FilmSchoolRejects - The 50 Best Coming of Age Movies

FilmSchoolRejects - The 50 Best Coming of Age Movies 's icon

Created by eiriknielsen.

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Growing up: we all do it. No two people have exactly the same coming-of-age story, yet more often than not, we’re drawn to many the same youth-centered stories on screen, deeming them classics and rewatching them again and again. Young people are rarely given the power to tell their own stories, so a coming-of-age film that captures a specific generation, culture, or subculture feels like a rare and special thing for those who are reflected on screen, especially when the film itself finds a viewer during their most formative phase. A good coming-of-age film can become an emblem of sorts, a touchstone that’s at once deeply personal in its description of a fleeting, emotional era of life, and universal in its appeal to anyone who’s lived through it.

The best coming-of-age films mix nostalgic familiarity, impressionistic experiences, and a dollop of brutal honesty that comes with the jarring, often unwelcome understanding of the adult world that accompanies adolescence. That last part is usually handed across time from the more experienced filmmaker to the younger protagonist, a retrospective technique that’s unique to the subgenre and that lends the greatest coming of age stories a sort of prismatic blend of naivety and wisdom.

Although the entries on this list span eight decades, you may notice a significant amount of recent movies. Have coming-of-age films gotten better over time? Maybe not, but American films have certainly begun to reflect the diverse realities of the off-screen world more in recent decades than ever before, so it’s no wonder the best new teen stories each feel honest, unique, and timeless. It’s worth noting that we made the editorial decision to leave off any would-be classics that are too new to look at with any distance, meaning that staff-loved 2019 films like Booksmart and Little Women are excluded from the ranking.

Read on for our list of the best coming-of-age stories of all time, then join us in being grateful to have made it out the other side of adolescence.

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  1. 1 new

    Cidade de Deus

    2002 — a.k.a. City of God, in 22 top lists Check
  2. 2 new

    Les quatre cents coups

    1959 — a.k.a. The 400 Blows, in 26 top lists Check
  3. 3 new

    The Breakfast Club

    1985, in 10 top lists Check
  4. 4 new

    Eighth Grade

    2018, in 3 top lists
    Check
  5. 5 new

    Carrie

    1976, in 11 top lists Check
  6. 6 new

    Stand by Me

    1986, in 11 top lists Check
  7. 7 new

    Ferris Bueller's Day Off

    1986, in 11 top lists Check
  8. 8 new

    Moonlight

    2016, in 13 top lists Check
  9. 9 new

    Lady Bird

    2017, in 11 top lists Check
  10. 10 new

    An Education

    2009, in 1 top list Check
  11. 11 new

    Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

    2018, in 21 top lists Check
  12. 12 new

    The Virgin Suicides

    1999, in 6 top lists Check
  13. 13 new

    Call Me by Your Name

    2017, in 11 top lists
    Check
  14. 14 new

    Breaking Away

    1979, in 8 top lists Check
  15. 15 new

    The Graduate

    1967, in 29 top lists Check
  16. 16 new

    Y tu mamá también

    2001, in 15 top lists Check
  17. 17 new

    20th Century Women

    2016, in 1 top list Check
  18. 18 new

    35 rhums

    2008 — a.k.a. 35 Shots of Rum, in 4 top lists Check
  19. 19 new

    Juno

    2007, in 12 top lists Check
  20. 20 new

    The Edge of Seventeen

    2016, in 0 top lists Check
  21. 21 new

    Dead Poets Society

    1989, in 12 top lists Check
  22. 22 new

    Fish Tank

    2009, in 8 top lists Check
  23. 23 new

    Lucas

    1986, in 0 top lists Check
  24. 24 new

    Minding the Gap

    2018, in 2 top lists
    Check
  25. 25 new

    American Graffiti

    1973, in 17 top lists Check
  26. 26 new

    El laberinto del fauno

    2006 — a.k.a. Pan's Labyrinth, in 33 top lists Check
  27. 27 new

    Rushmore

    1998, in 11 top lists Check
  28. 28 new

    Hunt for the Wilderpeople

    2016, in 3 top lists Check
  29. 29 new

    Star Wars

    1977, in 40 top lists Check
  30. 30 new

    The Diary of a Teenage Girl

    2015, in 1 top list Check
  31. 31 new

    The Tree of Life

    2011, in 13 top lists Check
  32. 32 new

    Mommy

    2014, in 5 top lists Check
  33. 33 new

    Rebel Without a Cause

    1955, in 16 top lists Check
  34. 34 new

    Harold and Maude

    1971, in 22 top lists Check
  35. 35 new

    Badlands

    1973, in 23 top lists Check
  36. 36 new

    Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi

    2001 — a.k.a. Spirited Away, in 39 top lists Check
  37. 37 new

    10 Things I Hate About You

    1999, in 2 top lists Check
  38. 38 new

    Clueless

    1995, in 8 top lists Check
  39. 39 new

    Persepolis

    2007, in 9 top lists Check
  40. 40 new

    The Chocolate War

    1988, in 0 top lists Check
  41. 41 new

    Raw

    2016 — a.k.a. Delinquent, in 0 top lists Check
  42. 42 new

    Marie Antoinette

    2006, in 4 top lists Check
  43. 43 new

    Boyhood

    2014, in 16 top lists Check
  44. 44 new

    Dirty Dancing

    1987, in 10 top lists Check
  45. 45 new

    Aparajito

    1956 — a.k.a. The Unvanquished, in 15 top lists Check
  46. 46 new

    Picnic at Hanging Rock

    1975, in 15 top lists Check
  47. 47 new

    Boy

    2010, in 1 top list Check
  48. 48 new

    The Perks of Being a Wallflower

    2012, in 2 top lists Check
  49. 49 new

    Sedmikrásky

    1966 — a.k.a. Daisies, in 19 top lists Check
  50. 50 new

    Ginger Snaps

    2000, in 6 top lists Check
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Last updated on Jun 4, 2021; source