The Teenage Experience

            Coming of age movies tend to be cheesy, childish, or even poorly made; however, they always seem to have an aspect of emotional connection with the audience. Whether it be nostalgia, reminiscent of your younger self, or yearning, the hope that someday that will be you, these movies are able to capture an audience that wants to live out a dream or memory through the character’s experiences.

            Coming of age movies often start high school students in their senior year. Senior year of high school is often the most memorable and most looked forward to which helps draw in both adults who look back on their experiences, but primarily young adults and children aged 14 and up who are looking forward to high school or are currently experiencing it. Often, they follow groups of friends, with one friend being the narrator like Charlie in Perks of Being a Wallflower. The setting is usually around their last summer before college in a small town that just seems too cramped for them. The characters spend the summer completing a bucket list of sorts, ensuring they have no regrets and questions about “what could have been.”

            Montages are a large part of how coming of age are filmed in to order to condense all of the activities that the teenagers/young adults get into as well as showcase just how fast summer is going by. Plenty of diegetic sound is used to allow viewers to experience what the characters are experiencing and understand exactly what they are feeling at any given time. These could be anything from excitement during a party scene or even sadness during the end of their last summer together. Coming-of-age movies usually have a narrator that is also the main character of the story as a whole to give insight into how they are moving through life and the difference between what the feel and what they actually say to those around them.

            Coming of age movies are most often marketed towards teenagers aged 14 and up or young adults. Their movie posters are often simplistic just showcasing the main characters and some of the aspects of the conflict or topic that will appear in the movie. Like the cross in the background of the Ladybird poster to show her struggle with religious education throughout the movie. This can also be seen in the poster for Perks of Being a Wallflower where Sam’s head is rested on Charlie’s shoulder alludes to am impending relationship between the two characters.

            One of my favorite coming-of-age movies is Lady Bird. This movie follows Lady Bird, a senior in high school, she aspires to experience more than what her Catholic high school has to offer her. Lady Bird portrays the coming-of-age genre by the driving factor of the movie being the young adult experience of senior year going into college. It follows a girl through her journey of self-discovery and personal growth as well as her first romance. Lady Bird struggles to communicate productively with her mom which many teenagers can relate to. Lady Bird goes to the excruciatingly stressful college application process that most seniors also must go through. This story showcases an, albeit exaggerated, but accurate senior year experience that may not be all good but is quite rewarding and ultimately shapes a person in who they are going to be as they transition into young adulthood.

            Another example of the coming-of-age genre is Perks of Being a Wallflower. This story follows Charlie, a 15-year-old freshman, who makes friends with two seniors that he is able to form a friend group with. He is learning how to manage his mental health while also experiencing his first year of high school which is something most teenagers must also work through. This movie represents a coming-of-age story because we are able to see as Charlie finds himself through montages of parties and late-night drives with friends which are very popular amongst all youth. Charlie grows into himself with the help of his friends and finds his place within the crowd on high schoolers around him.

            Additional coming-of- age movies include The Edge of Seventeen, Call Me by Your Name, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Little Women, The Last Summer, and The Summer I Turned Pretty. The Edge of Seventeen follows Nadine as she struggles with her familial relationships following her dad’s death while being a full-time high school student. Call Me by Your Name is the story of a 17-year-old that comes into his gay identity through a blossoming summer relationship with a visitor that is staying in his home. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off  is about a student named Ferris Bueller who blows of school by faking sickness so he can spend a fun day with his best friend and his girlfriend all while being pursued by the principal who believes that he is skipping school to have fun. Little Women is the story of a group of sisters that each try to pursue their dreams, for Jo it is writing, for Amy it is art, etc. They develop deeply complex relationship with each other and other characters like Laurie, which are again drastically change when tragedy strikes the family. The Summer I Turned Pretty follows a teenager named Belly who struggles to truly understand herself and her feelings. Dealing with so much instability in her life she ends up hurting those around her without meaning to.