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01
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, 1986
Direction: John Hughes
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, and Mia Sara
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80%
Runtime: 103 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Netflix, Prime Video
In this seminal coming-of-age classic, Ferris Bueller seems to have life pretty figured out. He wants a day off from school, and nothing is going to stop him—not even principal Rooney. Ferris understands that helping his best friend gain some self-esteem is worlds more important than obeying tyrannical grown-ups. In Ferris Bueller's own words: "Life goes by so fast, that if you don't stop and look around, you might miss it." -
02
The 400 Blows, 1959
Direction: François Truffaut
Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 98%
Runtime: 93 minutes
Where to watch: Criterion Channel, HBO Max
François Truffaut's timeless first film is a masterful and moving portrait of boyhood. Neglected by his struggling parents and treated like a deviant by teachers, 14-year-old Antoine stumbles into a life of petty crime to cope with the despair of adolescence. Unlike the adults in his life who go out of their way to misunderstand him, we get to see Antoine in his most private moments, lighting candles for Balzac and enjoying films. We're on Antoine's side, which makes his misfortune all the more heartbreaking. -
03
Boyz n the Hood, 1991
Direction: John Singleton
Starring: Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 96%
Runtime: 112 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
Boyz n the Hood is more than just a story about three childhood friends. Through the experiences of Ricky, Doughboy, and Tre, who grow up together in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles, director John Singleton offers insight into how institutional racism creates violent conditions, particularly for young black men. -
04
Superbad, 2007
Direction: Greg Mottola
Starring: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%
Runtime: 113 minutes
Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV
Ostensibly a slapstick tale of partying and trying to get laid, hidden beneath all the penis jokes is a moving story about relinquishing codependent relationships and blithe adolescence. Best friends Seth and Evan are played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, respectively—a brilliant casting decision that pays off in each of their scenes together. Maybe you'll keep in touch with your childhood friends, and maybe you'll grow apart. Superbad reassures us that everything will be alright. -
05
Carrie, 1976
Direction: Brian de Palma
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 93%
Runtime: 98 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
De Palma's Carrie is every awkward, uncool teenage girl's nightmare and revenge fantasy. It's impossible not to cringe and wince whenever the popular kids show Carrie a bit of kindness, because de Palma never lets us forget that it's all a sick ruse, carefully arranged by her sadistic schoolmates. Watching Carrie feels like a fever dream of adolescent pain and cruelty, until the final scenes violently shake you awake. -
06
The Virgin Suicides, 1999
Direction: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, Kathleen Turner
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 77%
Runtime: 97 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
The journey from girlhood to womanhood is a messy and arduous path, and for the five sisters of The Virgin Suicides, growing up is made all the more difficult by pathologically repressive parents. A group of neighboring boys are fascinated by the girls next door, regarding them as if they were enigmatic, mythical creatures, their inaccessibility making them all the more desirable to the male gaze. Even when the ethereal fantasy comes to a tragic and violent halt, through the boys' eyes, the young girls remain an unknowable dream. -
07
Stand By Me, 1986
Direction: Rob Reiner
Starring: Wil, Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, Casey Siemaszko
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
Runtime: 89 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
Four young friends hear about a dead boy in the woods and decide to investigate. Death is still just an abstract idea to these kids hanging on the cusp of adulthood—a means to an adventure. But when they find what they're looking for, the corpse of a young boy around their age, they open a door to all the ugliness and peril of the adult world. -
08
Boyhood, 2014
Direction: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 97%
Runtime: 165 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
When Linklater revealed that he'd been working on Boyhood with the same actors for 12 years, the film was hyped to the point where expectations could have easily exceeded the result. Thankfully, watching Ellar Coltrane literally grow up on screen wasn't reduced to a cheap gimmick, like one of those viral timelapses of some YouTuber's face morphing through the years. Boyhood is not so much a 'slice of life,' but rather slices of a life—the simple life of a Texas boy and his family. Linklater pays respect to the universal experience of growing up by telling the story simply and without pretension. -
09
Eighth Grade, 2018
Direction: Bo Burnham
Starring: Elsie Kate Fisher, Daniel Zolghadri, Fred Hechinger
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 99%
Runtime: 93 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
Comedian Bo Burnham's debut feature masterfully sums up the perils of awkwardly navigating the dreaded eighth grade. Nodding to his own past as a child YouTuber, Burnham also offers an unexpected glimpse into the increasingly common experience of living a double life as a teenager—the 'IRL' life and the internetted life. -
10
Love & Basketball, 2000
Direction: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Starring: Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 84%
Runtime: 124 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV, HBO Max
Next-door neighbors Monica and Quincy grow up together in Los Angeles, bonded over a shared aspiration to become basketball stars. Their volatile friendship inevitably develops into a romance, but their relationship is repeatedly put to the test by external pressure and the professional challenges Monica faces in a world that prioritizes male athletes and discourages young women. -
11
Now and Then, 1995
Direction: Lesli Linka Glatter
