There’s just something about coming of age movies for me. Maybe it’s watching a young person transition into adulthood that always gives me a feeling of nostalgia (even though perhaps I’m in that coming of age moment myself) or the feeling of watching a young person tell their story. I’m a sucker for coming of age movies — the cliche love stories, the fights with friends when everything feels so raw and relatable, because it is. We’re in this coming of age moment ourselves, and I think we have every right to make our life as thrilling as the movies we watch on TV. Without further ado, here’s a list of my top three coming of age movies that made me fall in love with the moment in life I’m in right now, and I hope you will too.
- ‘Booksmart’
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Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart is one of my favorite movies ever. This movie follows two young, academically-gifted girls who finally decide to break the rules and party on their last day of high school. The two leads, Amy and Molly, fear they didn’t really get that traditional “high school experience” we all hear about — they were too focused on their academics, and they look back and feel time just passed them by without them ever stopping to enjoy it. While Amy and Molly’s night didn’t go as they planned, the journey was all about hilarious self-discovery, which made it all worthwhile. This movie really allows the viewer to see the expectations and pressures we all face in high school, but it also showed me that there isn’t a right or wrong way to “do” high school. I appreciated how Booksmart followed two females leads — while many coming of age movies follow a cliche love story (not hating, those are my guilty pleasure), Booksmart showed a real friendship that felt relatable, almost as if my life had been put on screen for me to eat popcorn and enjoy.
- ‘The Edge of Seventeen’
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When watching The Edge of Seventeen, I instantly fell in love. I appreciated the rawness of this movie, and how it was all about a girl just trying to survive high school and all the problems that come along with it. Hailee Steinfeld is an amazing actress and portrayed the role so well that I felt like I was just sitting next to my best friend. The Edge of Seventeen portrayed the mental struggles that come with feeling alone and feeling like your biggest enemy is your own self. The comedy that Hailee Steinfeld’s character, Nadine, provides is typically one-liners rooted in sadness and feeling alone, but I feel it’s what made it all the more relatable for young adults everywhere. Like any coming of age movie, there are bright days for Nadine, which allowed a realness to high school. Yeah, it sucks, but you did get some bright spots in between.Â
- ‘Lady Bird’
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The first time I watched Lady Bird I was on a plane and completely captivated by the movie. After we landed, my family asked what I had watched, and I realized I had absolutely no idea what happened in this movie. Lady Bird has been criticized for not having a real plot, but after some time thinking about it, I disagree entirely. Sure, Lady Bird had all the traditional components of a coming of age movie — the misunderstood teenager, the mom who will never understand her, the “love” story, and the high school prom — but Lady Bird really dived into the relationship between her and her mother, and I never knew which side I was on. With most coming of age movies, I hate the parents and feel like they’re hard on their child for no reason, but Lady Bird really put in the time for the viewer to take a glimpse into the mother’s back story of overworking herself to provide for her family. You can feel through the screen how different she hoped her life to be, and she’s sad about it. The want for something different in her life is portrayed by Lady Bird throughout the whole movie — all she wants is to be on the east coast and experience something different. She doesn’t want to go to college in California like her whole family. Her want for something out of the ordinary is something that really resonated with me, and *spoiler alert,* she ends up at NYU, which is all the more reason I loved watching this film.
In reality, this list is never-ending. Coming of age movies have always resonated with me, and I feel like these movies popped right out of the screen and gave me the warmest hug. When I can walk away from a movie and feel like I’ve gained perspective about life and the human experience we’re all a part of, I’m always thrilled. Everything about coming of age movies will always speak to me, no matter how old I am. Go and stream these movies right now (or any coming of age film, for that matter) for that feeling of nostalgia we’re all chasing after.