The coming-of-age movie can feel well-worn. It's almost been around since the advent of movies, with adaptations like Little Women (1933).
The subgenre's best films may center around youth, like Rebel Without a Cause, The Breakfast Club, and Superbad, but that's not a requirement. Adults can come of age. The elderly can come of age. The process of growing up and understanding your place in the world is never-ending work. If you think you're above it, that might just mean some big changes are lurking right around the corner.
And that universality may be part of its broad, long-lasting appeal. For all the beauty of personal evolution, it can be painful. Whether it feels instructive or it's just a relief to see someone else going through the same struggles, there's solace to be found in these stories. That could be watching Katie (Abbi Jacobson) trying to make a clean break with her past on her way to college in The Mitchells vs. the Machines or seeing how the past is never quite done with us in Raiders!, which also offers a reminder that change isn't just painful, but can be joyous.
So, here are 11 movies that tackle growing up and finding your place in the world in fresh, exciting ways.
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Nimona (2023)
This undersung animated film, based on a graphic novel by ND Stevenson, has a nice combination of humor, thoughtfulness, beautiful animation, and an imaginative fantasy world.
Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) is a knight in this futuristic but medieval world. He's been trained to protect the kingdom from shapeshifters. For someone of his class, it's a rare honor. At least, it is until he's framed for a crime because his success threatens to break down the class system of the kingdom. The one person who can help him is a chaotic but misunderstood shapeshifter named Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz).
Both Ballister and Nimona are finding their place in the world and don't like what they see. Despite their resistance to befriending each other, they find solace and friendship in their plight. However, Nimona's greatest success may be how it functions as a nuanced allegory of some trans and non-binary experiences.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Yes, the dance scene is an iconic moment, but the entirety of Napoleon Dynamite is an earnest story about finding your place and unapologetically being yourself. It's not just Napoleon (Jon Heder) who is finding himself, and that's part of what makes it such an affirming story. Almost every character, including Napoleon's brother Kip, his friend Pedro, and his love interest Deb, is lost in some way. Even Uncle Rico (Jon Gries) is trying to find his place in the world, ever-susceptible to the opinions of others.
Read our review of Napoleon Dynamite.
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Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
It's not just a key film of Nuevo Cine Mexicano; Y Tu Mamá También is a complex story about three characters discovering (or escaping) themselves against the backdrop of a tumultuous moment in Mexican history.
Working-class Julio (Gael García Bernal) and his best friend Tenoch (Diego Luna) finish high school and launch into a summer of debauchery that leads to meeting the older Luisa (Maribel Verdú). An impromptu road trip leads through traces of Mexican history, sexual exploration, betrayal, and inescapable class divisions.
Buy your copy of Y Tu Mamá También on Amazon.
The Graduate (1967)
Is there any character who better portrays the ethereal purgatory of living between phases of life? Freshly home from college, Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) isn't only lingering between phases of life; he finds himself torn between two women: Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross). Hoffman delivers a great performance, backed by a striking mise-en-scène that takes you into the watery depths of Ben's psyche.
Buy your copy of The Graduate on Amazon.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
This movie never quite got the love it deserved. Katie (Abbi Jacobson) is heading to college, ready to solidify an identity away from her parents, something that her father Rick (Danny McBride) is struggling with. Both of them must grow up and find who they are in this new moment. The road trip to college goes sideways when the robot apocalypse begins, and the family finds themselves as humanity's best hope for survival.
Read our review of The Mitchells vs. the Machines.
Buy your copy of The Mitchells vs. the Machines on Amazon.
Ghost World (2001)
Best friends Becky (Scarlett Johansson) and Enid (Thora Birch) are preparing to go to college in a version of America, replete with video rental stores and long chats on landlines, that the internet has all but eliminated. While the world has changed, their angst and alienation feel as relevant as ever, and Terry Zwigoff's adaptation still feels deeply empathetic toward anyone who might identify as an outsider. Becky and Enid's persistent critiques of consumerist culture cut to the bone, until their friendship finds itself on the wrong end of the knife.
Read our review of Ghost World.
Buy your copy of Ghost World on Amazon.
Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2015)
Not many movies trace the progression from youth to adulthood in actual people, but Raiders! is a unique circumstance. After the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, two 11-year-old boys in Mississippi became obsessed with the idea of remaking it themselves.
The project lasted seven years and involved all their friends, free weekends, and allowance money. By the time they were leaving for college, they had created their own fan film version of the original movie. Except, they never shot the airplane scene, leaving their youthful masterpiece unfinished. Thirty years later, they come back together to reconnect, hash out some long-simmering conflicts, and finally shoot the missing scene.
Read our review of Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made.
Buy your copy of Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made on Amazon.
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
Owen (Justice Smith) doesn't fit in with their peers. While that's familiar territory for coming-of-age movies, the rest of the movie feels far less familiar. Owen develops a secret friendship with the older Maddy (Jack Haven) due to their shared love of the late-night fantasy program "The Pink Opaque." Owen isn't a risk-taker, and when Maddy reveals her plan to run away from an abusive father, Owen chooses not to join her. Even when Maddy reappears years later with a reality-blurring story about the truth of "The Pink Opaque," Owen can't shake the social confines that hold them back.
It takes years before some light begins to break through in surprising ways. It takes drastic circumstances for Owen to find (or accept) themselves, but writer/director Jane Schoenbrun has plenty of drastic circumstances available in I Saw the TV Glow.
Read our review of I Saw the TV Glow.
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Attack the Block (2011)
In movies, aliens always seem to know where to go: the White House, the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower. Rarely do they just plop down in a random spot and see what's happening in that neighborhood. Except that's pretty much what happens in Attack the Block, where gorilla-like aliens land in South London.
After accidentally killing one, Moses (John Boyega) has to set aside mugging neighbors with his crew to defend the neighborhood. Yes, it's an alien action movie, but it's also a story about growing up and taking pride in where you're from.
Buy your copy of Attack the Block on Amazon.
Pather Panchali (1955)
Apu (Subir Banerjee) and his family are just scraping by in rural Bengal. As his father leaves to find work in a bigger city, poverty and the death of family members force the young boy to grow up faster than he should have to. There's a startling realism to Satyajit Ray's movie, the first in his revered Apu Trilogy. It's dark, but there's also great empathy and honesty in the story and Ray's naturalistic approach to filmmaking.
Read our review of Pather Panchali and the Apu Trilogy.
Click here to stream Pather Panchali on Amazon.
Turning Red (2022)
One of the funniest and best Pixar movies of the last five years, Turning Red is all about finding your place in the world and balancing the multiple versions of oneself that can surface in different social situations.
For Mei Lee, voiced by Rosalie Chiang, she is juggling being a social kid with the obedient daughter she's expected to be around her strict Chinese-Canadian mother. To make things even more complicated, she transforms into a giant red panda anytime she gets too worked up. It's a touching, funny movie about friendship, family, and the ways various pieces of our history coalesce to form a unique identity, if we're strong enough to accept ourselves.
Buy your copy of Turning Red on Amazon.
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