Starring: Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, Gaby Hoffmann, Ashleigh Aston Moore, Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 30%
Runtime: 96 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
Largely rejected by film critics upon its release, Now and Then is beloved now more than ever by all the girls for whom the film was made, perhaps because it is an expression of girlhood through the eyes of girls—a perspective that was rarely explored in Hollywood at the time. The movie tells the story of four best friends, whose bond is sealed forever after one significant summer in 1970. -
12
Crooklyn, 1994
Direction: Spike Lee
Starring: Alfre Woodard, Delroy Lindo, David Patrick Kelly
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 77%
Runtime: 112 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
Crooklyn is at once a semi-autobiographical story about a working class family and a love letter to Brooklyn. Borrowing from his own formative experiences growing up in Fort Greene, Spike Lee paints a picture of a community that takes the time to understand and teach its children, rather than alienate them. -
13
Fish Tank, 2009
Direction: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Katie Jarvis, Kierston Wareing, Michael Fassbender
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
Runtime: 124 minutes
Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV
Mia is a sad, unambitious 15-year-old girl, resigned to listlessly wandering the streets surrounding the Essex housing project in which she lives with her distant mother and young sister. Naive and unfamiliar with healthy love, Mia becomes infatuated with her mother's charming boyfriend, Connor, whose encouragement and emotional support turns toxic as they become closer. -
14
Clueless, 1995
Direction: Amy Heckerling
Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 81%
Runtime: 97 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV, HBO Max
High school student Cher Horowitz lives in a mansion in Beverly Hills, doesn't bother learning how to park (why would she when there are valets?) and negotiates her grades by matchmaking her teachers. She's no ordinary high schooler, and yet even this SoCal princess is capable of learning some valuable life lessons that guide her away from childish narcissism. -
15
Moonlight, 2016
Direction: Barry Jenkins
Starring: Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Mahershala Ali, Trevante Rhodes
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 98%
Runtime: 111 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
Moonlight is a poignant journey from childhood to manhood through the character Chiron, a reserved, gentle boy growing up in Miami and struggling to find his place in a world fraught with violence. Through Chiron's experience, the movie makes its audience contemplate race, sexuality, masculinity, and poverty, and does so without using melodrama or clichés. The struggle Chiron experiences is normalized in his world—there's no space in the film for hyperbole. In contrast, the most heartbreaking scenes are the ones where someone shows him love and compassion. -
16
House of Hummingbird, 2018
Direction: Bora Kim
Starring: Park Ji-hu, Kim Sae-Byeok, Jung In-gi
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
Runtime: 138 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV
Unable to find emotional support at home, eighth grader Eun-Hee wanders Seoul in search of love, friendship, and meaning. In many coming-of-age films, there is a distinct, climactic moment that seems to fundamentally change the protagonist. House of Hummingbird is more of a subtle and nuanced portrait of an awkward teenager figuring out who they are. -
17
This is England, 2006
Direction: Shane Meadows
Starring: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim, Joseph Gilgun, Vicky McClure
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 93%
Runtime: 98 minutes
Where to watch: Prime Video
After the Falklands War claims 12-year-old Shaun's father, the troubled and impressionable young boy finds a surrogate family in a gang of motley skinheads. This is England emphasizes the violence and hatred that is born from poverty, and how easy it is for poor, fatherless youngsters to stumble down the wrong path. -
18
Cinema Paradiso, 1988
Direction: Giuseppe Tornatore
Starring: Salvatore Cascio, Philippe Noiret, Marco Leonardi
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 90%
Runtime: 123 minutes
Where to watch: Prime Video
Salvatore, a successful film director living in Rome returns to the Sicilian village he grew up in to attend the funeral of Alfredo, his childhood mentor and the town's beloved projectionist at Cinema Paradiso. The story of Salvatore's childhood is told through a flashback dripping with nostalgia. Salvatore's pilgrimage home reminds him why he fell in love with movies as a young man. -
19
The Graduate, 1967
Direction: Mike Nichols
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 87%
Runtime: 105 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Apple TV
After completing college, Ben is a little worried about his future and exasperated by all the painfully dull adults pressuring him to make a decision. So he stumbles into an affair with the wife of his father's business partner and then falls in love with her daughter Elaine. Despite the fact that he is well into adulthood, Ben's messy journey of self-discovery is a classic coming-of-age story. -
20
City of God, 2002
Direction: Fernando Meirelles
Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Phellipe Haagensen
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
Runtime: 131 minutes
Where to watch: Vudu, HBO Max, Apple TV
In the lawless and kinetic favelas of Rio de Janeiro, two young men choose different life paths. Rocket, desperate to avoid a life of organized crime, pursues photography and documents life in the favela. Li'l Zé wants to build a drug empire in Cidade de Deus, and eventually uses Rocket's photos to build his reputation. -
21
Fanny and Alexander, 1982
Direction: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve, Erland Josephson
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
Runtime: 188 minutes
Where to watch: Prime Video, HBO Max, Apple TV
The beautiful and surreal world of Fanny and Alexander is like watching events through a child's dream. But when the two children have to leave their idyllic family home after the tragic death of their father, they find that ghosts of the past haunt their abusive new stepfather's house. Through magical puppets and conversations with God, Alexander makes sense of the tragedy of their new life. Berman's story of childhood is like fragmented memories of a fairytale.