
-Van Wilder
Old School is more relevant now as I careen toward 40, but was also great back in the day.
+1 for Van Wilder, source of my best business advice: “Delegation is the key to success. Write that down for me.”
Oh yeah, finally watched the first clip. “Risky Business” with Rebecca De-Hornay on the train? Yowser!
“Dazed and Confused” and “Clerks” were both hilarious.
Sandlot. Is it coming of age?
Not sure, but Squints is and will always be a legend.
Bagging Wendy Pfeffercorn made him a legend
All of the above, plus some random small ones:
– Real Genius – “In the immortal words of Socrates, ‘I drank WHAT???'”
– Making the Grade – “I’m rich. I don’t have to be nice.”
Old Yeller
Almost too many movies in this genre to list…..but how about The Outsiders? What a great young cast. Swayze, Cruise, Diane Lane, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon.
Awesome post! But I came here to discuss this:
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/48703499/florida-state-georgia-cancel-football-series-due-9-game-league-schedules
The second I saw this, I could sense the Senator frowning from above.
It certainly sucks, but you also knew it was coming. It’s all about the post season tournament, ba-beee!
breaking away
AI can be a great thing but this use of it is terrible. I also think it is being used intentionally by AI creators to deliberately break down the walls surrounding intellectual property so a certain class of billionaires can either “own” everything or create pathway to eliminate intellectual property ownership rights.
End of soapbox.
Will always love Dazed and Confused because of my daughter, along with it being a classic. We watched it together when she was just out of high school & as soon as it finished she said, “The music is amazing!” She’s been a classic rock fan ever since.
Side note on The Breakfast Club. My college roommate & I watched that multiple times, his all time favorite, and he was convinced everything in the movie was actually in the mind of the Ally Sheedy character who was serving Saturday detention by herself. Interesting to watch it with this in mind. She’s the only one who doesn’t get high, all the insane things they do along with much damage to school property & yet no one is punished. The odd, outcast loner has the school jock fall in love with her in one day & there is only one essay turned in. I always liked this take.
I love stories like that, and I can totally see it and it actually makes more sense from that perspective