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A conversation at work turned to coming of age movies with some younger co-workers who were in high school in the late 2000s. It lead to a discussion over what they viewed as coming of age movies they related to from their generation. And they came up blank. One decided TV shows were better examples and cited a couple of as examples. One they brought up was Stranger Things, which they thought today is a better coming of age story than any movie recently produced. Could be.

It made me wonder what others thought? Are movies like Breakfast Club, Stand By Me, The Sand Lot (perhaps), Dazed and Confused, and others like them a product of a particular time and not relevant to the modern American young adults sense of identity?

Coming of age films are still a major genre and seems to have always been. Some of the most critically acclaimed movies of the past 5 years fall within that genre. If you search for that genre on Netflix, you'll get more recent hits than you could possibly ever watch without being a shut in.

I like Stranger Things a lot, but stuff like Lady Bird and Eighth Grade are much better if you are looking specifically for a coming of age story.

I liked both films, but what struck was how the entire idea of a coming of age movie seemed foreign to at least three people who were under 25. So part of what is missing is the relationship with the movie. I tossed out a few others like Juno, Superbad, and other movies I thought would be in the time frame but they didn't see them as having anything to say about their coming of age if you will. I should mention Harry Potter generated some discussion.

I asked my daughter and she didn't think one met the criteria. Her answer was atypical though. She brought up her AP lit class and Bildundsroman. Then we talked about A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. So, probably not representative. I tried to convince her Sword Art Online was the best analog for her generation but she simply unplugged from the conversation. Naruto? Hmmm.

Coming of age movies will always be here. But I think some coming of age subplots get swallowed up in dystopian films like The Hunger Games, The Maze, etc. Adventureland might be a more current take, but that's almost a decade old now.

Okay, when was a boy, blah, blah, blah...

Maybe it was growing up in Southern California, but my favorite coming of age movies when I was coming of age were both beach movies:

Summer of '42
Last Summer

I think of Harold and Maude as a coming of age movie with a dark sense of humor that would be relatable today.

for something on the more adult sardonic side:
The Opposite of Sex

honorentheos wrote:...a product of a particular time and not relevant to the modern American young adults sense of identity?

Yes, they are "produced" for the time but No, the themes and storylines are recycled....the relevance is maintained by stage dressing and vernacular du jour.
The irony of how Stranger Things is an homage to 80s "coming of age" films is not lost here (complete with Winona).

Consider Italian Renaissance theater from mid 1500s (derived from ancient Greeks):
How "relevant" are the characters:
Pantaloon ?
Tottered ?
Capitan ?
Inamorata ?
zinnia(s) ?

throw in the 5 basic genres and I do not modern films being anything more than just same old product in new packages...which really is the point of theater.

MeDotOrg wrote:Coming of age movies will always be here. But I think some coming of age subplots get swallowed up in dystopian films like The Hunger Games, The Maze, etc. Adventureland might be a more current take, but that's almost a decade old now.

Okay, when was a boy, blah, blah, blah...

Maybe it was growing up in Southern California, but my favorite coming of age movies when I was coming of age were both beach movies:

Summer of '42
Last Summer

I think of Harold and Maude as a coming of age movie with a dark sense of humor that would be relatable today.

for something on the more adult sardonic side:
The Opposite of Sex

Thanks, MeDotOrg. Your examples led me to reflect on the ones I related to most as a youth "coming of age". Oddly, the one that stands out in my memory is a film called The Wanderers that wasn't particularly great but starred Karen Allen of Indiana Jones fame. I can't say why I related to that movie, but I did as did a couple of close friends.

My daughter ended up looking up a list and brought up the recent Spiderman Homecoming movie as one that could be seen that way though she didn't necessarily strongly agree. What strikes me in the conversation, and still in thinking about it, is if there is a shift in how media functions that means movies aren't relatable to younger generations in the way they were to mine or other generations around mine? I mean, who here had a favorite coming of age radio program that they connected with? Was there such a thing?

It seems the novel is timeless as a medium for the coming of age experience. And there are certainly coming of age movies as a genre out there as has been pointed out. But as to whether or not kids watch movies with the same eyes as previous generations is very open-ended as a question to me right now.

honorentheos wrote:What strikes me in the conversation, and still in thinking about it, is if there is a shift in how media functions that means movies aren't relatable to younger generations in the way they were to mine or other generations around mine? I mean, who here had a favorite coming of age radio program that they connected with? Was there such a thing?

It seems the novel is timeless as a medium for the coming of age experience. And there are certainly coming of age movies as a genre out there as has been pointed out. But as to whether or not kids watch movies with the same eyes as previous generations is very open-ended as a question to me right now.

This.

Your OP prompted this same question for me. It would seem that the current media landscape might not be conducive to interpreting movies in the same way as past generations, for reasons including a wider array of entertainment selections, and given that ‘experiencing’ a movie is no longer restricted mostly to settings that enabled certain social rituals associated with accessing and viewing them.

Great topic, Honor, thanks for bringing it up. I did take the liberty of pinging the youngest sibling in the family, she is 22. Like has already been mentioned it was easier for her to name books that she thought were more formative but she was able to name a few that pinged her list.

Easy A, Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Blue is the Warmest Color were her fastest responses.

She also seems to have adopted a fair number of films that she was probably really only exposed to given how much older her siblings are (a ~15 year gap from oldest to youngest); Clueless 10 Things I Hate About You and Sandlot toping that list. Given the connection she formed with older siblings through these kinds of films she may not be the most representative sample out there. This holds true for music as well, she is definitely much more in tune with 90s music than she probably should be given her age.

canpakes wrote:

honorentheos wrote:It seems the novel is timeless as a medium for the coming of age experience. And there are certainly coming of age movies as a genre out there as has been pointed out. But as to whether or not kids watch movies with the same eyes as previous generations is very open-ended as a question to me right now.

This.

Your OP prompted this same question for me. It would seem that the current media landscape might not be conducive to interpreting movies in the same way as past generations, for reasons including a wider array of entertainment selections, and given that ‘experiencing’ a movie is no longer restricted mostly to settings that enabled certain social rituals associated with accessing and viewing them.

I think there is something to this line of thinking as well. Currently she leans on podcasts, video bloggers and other kinds of live streaming entertainment for the purpose of finding inspiration and figures to relate to effectively replacing a lot of her "standard" media consumption. It wouldn't surprise me much to learn that those in the age bracket lower than hers jumped on that train much sooner than her.

ETA: She is also "low key dying to see" Booksmart if you're wanting a more current example.

Scott Pilgrim is a movie I watch for nostalgia purposes, so it's funny to think of it also as a coming of age movie. I can see that, though. Blue is the Warmest Color is interesting because it's a movie that shows just how different society is today. It would never have been shown when I was a teen, let alone been widely acclaimed. That's solid.